Dress and Diet 355 



right it does not belong. Nevertheless, there are many 

 specimens of national costume still to be found, and 

 these are well worth noticing. Tor the men the 

 characteristic dress is a short round jacket, buttoned 

 below the neck only, and made picturesque by two 

 rows of metal buttons, which, in the case of the richer 

 peasants, are often of silver. The material is a thick 

 home-spun cloth. They have waistcoats to match, 

 ornamented with smaller buttons, and knee-breeches, 

 generally of home-spun, but sometimes of leather; 

 coarse woollen socks, and shoes, which occasionally 

 have buckles. Their head-dress is generally a round 

 skin cap, of the kind that in our imagination we 

 generally think of as Eussian or Polish. In some parts 

 a tall cylindrical felt hat is worn, not unlike the hats 

 which Welsh women used to wear. 



The picturesque dress, especially the head-dress, of 

 the Bergen women should be noticed. The enseiiiblc 

 reminds one of the women whom Holbein drew. In 

 Bergen, too, we should notice the number of people 

 wearing sabots, for this kind of chaussure is rare ii^ 

 Norway. The full costume of the women of the 

 Hardan^er district is the most beautiful which is worn 

 in Norway, and is the one usually adopted in fancy- 

 dress balls, or in festivals wherein the national costume 

 has to be represented. It consists of a dark skirt of 

 green or blue ; of a bodice of scarlet, edged with ribbon 

 or with gold lace, over a muslin shirt, with full sleeves, 

 and much plaited in front. The married women wear 

 caps of exquisitely white muslin ; the unmarried women 

 go bare-headed, Eound the neck and round the waist 

 are worn specimens of the beautiful ' old silver ' (fre- 



