52 
toner's address. 
during the winter. Their inteUigence was further in- 
dicated by the implements used in the chase, in war, 
rather than to any overpowering sense of modesty or necessity. 
Doubtless there are many factors which assist in determining a prefer- 
ence for the material used and the form and number of garments to 
cover the body in different countries. Christian civilization has required 
distinctiveness in the dress of religious and privileged classes, and 
particularly of the sexes. The development of the idea of the desir- 
ableness as well as the manner of clothing the lower limbs of men 
separately in pantaloons that reach the feet has been a matter of slow 
growth and accomplished within the memory of persons now living. 
Improvement in the convenience of the dress of females has not pro- 
gressed as with the opposite sex. The earliest examples of the body 
so clad as to permit the free use of the lower extremities as well as the 
upper is to be found in the sculptured figures dressed in armor of 
Egyptian and Phoenician origin. The line of progress and inven- 
tion in dress throughout the Greek and Roman civilizations is pretty 
well known. Changes in national peculiarities of costume, even in 
modern times, are very slow, so that the taste of one age is frequently 
shocked by the lingering characteristics of a preceding one. This 
however, is as true of popular sentiments and behavior of a people, or 
of an age, as of the material and form of their dress. And, it should 
be borne in mind, retrogression in either is as natural as progress. 
I will give one instance showing the tendency to retrogression in 
dress, although there are many that could be cited, within historical 
times. The following fact is recorded in the notes of the Rev. Dr. 
Joseph Doddridge, published in Samuel Kercheval's History of the 
Valley of Virginia, p. 339 : " In the latter years of the Indian war our 
young men became more enamored of the Indian dress throughout 
with the exception of the match coat. The drawers were laid aside 
and the leggings made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the 
thigh. The Indian breech-clout was adopted. This was a piece of 
linen or cloth nearly a yard long and eight or nine inches broad. This 
passed under the belt before and behind, leaving the ends for flaps, 
hanging before and behind over the belt. These belts were some- 
times ornamented with some coarse kind of embroidery-work. To 
the same belts which secured the breech-clout, strings which sup- 
ported the long leggings were attached. When this belt, as was often 
the case, passed over the hunting-shirt, the upper part of the thighs 
