Su Ae Bite as 
[ cannot find that the Gfeeks or old Romans ever made ufe of furs. It 
originated in thofe regions where they moft abounded, and where the 
feverity of the climate required that fpecies of cloathing. At firft it 
confifted of the fkins only, almoft in the ftate in which they were torn 
from the body of the beaft; but as foon as civilization took place, 
and manufactures were introduced, furs became the lining of the drefs, 
and often the elegant facing of the robes. It is probable, that the north- 
ern conquerors introduced the fafhion into Europe. We find, that 
about the year 522, when Tosi/a, king of the Vifigoths, reigned in Italy, 
that the Swethons (a people of modern Sweden ) found means, by help 
of the commerce of numberlefs intervening people, to tranfinit, for the 
ufe of the Romans, faphilinas pelles, the precious fkins of the Sables *. 
As luxury advanced, furs, even of the moft valuable fpecies, were ufed 
by princes as lining for their tents: thus Marco Polo, in 1252, found 
thofe of the Cham of Tartary lined with Ermines and Sables +. He 
calls the laft Ziselines, and Zambolines. He fays that thofe, and other 
precious furs, were brought from countries far north ; from the Jand of 
Darkne/s, and regions almoft inacceffible, by reafon of moraffes and 
ice {. The Wel fet a high value on furs, as early as the time of Howel 
Dda ||, who began his reign about 940. In the next age, furs became 
the fafhionable magnificence of Europe. When Godfrey of Boulogne, and 
his followers, appeared before the emperor Alexis: Comnene, on their 
way to the Holy Land, he was ftruck with the richnefs of their dreffes, 
tam ex oftro quam aurifrigio et niveo opere barmelino et ex mardrino gri- 
Jfioque et vario. Wow different was the advance of luxury in France, 
from the time of their great monarch Charlemagne, who contented 
himfelf with the plain fur of the Otter ! Henry I. wore furs; yet in 
his diftrefs was obliged to change them for warm Wel flannel §. But 
in the year 1337 the luxury had got to fuch a head, that Edward Ill. 
enacted, that all perfons who could not fpend a hundred a year, 
fhould abfolutely be prohibited the ufe of this fpecies of finery. 
* Fornandes de Rebus Geticis. t In Bergeron’s Coll. 70. Purchas, iii. 86. 
Y 160, 161, 162, || Leges Wallica: § Barrington om the Statutes, ath ed. 243. 
M Thefe, 
81 
