Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/76

Rh no apparel bordered of stoney nor otherwise," if their possessions were below the yearly value of 251 marks. But to such Knights and Ladies as possessed 400 marks annually, there was no restriction as to dress, except with respect to "ermins and letuses and apparel of pearl and stone," which they might only wear upon the head. Merchants and burgesses of 500 marks had the same privilege of dress as Esquires of 200 markland. Hence perhaps it may be inferred that the two Youths mentioned in this Tale were of knightly origin.

That the gilding of bows was customary in the 14th Century, we have the authority of Davydd ap Gwilym. In lines addressed to his fair countrywomen against gaudiness of dress, and which have been thus elegantly rendered by Arthur Johnes, Esq., in his Poetical Translation of the Works of that celebrated Bard, he says:— The vilest bow that e'er was framed of Yew,

That in the hand abruptly snaps in two,

When all its fisiults are varnished o'er with gold,

Looks strong, and fair, and faultless, and—is sold."—(p. 412.)

Lewis Glyn Cothi has the following line,

With gold shall be adorned thy fingers, tby sword, and thy mantle."

And examples might be multiplied to almost any extent

Where arrow-heads, and the blades of weapons are mentioned as golden, it is very evident that in many instances steel inlaid with gold is meant. Thus, the Bard above alluded to says, —

A gold Brigandine like the casting of a Dragon's skin."

And subsequently this gold Brigandine is said to be of steel,—

Good is the band of this steel vestment."—(I. 158.)

—Page 5.

—This word occurs in another of the Mabinogion; and from the manner that it is used, it is evidently intended for the French Cordonan, or Cordovan leather, which derived its name from Cordova, where it was manufactured.