string with a rough edge, which is covered by the breeches.... The boots are of reindeer skin, with white sealskin soles for winter and dry weather, but in summer waterproof boots of black sealskin with soles of white whaleskin, etc., are worn.”[140] [Illustration: THE GHOST-SHIRT, SIMPLE FORM] [Illustration: ESKIMO BOOTS] The woman’s frock is much like the man’s, in the Point Barrow region, only it has tails, or aprons, front and rear, rounded at the bottom. In the Hudson Bay region, this garment is shaped more at the waist, and the tails are lance-shaped and narrower, while the front one is much shorter than the back. At Point Barrow there is also worn by the men a cloak or mantle of deerskin, in extremely cold weather. These cloaks are put on over the head, and fall down all round, being fastened at the throat by strings. They are not of one piece. The men’s leg coverings come only to the knee, but the women’s are long enough to reach from the feet to the waist, and the moccasin is attached to the bottom. The edge of the moccasin sole is crimped to make it smaller at the top, and this is the case with the soles of the boots made. This crimping is done by the teeth. The wet-weather boots are waterproof and light, but there is a disagreeable odour about them. This odour is more pronounced in some of the hastily made stockings which are worn inside the boots. I bought a pair of the common sealskin stockings made with hair side in at Port Clarence, but their smell was something unbearable. For a waterproof garment they take the entrails of the seal and, splitting them longitudinally, sew together the strips thus obtained in the desired shape. Coats made in this way are durable and light, and answer the purpose admirably. Dr. Kane mentions a dress he saw where a man wore “booted trousers of white bearskin, which at the end of the foot were made to terminate with the claws of the animal.”[141] In the middle and upper Mississippi region, according to Hunter, there were tribes who made blankets of the wool of the buffalo, notably the Osages, who were of Siouan stock. Their method of procedure seems to have been very like that of the Navajos and Mokis, to whom they are not related, except that they belong to the Amerind race. Hunter says: “The hair of the buffalo and other animals is sometimes manufactured into blankets; the hair is first twisted by hand and wound into balls. The warp is then laid of a length to answer the size of the intended blanket, crossed by three small smooth rods alternately beneath the threads, and secured at each end to stronger rods supported on forks, at a short distance above the ground. Thus prepared the woof is filled in, thread by thread, and pressed closely together, by means of a long flattened wooden needle. When the weaving is finished, the ends of the warp and woof are tied into knots, and the blanket is ready for use.”[142] [Illustration: RAIN HAT, HAIDA See figure page 146 ]