76 CEANIA BRITANNICA. fOHAP. V.
tribes tMis decorated themselves by tattooing; punotiiring tbeir bodies diwing youth by means
of needles, with the figures of various animals. The slight clothing of the Caledonian tribes is,
by Herodian, attributed to their reluctance to conceal these figures; and there can be no doubt
that to this practice they owed the name of Picts, by which ia the third centmy they came to
be distinguished *.
The ancient Celts of Gaul went into battle naked, at least from the waist upwards t- The
barbarous tribes of the north of Britain are described as living bare-footed and naked, as to the
greater part of their bodies, scai-cely knowing the use of clothing, and as spending great part of
the day in s-v^immmg or wading up to the neck or middle, in the marshes and estuaries of their
country i. Similar habits were retained by their descendants, the Picts of the fifth centui-y; who,
with the Scots from Ireland, are reproached in the strongest terms, by Gildas, for their violation
of decency in their neglect of clothing §. Eumenius, speaking generaUy of the South Britons,
says that, in the time of Julius, they were a half-naked people; but this must be understood of
the inhabitants of the interior, of whom Coesar himself says that they were chiefly clothed in, the
skins of animals; implying doubtless that the dress was of the scantiest description, and, as with
the ancient Germans, that it left great pai-t of the body imcovered ||. In the maritime districts,
the more civilized attire of the continental Celts had deai-ly been introduced, by the Belgic
settlers. This dress consisted of the Gaulish trowsers, or as the Ganls termed them bracocB, which
seem generally to have been worn tight Tf. The ujjper part of the body was covered with a tight
vest with long sleeves, the skirt of wliich, reaching half-way down the thighs, appears to have
been sKt iip before and behind, almost lite a modern frock-coat: it was fastened round the
waist with a belt or girdle. Over this was worn the mantle, called a sagtmi, consisting of a
square or oblong wTapper, usually secured on the right shoulder by a fibula**. The texture and
thickness of the clothing differed according to the season: in summer the sagum was of thinner
* Solinus, c. 20. Herodian, lib. iii. c. 46. Claudian, De
Laud. Stilichonis, lib. ii. t . 247. "Britannia, Ferro pietà
genas." Bell. Get. v. 417. "Ferroque notatas Pieto moriente
figuras." These passages clearly show that the name of
Picts—"nec falso nomine Pieti" (De Tert. Consul. Honorii,
f - 54)—is connected by Claudian with the practice of tattoomg.
Isidore (Isid. Hisp. xix. 3, 7) expressly asserts that the native
name of the Picts, whom he elsewhere (ix. 2, 103) identifies
with the Scots, was derived from this practice. Cruiihne, the
native or Gaelic name of the northern Picts, is by Gaelic scholars
said to have the same signification as the Latin Picti (Garnett,
"Transactions of the Philological Society," vol. i. p. 123).
Various barbarous tribes who practised tattooing are, by Virgil
and other Koman writers, disthiguished by the epithet Picti,
e. g. " Picti Agathyrsi," " Picti Geloni." The phrase " Caledonians
and other Picts," used at the beginning of the fourth
century by Eumenius {Pan. Constantino, c. 7), evidently
means the Caledonian and other tribes, distinguished by this
practice.
t Diodorus, lib. v. c. 30. Livy, hb. xxxviH. c. 1 ; lib. xxii.
c. 46, Polybius, lib. ii. c. 2.
J Dion apud Xiph. lib. kxvi. c. 12. Herodian, hb. iii. c. 46.
§ Gildas, Hist. § 15. " Fureiferosque magis vultus pilis,
quam corporum pudenda pudendisque próxima vestibus tell
Eumenius, Pan. Constantino, c. 11. Ceesar, B. G. hb. v,
e. 14 : cf. lib. iv. c. 1 ; hb. vi. c. 21. Tacitus, Germ. c. 17.
Garments made of skins of deer, neatly sewn together, perhaps
with sinews, have in a few rare instances been found m ancient
British barrows. Such a garment especially was observed in
the curious monoxyhc coffin, exhumed from the barrow at
Stowborough, called Kingbarrow, near "Wareham, Dorset, in
1767. (Hutchins, "Dorsetshire," vol. i. p. 38.)
Martial (Epigr. xi. 22) speaks expressly of the "bracha;
Britonis ;" and from his notice, it may be iufeiTed that when
new and well made, the braccse of the Britons fitted closely to
the limbs ; in this respect resembling the trowsers of the ancient
Germans rather than those of eastern nations. Compare
Tacitus, Mor. Germ. c. 17. Lucan, lib. i. v. 430.
** Strabo, hb. iv. c. 4. § 3. Diodorus, lib. v. c. 30. The
pecuharities of the form of this Gaulish dress are well shown
in the two small bronzes found at Lyons. See figures in Rich's
"Dlustratcd Dictionary," s. v. " Caracalla," p. 117, where a
clear explanation of the vest, as described by Strabo, is given.
The closely fitting character of the ancient Gaulish and British
costume, excepting the sagum, is well shown on various coins
of the Celtic period ; in many of which the figures of the warriors
and horsemen at first sight appear to be naked, but on
closer inspection exhibit traces of a short vest, aijd less distinctly,
of tightly fitting hracccB.
CUAP. v . ] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OE BRITAIN. 77
texture and striped or chequered in various colours, agreeing exactly in description with the
plaid of the present Highlanders; whilst in winter it was thick, of a simpler colour and pattern,
with a long nap, and was called a Icena*. The garments of those distinguished by their rank were
not only dyed of different colours, but were also embroidered with gold t- When, in addition to
their thick locks, any covering was required for the head, this appears to have consisted of a hood
or cowl of cloth, CTiCM/fos, which formed an appendage to the sagum, or the vest J. The Gaulish
shoes were of leather, open in front and fastened round the ancle: they were called [jallioat §.
The dress of the women was very similar to that of the men: in place of the braccte and vest,
Boadicea is described as wearing a tunic of several colours, drawn closely about her bosom; and
over this a thick mantle fastened with a clasp : her only ornament, in addition to her flowing
yellow hair, being a tore of gold round the neck.
In the south-west of Britain, in the islets of the Cassiterides, where much intercourse with
Phoenician traders had existed, and where it is probable were settlers of mixed Iberian and Phoenician
race, the costume, as described by Strabo, seems to have resembled the graver clothing of
the Iberian tribes, rather than the bright party-coloured dress of the Gauls. In place of the braccm
and vest, the men wore a long robe or tunic, reaching to the feet and girded about the breast—
a garment which, as to its form, seems to have corresponded with that worn by the females of
Gaul and Belgic Britain. Over this tunic they wore a black mantle or sagum, from which the
epithet of Melanchlmni, or dark-robed, was derived ||. They are described as "walldng with
staves, and wearing the beard long," like the Greeks and eastern nations, rather than like the
contemporary people of western Europe This dress has sometimes been supposed to represent
that of the Druids, though improbably, as it is clear that at least in the performance of sacrifices
and auspicious ceremonies they wore yrhite robes, and received the sacred mistletoe, when cut
from the tree, in a white sagum, probably the same with that worn by themselves**.
The materials of this Celtic clothing, in Britain as in Gaul, were doubtless of native manufacture.
The Gauls were evidently from an early period well-acquainted with the use of the
distaff and the loom, both of which, as in heroic times among the Greeks, and down to our own
days in some parts of Europe, were in common domestic uset+. The hnen manufactures of the
* " Virgatis lucent sagiiUs,^^ Virg. ^n. lib. viii. v. 6G0;
" Versicolore veste," Livy, lib. vii. c. 10; " VersicoJore sagido,"
Tacitus, Hist. hb. ii. c. 20. It was the adoption of this barbaric
Celtic dress by Cieciua, on his return from the Helvetian
campaign (a.d. 69), which gave great offence to the Romans.
The hraccts, as well as the vest and sagum, were often partycoloured
hide of the deer, cow or horse, with the hair on, down to a late
period. See Skene, "Highlanders of Scotland," 1837, p. 221;
where full details of the old Highland costume are given.
i| Strabo, lib. iii. c. 5. § 11 : c. f. lib. iii. c. 3. § 7. Diodorus,
hb. V. c. 33.
^ Strabo, lib.iii.c. 0. § 11. Tpciyoisrats uTn'/rais,—"bearded
like goats." Some copies of Strabo read rpayiKuis TTOU UIS,
—"like the furies in a tragedy : " the editors of the Mon. Hist.
Brit, adopt the former reading. The references to Strabo are
to the English version, by Hamilton and Falconer.
or striped,—" virgatis hraccis," Propert. iv. 10, v. 43.
f Strabo, lib. iv. c. 4. § 5. Virgil, iEn. lib. viii. v. 659.
" atque aurea vestis." Gold threads and wire, perhaps the
remains of a garment embroidered with gold, were found in the
coffin from the barrow at Stowborough, above referred to.
J The Gallic lacerna appears to have been a small mantle,
sagulum, combined with a cucullus or hood : the caracalla was
the vest with a hood attached. The country of the Santones,
in the south-west of-Gaul, was celebrated, in the first century,
for its manufacture of these Gallic hoods, hence called nicuUi
Santonici. Martial, xiv. 128. Juvenal, viii. 145.
§ Whence our modern word Galoshes. See figures of such
shoes, from the Amendola sarcophagus, and Lyons bronzes, in
Rich's " Illustrated Dictionary," p. 117, 311. The shoes of the
Irish and of the Scotch Higblauders were rudely made from the
Pliny, "Candida veste cultus," lib. xvi. § 95 : c. f. lib.
sxiv. § 62, "Candida veste vestita," where the rites described
seem clearly those of the Druids. The hierophants of the Cimbri,
who were probably Druidesses, were also clothed m white,
Avith saga of fine hnen, carbasus, fastened on with fibulie.—
Strabo, lib. vii. c. 2. § 3.
f t The fabrics used for clothing by the noble and wealthv
were probably made by domestic slaves in their own huts,
as was the case among the ancient Germans : " vestis modum
dominus ut colono injungit, et servus hactenus paret."—
Tacitus, Germ. c. 25.
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