298 



DRESS OF MKN. 



buy the cloaks. The steersman went to King Harald, for 

 he had spoken to him before, and told him tins difficulty. 

 Harald said he would come down, and did so. He was a con- 

 descending and very merry man. He came on a fully- 

 manned skiita. He looked at the goods, and said to the 

 steersman : ' Wilt thou give me one of the grey cloaks ? ' 

 'Willingly,' answered the steersman: 'more than one.' 

 Harald 'took one cloak and put it on, and then went down 

 into the skiita. Before they rowed away every one of his men 

 had bought a cloak. A few days after there came so many 

 who all wanted to buy cloaks that not half of them got any. 

 Thereafter the king was called Harald grafeld (grey cloak) " 

 (Harald Grafeld's Saga, c. 7). 



The fashion in the time of King Sverri is thus described : 



" Thou shalt always choose 

 brown cloth for hose ; it is 

 not wrong to use black skin 

 for hose or other kinds of 

 cloth except scarlet. Thou 

 shalt also have a brown or 

 green or red kirtle of good 

 and beseeming cloth. Thy 

 linen clothes thou shalt have 

 made of good linen, but not 

 much of it ; have thy shirt 

 short and all thy linen- 

 clothes light. Always have 



o */ 



thy shirt a good deal shorter 

 than thy kirtle, for no good- 

 mannered man can make 

 himself look well with flax or 

 hemp. Thy beard and hair thou shalt have well prepared before 

 thou coniest before the king, after the customs prevailing at the 

 time in the hird. 1 When I was in the liird it was customary 

 to cut the hair shorter than the lobes of the ears, and comb 

 it so that each hair would lie flat, and a short lock of hair 

 be over the eyebrows. It was customary to cut the beard and 

 the moustaches short and have whiskers like the German 

 custom ; it is not likely that there will be any better or more 

 becoming fashion for warriors" (Konungs Skuggsja, p. 66). 



Fig. 1158. Fig. 1159. 



Iron tweezers, real size, found in a 

 quadrangular stone setting, with a 

 bent sword, a bent spear head, both 

 of iron, and burnt bones. Oland. 



1 The hlrd or hirdim-n were so called 

 because they guarded their lord or king; 

 the word being derived from hirda, to 

 s>u,-ird or preserve. The hird of a kiii'j; 



was often very considerable: King Harald 

 Fairhair sometimes had a hird of 400 



men. 



