Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/258

 Chap, VII. Of M A N C H E.STiE R. ?%% figas. The new citizens quickly paffed frqm the conveniences tp the refinements, and as quickly deviated into the luxuries, of a town-life. When once the old reveretf aflbciations of ideas are broken, and the fullen adherence to old revered cyftoms is over- come, the natural impotence of the human mind transports it generally into the rage of innovations and the violences of ex- tefs. ^^The drefs of the Siftuntian chiefs to this period muft have? been the fame with the drefs of the British chiefe in general, q£ t the Celtic in France, and of the Iberian in Spain. And this, is^ the curious delineation of it. Equally in the chief and in the client the hair, gexjerally -yellow and always long and bufliy, was turned back upon the crown of the head, and fell down in a long wreath behind And the beard of both was foffered to "grow to a confiderablc length, but was entirely confined to the upper lip Both of them appeared naked in battle. And this rude cuftom was at- tended with two others, the painting of their bodies for the fight, ^nd the wearing of a ring round their middles. On all other occafions the common people . in general (as I flialj ihew here- after 3 ) muft have been cloathed in flrins, and the chieftains in particular muft have regularly appeared in the one fanciful uni- form of the chiefs through all the weftern regions of Europe 4 . The trunk of the chieftain's body was fhcathed in a tunic, which the Britons called a Cota and we (till 'denominate a Waift- coat, and which was plaidecL was open before, had long fleeves extending to the hands, and reached itlelf to the middle s . The lower part of the body Vas covered with a pair of trowfcrs, which the Britons called Brages or Breeches, which wrapped . loofely round the thighs and legs, and which were terminated at the ancles 6. Thefe alfowere plaidcd, as the Britifh appella- tion of them fufficiently evinces, Brae or Brag fignitying ; merely a party-coloured obje£t 7 .' And thefe were equally worne by the Batavi of Holland and the Vangiones of Germany in the wef^, by the Perfians in the eaft, and by the Sarmatians of Poland fcetwixt both tr g 2. * Over