CLOTHING.
Unlike all the man-like mammals, man himself is almost devoid of any protection in the nature of hair or fur on his body. To explain this has been a puzzle to evolutionist philosophers, and it must be acknow ledged that they have not offered any satisfactory solution. Whatever its cause, one of its consequences undoubtedly was that very early in his his tory he sought for some means to " hide his nakedness." This, and not protection against the cold, was probably what prompted him first to devise apparel. By custom man becomes exceedingly indifferent to changes in temperature. Some of the Indian tribes of Canada went nearly naked throughout the year. In the damp, cold climate of South ern Patagonia the natives care little for wraps of any kind. Of course in warmer latitudes they are altogether superfluous. As related in the earl iest Hebrew records, it was the sense of modesty that first prompted human beings to frame for themselves garments. Modesty, however, is by no means the same all the world over: those portions of the body which the people of one nation consider the most indelicate to display are by others shown without a thought of impropriety.
Variations in the Feelings of contrasts exist between nations in this respect. The women of parts of Arabia and Egypt do not hesitate to bathe in public places if only their faces are veiled; while in Europe that is the only portion of her person which a lady can display uncovered. The Hottentot women often appear naked except the head, which on no account would they uncover; while to remove the hat is the ordinary salutation of a European gentleman. The natives of the Philip pine and Navigator Islands think it most indecorous to allow the navel to be visible, but they attach no importance to concealing any other part of the person. When Captain Speke was approaching the kingdom of Uganda in Central Africa his guide doubted whether the white traveller would be admitted to His Majesty's presence on account of the indecent attire of pantaloons, the court ceremonial being absolute that every male must appear, on pain of death, in flowing garments, concealing his legs, although the female attendants of the king went naked. To speak of or to look at the small foot of a Chinese lady is a gross breach of decorum; and in some Bedouin tribes the most insulting request to a woman would be that she should remove the cap from the back part of her head (Peschel).
These and other examples illustrate how artificial are the directions taken by the sense of modesty; but they also prove its wide appearance as a part of human nature. Few if any tribes have been found wholly devoid of it, and it generally is directed to the concealment of those portions of the frame whose functions are disagreeable to others.
ilfaterials of first material of clothing may have been the traditional fig or other leaves, but the skins of animals must rank almost coeval with them. Far back in the Stone Age we come across punches and awls evidently intended for perforating hides to allow the insertion of strings, thus fitting them into garments. Even in the rein
deer caves of France bone needles are found with an eye in their head for carrying the thread. This was a long step in advance of the punch or awl, though the latter still holds its own in the hand-sewing of the ma terial for which it was first invented—skins or leather. Bronze needles of excellent workmanship turn up amid the remains of the Swiss Lake dwellers. They, and with them the art of sewing, remained practically the same from pre-historic times to our own day, when the inventive genius of Howe took the next stride in the art of clothing by placing the eye in the point instead of in the head of the needle, and thus rendered possible the completion of the sewing-machine.
No long time could have been required for the early tribes to note that their aprons of leaves or of bark depended for their strength on the fibres they contained. These could be separately drawn out into strings, and a bundle of such fastened to the belt still constitutes the gala dress of many an African belie. The example of twisting the fibres to gain strength, and of plaiting them to secure breadth, is offered by natural growths, and probably suggested the simplest forms of spinning and weaving.
Felling is also to some extent a natural process, dependent on the close curl and split ends of the fibres of wool. It is in a measure simulated in the vegetable kingdom by the readiness with which the fibrous leaves of some plants—notably the aloe and the papyrus—can when macerated be beaten into a continuous sheet. Such observations led to the search for, and cultivation of fibrous plants, as cotton, flax, hemp, and jute, and the domestication and breeding of sheep and goats ; as well as to steady improvements in the machinery for curing, spinning, and weaving their products.
as a powerful lever was added when clothing came to be regarded not merely as a satisfaction to the sense of modesty and a means of protection, but as a decoration and a mark of distinction. This, more than either of the other two motives, has conceded it the enormous influence it has exerted on the development of mankind. Well might the philosophic author of Sarfor Resarhts, when lie set about writing a summary of the nature of man, name it "a treatise on clothes"! The pomp and majesty of kings, the gallantry of warriors and the charms of fair ladies, the insignia of rank and the ostentation of wealth, have ever sought their chief expression in modes of apparel. Its gaudy colors have been brought from the deep sea and the far-off forests ; its designs have tasked the genius of artists ; its texture has been refined to the deli cacy of the spider's web ; and its ever-varying form and draping have been the constant thought of tirewomen. Intimately associated with national life and history, the apparel as oft betrays the ethnic character and descent as it does those of the individual.