purple, except on certain days, and by persons of a certain rank and age. Many sumptuary laws were also made by the Romans against extravagance in dress. One issued by Numa ordered that no woman should have in her dress above half an ounce of gold, nor wear a garment of different colours. But these edicts were soon forgotten, and splendour of attire, gold, silver, embroidery, and jewels, shone around.

A Roman bride on her wedding-day was always covered with a flamen, or red veil.

THE TOILETTE IN NORWAY.

CHAPTER XXX.

HE ancient dress of the Norwegian peasants was made of the reindeer's skin. From what old authors say, it seems to have consisted of a cloak or mantle; but we find that about the middle of the eleventh century, when King Oluf Haraldren founded the city of Bergen, he brought thither a great many foreign mer

In

chants, who carried their fashions with them. the Norwegian Chronicles we read: "Then the Norwegians took up many foreign customs and dresses, such as fine-laced hose, golden plates buckled round their legs, high-heeled shoes, stitched with silk, and covered with tissue of gold, jackets that

buttoned on the side, with sleeves ten feet long, very narrow, and plaited up to the shoulders.'

By this account we may imagine that the Norwegians were eager followers of fashion, and that at the time of which Snoro Sturlesen writes, they dressed like other European nations. We find, however, in another part of the same work, that the long garments were not quite discarded in Norway till about the year 1100, and then King Magnus Olufsen introduced short clothes and bare legs.

The lower order of peasants rarely trouble themselves about Fashion's vagaries; and the natives of this foreign clime still retain the costume that has descended to them from father to son. Some wear breeches and stockings all in one, and waistcoats of the same, and, if they wish to be very smart, they cover the seams with cloth of a different colour.

The Hardanger peasants always wear black clothes edged with red; the Vaasserne wear all black; the Strite, white, edged with black; and those near Soynefiord prefer black and yellow; so that almost every parish has its own colour.

They wear on their heads a broad-brimmed hat, or else a grey, brown, or black cap. Their shoes are without heels, and consist of two pieces of leather; the upper part sits close to the foot, and the other is joined to it in folds. In winter they have laced halfboots, but when on the ice they put on skates, about ten feet long, covered with seal-skin. The peasants never wear a neckcloth, but leave their throats and necks entirely uncovered. Sometimes they fasten a leathern belt round the body, to hold their knives and other implements.

At church and on holydays the Norwegian women

wear laced jackets and leathern girdles, adorned with silver. They are also fond of a chain, which they put three or four times round their necks, and hang a gilt ornament at the end of it. Their handkerchiefs and caps are covered with plates of silver, brass, and tin, buttons, and rings; and of the latter they wear quantities on their fingers. The young women plait their hair, and while employed in their household affairs they wear a shift and a petticoat; the collar of the former reaches to the throat, and they have a sack, generally of a black colour, twisted round the waist. The linen they wear is very fine, and this simple costume is said to be very becoming.

In some parts of Norway the men wear coats of stone-coloured cloth, the button-holes being sewn with scarlet, and the buttons formed of white metal: this has a very gay appearance.

THE TOILETTE IN SWEDEN.

CHAPTER XXXI.

HE inhabitants of this northern clime are distinguished from those that dwell in southern lands by having a national dress, which was established in 1777, doubtless with the wise intention of repressing or totally preventing those extravagancies and luxuries of clothing so prevalent among other nations. "The monster Fashion," says Swinton, in his travels,"created for a scourge for mankind, has occasioned every evil that infests the age." Gustavus III. of Sweden has shewn that he participated in this opinion, for his sumptuary laws regarding dress are very determined and exact.

By the edict on this subject, settled in 1777, the