CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 



skins when hunting dangerous animals. The mode 

 of using these protectors is by wrapping the skins of 

 animals around the left hand and arm, leaving the 

 right hand free for using the spear. When attacked 

 by an animal the hunter holds his skin-protected hand 

 before him, allowing the attacking animal to seize it, 

 in so doing exposing itself to the spear-thrust. In 

 this case, of course, several layers of skin are used, 

 wound so as to form a thickness that will resist the 

 teeth of the animal. But a very natural modification 

 of this arrangement would be a form of mitten made 

 of thick hides, thus partly protecting the left hand 

 while leaving the other free for action. A mitten 

 or glove may have been worn at times on the right 

 hand also. 



Another possible origin in the use of gloves, other 

 than for protection against cold, may have been for 

 protection of the left hand in archery. Among all 

 nations, even of remote antiquity, some form of protec- 

 tion to the wrist and hand was known, and while this 

 was usually in the form of a wrist-band, rather than a 

 glove or mitten, the exposed position of the fingers 

 and knuckles as thrust forward in archery may have 

 suggested the use of the glove as a means of pro- 

 tection. 



But all these are mere surmises as to how the wear- 

 ing of gloves may have originated in warmer climates. 

 It is certain that in the northern regions gloves and 

 mittens were worn in very remote antiquity. By the 

 dawn of civilization well-made gloves fitted to the hand 

 and fingers in a manner not unlike the modern glove 



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