70 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



a complete deck, and having only one opening to admit the Indian to 

 his seat. The Greenlanders and Esquimaux r^e the same kind of 

 canoes, and it is astonishing, when we consider their insignificant 

 construction, at what a distance from the regions they commonly 

 inhabit, these people, especially the former, are found in them. 



CAP. A garment serving to cover the head, and made nearly of 

 its figure. The era of caps and hats is referred to the year 1449, the 

 first seen in Europe being at the entry of Charles VII. into Rouen; 

 from that time they began, by little and little, to take place of the 

 hoods or chaperons, that had been used till that period. The Romans 

 were many ages without any regular covering for the head : when 

 either the rain or sun was troublesome, the lappet of the gown was 

 thrown over the head ; and hence it is that all the ancient statues 

 appear bareheaded, excepting sometimes a wreath, or the like. And 

 the same usage obtained among the Greeks, where, at least during 

 the heroic age, no caps were known. 



The cap was the head-dress of the clergy and graduates. The 

 giving of the cap to the students in the universities, was to denote 

 that they had acquired full liberty, and were no longer subject to the 

 rod of their superiors, in imitation of the ancient Romans, who gave 

 a pileus or cap to their slaves in the ceremony of making them free. 

 Hence, also, on medals the cap is the symbol of Liberty, whom they 

 represent holding a cap in her right hand by the point. When this 

 cap was exposed to the view of the people on the top of a spear, as in 

 the case of the conspiracy which had occasioned the death of Caesar, 

 it was intended as a public invitation to the people to embrace the 

 liberty that was offered to them by the destruction of their tyrant. 

 This thought of the conspirators on occasion of this event, was not 

 new ; for Saturnius, in his sedition, when he had possessed himself of 

 the Capitol, exalted a cap on the top of a spear, as a token of liberty 

 to all the slaves who would join with him ; and though Marius, in 

 his sixth consulship, destroyed him for that act, by a decree of the 

 senate, yet he himself used the same expedient afterwards to invite 

 the slaves to take arms with him against Sylla, who was marching 

 with his army into the city to attack him. 



The Chinese have not the use of the hat, like us, but wear a cap 

 of a peculiar structure, which the laws of civility will not allow them 

 to put off: it is different for the different seasons of the year; that 

 used in summer, is in form of a cone, ending at the top in a point. 

 It is made of a very beautiful kind of mat, much valued in that coun- 

 try, and lined with satin : to this is added, at top, a large lock of red 

 silk, which falls all round as low as the bottom ; so that in walking, 

 the silk, fluctuating regularly on all sides, makes a graceful appear- 

 ance : sometimes instead of silk, they use a kind of bright red hair, 

 the lustre whereof no weather effaces. In winter they wear a kind 

 of plush cap, bordered with martlet's or fox's skin ; as to the rest, like 



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