[712] Pausan. x. 38. p. 895.
[713] Sat. xiv. 185.
[714] Varro De Re Rust. lib. i. 1, 6.
[715] Diodor. Siculus, Pausanias, Propertius.
[716] Virg. Æneid. viii. 177, 368; ix. 306; xi. 576. To the same
purpose are various passages in the Odyssey.
[717] Eleg. iv, 1. 12.
[718] Lib. iv. 3, 11.
[719] See Ferrarius De Re Vestiar. iv. 2. 2. in Thesaurus Antiquitat.
Roman. vi. p. 908. Aristophan. Nubes, 1, 1, 73.
[720] Livius, v. 2. p. 11.--Florus, 1. 12.--Tacit. Annal. 14.
38.--Corn. Nepos, Agesil. cap. 8.--Lipsius De Militia Rom. lib. v.
dial. 1, p. 313.
[721] Lib. viii. 55, p. 483. The hair of this animal seems to have been
an article of trade, and comprehended under the head of wool, as we
find by the Roman code of laws. L. 70. § 9.--De Legat. 3, or Digest.
lib. xxxii. leg. 70. 9. Cushions however were stuffed with it. See
Waarenkunde, i. p. 271.
[722] For the following information on this subject I am indebted to
the friendship of Professor Eichorn:--“Of furs being used as dresses of
magnificence I find very faint traces. I shall however quote all the
passages where allusion is made to furs.
“In Genesis, chap. xxv. ver. 25, Esau is said to have felt to the touch
like a hairy garment, אדרת שער. A fur dress must here be meant; for
Rebecca endeavoured to make Jacob like his brother, by binding pieces
of goats’ skins around his hands and neck.--Genesis xxvii. ver. 16.
“In Joshua, chap. vii. ver. 21, the true reading is אדות שכער,
and signifies a Babylonian mantle, consequently one made of wool,
respecting which many passages have been collected by various authors,
and particularly Fischer in Prolus. de Vers. Græc. Vet. Test. p.
87. One manuscript, according to Kennicot, has however אדרת שעו, a
hairy mantle or fur; but this has arisen either through an error in
transcribing, one consonant, נ _Nun_, being omitted; or from the
conjecture of some Jewish copyist, who was acquainted with costly furs
but not with a Babylonian mantle. If the reading of Kennicot is to be
retained, it would, on account of the price, be an important passage,
in regard to costly furs.
“Among the Hebrews, the prophets wore fur dresses, if not in general,
at any rate very often.
“The mantle of Elijah, 2 Kings, chap. ii. ver. 8, 13, 14, was of fur;
because on account of his clothing he was called a hairy man, 2 Kings,
chap. i. ver. 8.
“A hairy mantle, as a mark of distinction, is mentioned in the book of
Zechariah, chap. xiii. ver. 4.
“In 1 Maccabees, chap. xiii. ver. 37, the high priest Simon obtained
from king Demetrius βαίνη, which is certainly a false reading for
βαίτα, or βαίτη. The only question is, whether βαίτη, which was
merely a shepherd’s dress, consequently made of sheep skins, signified
also a dress of state, as there is reason to conjecture from the
persons who sent and who received it as a present. See Theocrit. Idyll.
iii. 25. et ibi Schol. Furs, as a present, in the hot climate of
Bassorah, are mentioned by Niebuhr.”
[723] The best refutation of this supposed Vandalism is to be found in
Schlözer’s Essay, in the second edition of F. I. L. Mayers Fragmenten
aus Paris. Hamb. 1798, 8vo, ii. p. 353. Nowhere do we find that the
works of art were destroyed by the Goths or Vandals; on the contrary,
it appears that they had sufficient culture to hold them in just
estimation. Genseric carried away works of art from Rome, in the same
manner as the Romans had done from Greece; but they were carefully
packed up and not destroyed; he did therefore what Bonaparte did in
those countries which were unable to withstand the force of his armies.
If the epithet of Vandalism is to be applied to modern events, it seems
most applicable to those who carried away works of art from countries
into which the conquerors promised to introduce the rights of man,
liberty, and happiness. The Christian writers, even, and among these
St. Augustine, admit that the Goths after their victories were not so
cruel and rapacious as the Romans. Orosius, who lived in the beginning
of the fifth century, relates, that a Goth of high rank, after the
taking of Rome, having found in a house some gold and silver vessels
which had been plundered from the church of St. Peter, gave notice
to Alaric, and that the latter caused them to be sent back safe to
the church. The account given of the arms and accoutrements of these
northern tribes proves also that they were acquainted with the arts,
and that they employed them to ornament their clothing. The fur dresses
therefore may have been very handsome.
[724] Glossarium, p. 1282.
[725] Virgilii Georg. iii. 381.--Ovid. Trist. iii. 10, 19; v. 7,
49.--Ex Ponto, iv. 10, 1.--Justinus, ii. 2, p. 43.--Seneca, epist.
90.--Rutilii Itiner. ii. 49.--Claudian, viii. 466; xxvi. 481.--Ammian.
Marcell. xxxi. 2.--Prudentius in Symmachum, ii. 695.--Isidor. Origin.
xix. 23.--Sidon. Apollin. epist. i. 2, where he describes Theodoric II.
king of the Goths, the son of Theodoric I. and brother of Thorismundus:
_pellitorum turba satellitum_. In epist. vii. 9, the kings of the Goths
are called _pelliti reges_.
[726] Tacitus De Moribus German. 17.
[727] Variegated furs of this kind sewed together are mentioned by
Pollux, vii. 60, p. 729.
[728] Plutarchus in Lycurgo. In like manner, the savages in the South
Seas are acquainted with the art of giving more beauty and value to
their ornaments made of feathers, shells, and the teeth of their
enemies killed in battle.
[729] Lagerbring Svea Rikes Hist. Part 2. p. 88.
[730] At this period the Danes appear to have spent in eating and
drinking the treasure they obtained in plundering; they employed their
time only in hunting and breeding cattle, and clothed themselves in
the skins of their sheep; but Canute endeavoured to introduce among
them the Saxon manners and dress. He had invited into his kingdom from
Lower Saxony, which at that time was considered the seat of the arts
and sciences, and refined manners, a great many workmen and artists, a
colony of whom he established in Roeskild, the capital.
[731] Digestor. lib. xxxiv.
[732] De Habitu Muliebri, cap. i. p. 551.
[733] Charact. cap. 5 et 12.
[734] Apophthegm.
[735] See Herodian, ix. 13.
[736] De Institut. Orat. xi. 3, 144.
[737] Lex. 25, De Auro, Argento, Mundo.
[738] See the instances quoted by G. S. Treuer in Anastasis Veteris
Germani Germanæque Feminæ. Helmst. 1729, 4to.
[739] Trist. v. 10, 31. For a complete history of their dress the
reader must consult the authors quoted in Fabricii Bibliograph.
Antiquaria, p. 861; and in Pitisci Lex. Antiq. v. Bracca.
[740] In his Annotations on Catullus, p. 100.
[741] In that learned and ingenious work, Erklärung der Vasengemälde,
i. 3, p. 186.
[742] Lib. xxxiv. cap. 14, § 41, p. 667.
[743] Cap. 50, § 3.
[744] Lib. xi. p. 755: ἀνδρόποδα καὶ δέρματα.
[745] Histor. lib. iv. p. 306.
[746] Tacitus, Annal. iv. 72.
[747] Hist. Animal. xviii. 17. The singular word καναυτᾶνες,
respecting which a great deal has been said by Pauw in his annotations
to Phile de Animal. 48, p. 246, has lately been translated by Böttiger
very happily, by the word _kaftane_, a kind of Turkish robe. In the
present day these dresses of ceremony are of cotton, with flocks of
silk worked into them, and for the most part are whitish, with a few
rudely-formed pale yellow flowers: but the word formerly may have
signified clothes in general, or fur clothing in particular, and
perhaps the silk flocks may have been at first intended to represent
fur. That furs at present are employed at Bassorah as presents, is
proved by Professor Eichorn.
[748] Vita Agesilai, p. 602. See also Hellenica, lib. iv.
[749] Cyropædia, lib. viii., where he mentions χειρίδας δασείας. The
Greeks and the Romans, however, did not wear gloves.
[750] Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 5, p. 232.
[751] Lib. v. 41.
[752] Annal. lib. xiii. In Athenæus, Deipnos. v. p. 197, Callixenus
describes Persian counterpanes with figures representing animals, but
I do not know whether I ought not, with Valois, to consider them as
painted leather, or rather worked tapestry.
[753] Digest. lib. xxxix. tit. 4, 16, 7, or L. ult. § 7, de publicanis.
In Gronovii Geographia Antiqua, p. 261, it is said that a great trade
was carried on in Cappadocia with Babylonian leather. The _vestes
leporinæ_ appear to have been made of the hair of the Angora rabbits.
[754] L. 7, C. de excus. mun. or Cod. lib. 10, tit. 47, 7.
[755] Chardin, iv. p. 245.
[756] De Rebus Geticis, cap. 3, p. 612.
[757] History of the Germans, vol. ii.
[758] Cap. 5, p. 616.
[759] Langebek Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, fol. ii. p. 111.
[760] Torfæi Hist. Norveg. P. 2, p. 34. Compare Schlözer’s Nordische
Geschichte in Algem. Welthistor. vol. xxxi. pp. 445, 458.--Having heard
from M. Schlözer that the first certain traces of the Russian fur trade
were to be found in the Russian Chronicles, works never yet used, I
requested him, as the only person in Germany who could draw from these
sources, to transmit to me what he had remarked on that subject. I am
indebted to him, therefore, for the following valuable information, the
result of a laborious comparison of various manuscript chronicles, for
which he will no doubt receive the reader’s thanks.
“The following passages are taken from the ten Russian Chronicles, the
greater part of them still in manuscript, as a proof that from the
ninth century tribute in furs was demanded from the people in Russia by
their conquerors.
I. “In the year 859, the Waringians, who came by sea, had tribute from
the Tschudi, the Slavi, the Meri, and the Kriwitsches, a squirrel per
man. The Chazares (in the Crimea) had tribute from the Poles (the
inhabitants of the Ukrain), the Severians and the Wæitsches, a squirrel
for each fireplace or hearth.
“The squirrel _Sciurus vulgaris_ had in the old and new Russian
language the five following names:--1st. ‘Bēla.’ This primitive word
has been lost in the new Russian language, but is still preserved in
the Chronicles, and in the adjectives ‘bēlij’ and ‘bēliczij mēch,
Grauwerk’ (squirrel-skins). ‘Bēl’ in all the Sclavonic dialects
signifies white. Can any connexion be discovered between the squirrel
and a white colour? 2nd. ‘Bēlka,’ the diminutive of the former, is at
present generally current. 3rd. ‘Wēkscha,’ from which is derived, 4th.
‘Wēkschitza,’ the diminutive. 5th. ‘Weweritza’ is old, but still exists
in the Polish.
“The variations of these words which occur in manuscripts are abundant,
and some of them exceedingly laughable. One transcriber has ‘bēla;’
most of the rest add ‘wēkscha,’ ‘wēkschitza’ or ‘weweritza,’ as if
‘bēla’ were the adjective white. Two manuscripts say expressly, ‘bēla,’
that is ‘wēkscha.’ In one, however, from ‘bēla weweritza’ has been made
‘bēla ‘dewitza,’ a fair or beautiful maid.
II. “In the year 883 Oleg went against the Drewians and Severians, whom
he obliged to pay tribute, each a black marten.
“‘Po czernē kunē’ stands in all the manuscripts; one only has the
diminutive ‘kunitzē.’ Another bad manuscript, which has ‘konē,’ a black
horse, is not worthy of any remark.
III. “In 969 Svātoslav spoke to his mother and boyars: ‘I am not fond
of Kief; I will reside in Pereyaslawetz on the Danube. There I shall be
in the middle of my lands, to which every thing good in my territories
flows: from the Greeks gold and _pavoloki_ (silk-stuffs?), and wine
and fruit of every kind; from the Tscheches (Bohemians) and Hungarians
silver and horses; from Russia _skora_, wax, honey, and servants.’
_Skora_, _skura_, furs (according to the Great Lexicon of the Russian
Academy), from which is derived _skornak_, similar furs prepared. That
coarse skins or furs (in Russian _schurka_), such as the _terga boum_,
imposed by the Romans on the Frieslanders, are not here meant, is
proved by a passage in the Chronicle of Nicon, vol. ii. p. 15, where it
is related of a savage people, who lived far to the north on the Ural,
that they gave _skora_ for a knife and a hatchet.
“That marten-skins, as well as pieces of them (_mortki_) and of
squirrel-skins, were used as money in Novogorod, till the year 1411, is
well-known from Saml. Russ. Geschichte, vol. v. p. 430.”
[761] Du Cange Glossarium.
[762] De Animantibus Subter. p. 490.
[763] Varro De Ling. Lat. lib. vi. p. 51.
[764] Seneca, epist. 90.
[765] Pallas, Novæ Species Quadr. e Glirium ord. 1778, p. 120.
[766] Lib. viii. 37.
[767] Pallas, p. 142. I shall here take occasion to remark, that the
use of this animal’s skin, as well as the name, occurs in the eleventh
century, in Bernardus Sylvester.
[768] Lib. ii. ep. 2.
[769] See a dissertation De l’Origine des Couleurs et des Métaux dans
les Armoiries, added by Du Cange to his edition of Joinville. Paris,
1668, fol. p. 127. See also the article _Hermine_, in his Glossary to
Geoffroy de Ville-Hardouin’s Conqueste de Constantinople; or the same
in Diction. Etymolog.
[770] Mullers Samlung Russischer Geschichte, vi. p. 491. Fischers
Sibirische Geschichte. St. Petersb. 1768, 8vo, p. 290.
[771] Du Cange, in his observations on Joinville, p. 137, thinks that
the _zebelinæ_ or _sabelinæ pelles_ came from Zibel or Zibelet, a
maritime town in Palestine, formerly called _Biblium_, because the
skins were sent from it to Europe. This author meant _Byblus_, at
present _Gibelet_ or _Gibeletto_; but this derivation appears to me
highly improbable.
[772] Epigram. x. 37, 18.
[773] Trier’s Wapen-Kunst, p. 62.--Gatterers Heraldik. p. 41.
[774] _Grauwerk veh_ or _feh_ means properly a kind of fur, composed of
that of the Siberian squirrel and the marten joined together.--TRANS.
[775] Antiquit. Ital. Medii Ævi, ii. p. 413.
[776] See the passages quoted by Du Cange, and what Gesner has said in
Histor. Animal. under the head _Cuniculus_.
[777] Rapin’s England.
[778] See this article in Du Cange and Hoffmann’s Lexicon.
[779] Marco Polo.
[780] Lib. ii. epist. 2.
[781] Epig. 92: de birro castoreo.
[782] De dignitate sacerdotali, cap. 5.
[783] Lib. xvii. cap. 28. § 47; xxxii. cap. 9 and 10.
[784] Lib. xix. cap. 27, p. 474.
[785] Lib. xix. cap. 22.
[786] Constantin. de Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzantinæ, i. p. 254: σκαραμάγγων
καστώριον. The editor, Reiske, thinks that it may have been a pelisse,
because Herodotus, iv. 109, speaks of the beaver’s skin being used for
clothing. But how different must the old Sarmatian manners have been
from the Byzantine!
[787] Epist. 42.
[788] Eginhartus, Vita Caroli Magni, cap. 23.
[789] This anecdote is related by the monk of St. Gall, whose name is
supposed to be Notker, in his book De Gestis Caroli Magni, ii. 27,
printed in Bouquet, Historiens de la Gaule, v. p. 152. Whether Notker
was the author of this chronicle or not, there can be no doubt that it
was written after the year 883 and before 887, as has been proved by
Basnage. _Pavontalis vestis_, a term used in this passage, does not
always signify cloth wove or painted so as to resemble the colours of
the peacock; the skin of the peacock was used for ornament; the people
of all nations indeed decorated themselves with feathers till they
became acquainted with dyeing. The art of those who prepared feathers
was banished by that of the dyers.
[790] Carmen De Carolo Magno, in Op. ii. p. 453, v. 225.
[791] At the council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817, where the dress of
the monks was defined, it was ordered, “abbas provideat, unusquisque
monachorum habeat ... _wantos_ in æstate, _muffulas_ in hieme
vervecinas.” See Sirmond’s Concil. Antiq. Galliæ, Paris, 1629, fol. i.
p. 442. _Wantus_ is still retained in the Netherlandish dialect, where
_want_ signifies a glove without fingers, having only a place for the
thumb; perhaps it is the same word as _want_, _wand_, or _gewand_,
which formerly denoted every kind of woollen cloth. Hence is derived
the French word _gand_; for _gwantus_ and _gantus_ were formerly used
instead of _wantus_. It is equally certain that _muffula_ is of German
extraction; _mouw_ at present in Dutch signifies a sleeve. But at what
time that covering came into use into which both hands are thrust at
present to secure them from the frost, and which according to the size
now fashionable covers the whole body and is called a _muff_, I am not
able to determine.
[792] Leges Wallicæ, ed. Wottoni. Londini, 1730, fol. p. 261.
[793] Landulphus, lib. ii. c. 18, in Murat. Rer. Ital. Script., tom. iv.
[794] Adam Bremensis in Lindenbrogii Script. Rer. Germ., p. 67.
[795] Albertus Aquensis, in Gesta Dei per Francos, i. p. 203.
[796] Ivo Carn. Epistolæ 104.
[797] Canon 12.
[798] Albertus Aquensis, in Gesta Dei per Francos, i. p. 321.
[799] In Labbei Biblioth. Nova, tom. ii.
[800] Wilhelmus Neubrigensis, lib. iii. cap. 22.
[801] Wilhelmus de Nangis, p. 346. Gottfr. de Bello Loco, cap. 8.
Joinville Hist. de St. Louis, p. 118.
[802] Barrington’s Obs. on the more Ancient Statutes, 4to, p. 216.
[803] Constantini lib. de Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzantinæ, 1754.
[804] Giulini, Mem. della Città di Milano, vi. p. 407.
[805] Ib. viii. p. 443.