Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442Murdoch, John
History
Ethnological results of the Point Barrow expedition: Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1888, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1892, pages 3-442
Murdoch, John
Eskimos -- Alaska -- Barrow, Point, Region
One of the Nunatañmiun wore a glass cruet-stopper for a labret, and
many natives of Utkiavwĭñ took the glass stopples of Worcestershire
sauce bottles, which were thrown away at the station, and inserted
them in the labret holes for everyday wear, sometimes grinding the
round top into an oblong stud. There is one specimen of the plug
labret in the collection. Labrets of all kinds are very highly prized,
and it was almost impossible to obtain them.[N261] Though we
repeatedly asked for them and promised to pay a good price, genuine
labrets that had been worn or that were intended for actual use were
very rarely offered for sale, though at one time a large number of
roughly made models or imitations were brought in. The single specimen
of the plug labret (tu´tɐ) is No. 89700 [1163] (figured in Point
Barrow Report, Ethnology, Pl. V, Fig. 3). It is a cylindrical plug of
hard, bright green stone (jade or hypochlorite), 1.1 inches long and
0.6 in diameter at the outer end, which is rounded off, tapering
slightly inward and expanded at the base into an elliptical disk 1.2
inches long and 0.9 broad, slightly concave on the surface which rests
against the teeth and gum. The specimen is old and of a material very
unusual at Point Barrow. Fig. 92, No. 89719 [1166], from Nuwŭk, may
also be called a plug labret, but is of a very unusual pattern, and
said to be very old. It has an oblong stud of walrus ivory surmounted
by a large, transparent, slightly greenish glass bead, on top of which
is a small, translucent, sky-blue bead. The beads are held on by a
short wooden peg, running through the perforations of the beads and a
hole drilled through the ivory. There is a somewhat similar labret in
the Museum collection (No. 48202) from Cape Prince of Wales, also very
old. It is surmounted by a single oblong blue bead.
[Footnote N261: The men whom Thomas Simpson met at or near Barter
Island sold their labrets, but demanded a hatchet or a dagger for
a pair of them (Narrative, p. 119).]
I saw but one other labret made of whole beads, and this had three
good sized oval blue beads, in a cluster, projecting from the hole. It
was worn by a man from Nuwŭk. This may be compared with a specimen
from the Mackenzie district, No. 7714, to which two similar beads are
attached in the same way. The disk labret is the pattern worn on
full-dress occasions, seldom when working or hunting. One disk and one
plug labret are frequently worn. Disk labrets are made of stone,
sometimes of syenite or porphyry, but the most fashionable kind is
made of white marble, and has half of a large, blue glass bead
cemented on the center of the disk. These are as highly prized as they
were in Dr. Simpson’s time, and we consequently did not succeed in
procuring a specimen.
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