HATS. 
181 
discharged in this manner, are soon killed, by reason of its penetrating 
their bodies to the depth of five or six feet, which no man’s strengtls 
would be able to accomplish. 
In the volume just quoted, we have an account of one which was 
shot through the tail. The harpoon broke in the slit, but five fathoms 
of line went through tlie tail. The fish was killed in eight hours, 
which is perhaps the only instance of a fish struck in that part being 
caught. In another, the harpoon carried six feet of line, into his body : 
the creature died in ten minutes. Others were killed in fifteen minutes 
or half an hour, and one had a rib broken by the violence of the 
stroke. In the Transactions of the Society for 1790, there are other 
accounts similar to the foregoing, and all agreeing as to the great 
usefulness of the instrument, both for striking the fish at a considera- 
ble distance, and for killing them in a very short time. 
Hats, 
Hats are said to have been first used by men, about A. D. 1400, 
for country wear, riding, &c. But the hatters have a tradition among 
them, that the origin of their art, or at least of that branch of it 
called felting, is much more ancient. The tradition is, that while St. 
Clement, the fourth bishop of Rome, was dying from his persecutors, 
his feet became blistered, in consequence of which he was induced to 
put wool between the soles of his feet and the sandals which he 
wore. The consequence was, that in continuing his journey, the 
wool by the sweat and motion of his feet became completely felted, 
as if wrought on purpose. When he afterwards settled in Rome, he 
improved the discovery ; and hence the origin of felting and hat mak- 
ing. The hatters in Ireland, as well as in several Catholic countries, 
still hold a festival on St. Clement’s day. 
Whatever truth may be in the above tradition, F. Daniel relates, 
that when Charles 11. made his public entry into Rouen, in 1449, he 
had on a hat lined with red velvet, and surmounted with a plume or 
tuft of feathers: he adds, that it is from this entry, or at least under 
this reign, that the use of hats and caps is to be dated ; which hence- 
forward began to take place of the chaperons and hoods that had 
been worn before. In process of time, from the laity, the clergy also 
took this part of the habit ; but it was looked upon as a great abuse, 
and several regulations w^ere published, forbidding any priest or religi- 
ous person to appear abroad in a hat without coronets, and enjoining 
them to keep to the use of chaperons made of black cloth, with decent 
coronets ; if they were poor, they were at least to have coronets fastened 
to their hats, and this upon penalty of suspension and excommuni- 
cation. Indeed, the use of hats is said to have been of a longer stand- 
ing among the ecclesiastics of Brittany, by two hundred years, and 
especially among the canons ; but these were only a kind of caps, 
and from hence arose the square caps worn in colleges, &e. Lobi- 
neau observes, that a bishop of Dol, in the twelfth century, zealous 
for good order, allowed the canons alone to wear such hats, enjoining 
that if any other person came with them to church, divine service 
should immediately be suspended. 
