I) BUSS AND ADORNMENT. 



791 



the loins-girdle. It has originated in and is adapted to warm cli- 

 mates, it is loose and flowing, it has evidently originated in orna- 

 ment. It is the dress of China and Japan, of the Orient, of ancient 

 Greece and Rome, and of old Egypt. No matter how elaborate 

 the style or how beautiful the material, such dress may all be 

 reduced to the two simple articles before mentioned. The north- 

 ern type may have been largely due to the wish for protection 

 against the cold, although even here the ornamental has not been 

 lacking in influence. Perfectly developed, the type presents us 

 close-fitting jackets and trousers with tight sleeves and legs. The 

 first materials for this type of dress were skins, and the form of 

 the garments is doubtless due to the fact that the skins were at 

 first tied with thongs about the limbs and trunk. We have said 

 that even here we find the influence of the strife for display. We 

 believe skins were first worn as trophies. Frequently in the clas- 

 sics the heroes are described as wearing skins of lions or leopards. 

 In Egypt, Diodorus says the king wore a lion's, dragon's, or bull's 

 skin over his shoulder. In a severe climate such trophies would 

 become protective coverings, The forms of southern dress were 

 developed by draping, those of the northern by wrapping ; but, as 

 the body draped and wrapped was the same, we need not be sur- 

 prised at finding somewhat similar garments in both series. Jack- 

 ets and trousers are worn 

 by both Chinese and Eski- 

 mo, but in the one they are 

 loose - fitting, flowing gar- 

 ments, in the other close- 

 fitting and tight. 



It is most interesting to 

 see how, after the idea of 

 dress was once developed, it 

 has stimulated man's men- 

 tal progress and mechani- 

 cal skill in searching for 

 better materials for cloth- 

 ing and devising means of 

 using them. Let us briefly 

 consider some of these dress 

 materials and the ways in 

 which they are treated to 

 render them fit for use. 

 Skins were employed early 

 and are in use the world over. Schweinfurth, in speaking of his 

 Niam-niam guides, says : " They wear large aprons, like cooper 

 aprons, in the early morning, as a protection against dews and 

 dampness. None of these skins are more beautiful than that of the 



Fig. 3. Northern Type of Dress. Eskimo. 



