DRESS (OF. dress( r, dreset r, drecier, It. driz zare. to arrange. dress. from Lat. directus, of dirigirc. to direct, from di-, apart + regcre, to guide). The covering which men and women use for protection against heat or cold, and for the conventional need of hiding parts of the body, or the whole of it except the head and hands. Cus tom. in this regard. has changed eontinually dur ing the historic epoch in the force and in the amount of its general acceptance. It is proposed to treat here only the practical or hygienic. the economical. and. in a may, the social side of the question. leaving for the article COSTUME all questions of the decorative effect deliberately sought. or more unconsciously obtained. by wear ing apparel and ornaments of the person.
The effect of climate upon the clothing of man kind is not as immediate as would seem expedient Cr even necessary. The people of -outhern Aus tralia had scarcely invented clothing when the whites first explored their country, their only garment being the rain-cloak of leaves thrown over the shoulders. The Patagonians. even until recent time. have gone entirely naked, using loin cloths as their only habitual wear, and heavy covering only for defense against wind or rain or snow. The Indians of Colorado were absolutely unclothed as late as IS25. Those. of the colder parts of North America wore some what elaborate garments for occasions of cere mony. hut started for the hunt or on the war path naked. save for the slight loin-cloth and moccasins of deer-skin. The same customs held among the non-settled Indians even at the close of the nineteenth century. Winter and summer seem to have been alike to the redskins, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Alexieo, except as to the hours of complete repose. and the seat by the campfire or in the communal lodge; hut there is one modifieation of this statement: the almost nude figure was enveloped in a blanket, which was thrown off when there was need of activity.
It is very curious to note how sudden is the change when we go still farther north. The peo ple of the ice are clothed in a way a- deliberately eomplete as people of European civilization could be: defended against frost by heavy and com plete garments of fur-bearing skins. It would Will that the 'land of the sunless winter' could not have been inhabited until the art- of man were so far developed that skins could be cut out to pattern and sewn together strongly; obviously a very advanced stage of early eivilizatiom This is true even if the regions north of what is now the limit of tree-growth were inhabited before the time of extreme cold. Seal-skin, reindeer-hide, bear-skin, are all u-ed, dressed with the hair on, and bird•skins dressed with the feathers. Water •roof garments are made of the of dif ferent animal-. Both sexes wear trousei s. or leg pieces made separate, and put on separately, and a shirt worn over the trousers, hoots or stock ings, and a hood. All these garments are of fur,
anti they may be doubled or tripled. These heavy skin garments are worn without underclothes, or garments of cotton or wool. When an Eskimo stoops, the shirt may be drawn away from the waistband of the trousers. leaving the naked skin exposed, even in the extreme cold of winter. This separation between the heavy garments was meant for the readier drying of that perspiration wide]) active movement in the heavy ;.Tarnieitti would cause to start.
It is noticeable that the Eskimos use hut little covering when in the snow-built winter hut, warmed by the lamp burning perpetually when seal-oil is plenty. The men are naked and the women wear hut 'a slight covering. There is an inevitable comparison, here, with the tradi tional custom of the Japanese. who, with the most elaborate and over-refined social organiza tion. highly developed arts of convenience and luxury, and especially cheap and beautiful textile fabrics, have never developed any artificial sense of toe need of clothes for 'decency.' The whole family. young and old. bathe together in one or several tubs; the porters are naked except for the slightest loin-eloth, and the women who do porters' work are hardly more clothed, and bathe and dress in the open without sense of immodesty. Nor does it appear that this is the result of stead• ily warm weather, or that the customs in this respect change much, from Kagoshima, in the lat itude and general climatic conditions of Savan nah, to the northernmost island of Yezo, in the latitude of Boston. In the lives of people in warmer climates a new condition assumes great importance. This is the question of personal cleanliness and the protection of the body, once cleansed, from the too rapid action of that which might soil it. The brown people of the Paeifie islands bathe, anoint themselves with cocoanut oil. and use coverings, formerly made of hark cloth, tappa, or maci. chiefly to protect them selves from the undue heat of the sun, or from rough contact with objects of nature. In like manner, the Greeks of all historic times seem to have used the bath constantly and to have anoint ed the body with olive oil: and the garments of the Greeks, whether the earliest peplos, open down one side and showing body. thigh, and leg at every movement, or the more closed ehiton and Mutation of later times, are to be considered rather as a means of protecting the body against disfigurement, temporary or permanent. than for any other purpose. It is noticeable that in very cold countries no such habits of personal cleanli ness seem ever to prevail, except under a very highly artificial state of society-. ,Nlowgli may bathe daily in the deep rivers of the Indian jun gle. but the wolf-boys of the North German leg ends have no sue]] habits as that.