FINES EXIGIBLE ON MARRIAGE

149

The influence of the sex, and the high respect in which they were held, are acknowledged proofs of polished manners, and are most remarkable in the age of chivalry. This age continued among the Gaël while their primitive institutions remained entire. There is no country in Europe, where women are more esteemed than in the Highlands of Scotland: " an unfaithful, unkind, or even careless husband is there looked upon as a monster.

The Celts are said to have had power of life and death over their wives and children; and when a husband, in a respectable family, died, his relations held an inquest, and strictly interrogated the widow. If she were found guilty of having been accessory to his death, she was executed with fire and torments.†

The Germans cut off the hair of an adulteress, and, in the presence of her kindred, expelled her naked, pursuing her, with stripes, through the village; for no pardon was ever granted to a woman who had prostituted herself. "However beautiful she be," says Tacitus, "however young, however abounding in wealth, a husband she can never find.'

By the Welsh laws, a man was not allowed to beat his wife, but for three causes: for wishing disgrace to his beard, attempting to murder him, and for adultery.

The barbarity of the Scots has been inferred from the existence of the merched mulierum, a custom that has been understood to mean the right of the lord to the first night of a newly married vassal's wife. Much has been written on this abstruse term, and many etymologies have been given in proof of the revolting custom. Its import is clearly the fine that was paid for liberty to marry; which was exacted in Scotland within these 200 years. A superior could demand a sum, as marriage right, from a male as well as female heir,§ and women were entitled to receive it. The merched for an earl's daughter was twelve cows, the queen having the perquisites, and for a thane's, one cow. Boece says it was a silver mark; Buchannan the half of one.

It is scarcely possible for us to conceive that a custom so repugnant to the natural feelings of mankind, could exist in any society at all removed from the lowest barbarity. Marriage altered the state of the parties, and their relation to the chief. Neither widow nor single person was permitted to marry without consent of her superior, and the highest of the nobles were not exempted from the fine.

The Scots are characterized as very litigious, contending strenuously for what they consider a right, although it may be of no advantage;like a substantial farmer, well known in Edinburgh, who utterly ruined himself in prosecuting his claim to the site of a dunghill; but they ap

+ Cæsar, vi. 17.

* Jamieson's Notes on Birt's Letters, ii. p. 46. See an Essay by Lord Hailes. Whittaker's Hist. of Manchester, an excellent paper, by Mr. Anderson, W. S. in the Trans. of Scot's Ant. &c. § Letter from a Gentleman in Scotland, 1746.

pear formerly to have adopted a summary mode of settling disputes. Sir Anthony Weldon thought, in the time of King James, that "their swords were their judges, by reason whereof they had but few lawyers, and those not very rich."

THE PRESENT GAËL.

SAVAGES in most countries have been found to paint their naked bodies, both for ornament, and with a view to inspire their enemies with terror. Before they have learned to cover their persons with any material, this may be considered their dress; but long after they have adopted partial clothing they continue, from attachment to ancient custom, and for the purpose of distinction, to stain, with particular colors and symbols, those parts of the body that remain uncovered.

Allied to the custom of painting, for the purpose of rendering themselves terrible to their enemies, is the barbarous practice of besmearing the face with the blood of those who were slain. The Irish, we learn from Solinus, were accustomed to augment their fierceness of visage by this method, and, according to Spenser, the custom had not been entirely dropped in his time. The idea of filling an enemy with dread by personal appearance, is not a bad conception; for, as Tacitus remarks, on the savage figure of the Germans, the eyes of men are first overcome in battle. It was for the purpose of intimidation that the ancient nations stained their bodies, cherished their hair, carried strange crests or helmets, and wore peculiar apparel; and from this practice has probably originated the military costumes of the present day. The British tribes were remarkable for the practice of painting their bodies; but it is not a little singular that no positive authority appears for this mode of dec

oration among the Gauls of the continent. Except a fragment of a statue, supposed to be a Gallic Mercury, discovered at Framont, that prolific field for antiquarian research, and here represented, I have not met with any sculpture to indicate the prevalence of this custom.*

Pelloutier thinks that Tacitus alludes to the practice among the Iberians; he plainly describes the Arrians of Germany as tincta corpora. The Budini, a Getic people, painted their bodies blue and red; and Virgil describes all the Geloni, or Getæ, as picti.§ The Daci and Sarmatæ delineated various characters or figures on their bodies, and the women stained their faces with the juice of various herbs. The Thracians also, especially the ladies, painted their skins. The Agathyrsi, a Scythic nation, who are placed in Scandinavia by Jornandes, and on the Sinus Codanus by Rudbeck, painted their bodies with blue marks, the nobles being distinguished by a great number of these spots or figures. **

Pliny tells us, the glastum, with which the Britons dyed their bodies, was found in Gaul, but does not say the inhabitants made a similar use of it. The inference is that they did, but we have no express authority for the supposition; from which Dr. Mac Pherson thought, that as the painting could not have been derived from Gaul, it originated among the Caledonians. The Picts, by popular tradition, took their name from this practice; and their chronicle and Isodore agree in saying, that the Scoti became Picti from this circumstance.

All the Britons, Cæsar says, painted with woad, and described various figures on their bodies. These consisted of the sun, moon, and other planets, animals, &c. The women dyed their whole bodies with this vegetable, the married and young equally, and they appeared so ornamented at sacrifices and other solemnities quite naked.†† Claudian seems to describe Britannia as painted in the cheeks.

The stains were impressed in youth; for it was a sort of tattooing, similar to what is performed on the Indians, and for this purpose certain iron instruments were used. The Geloni marked themselves with tools of this metal, and it was by a similar process that the Picts and other inhabitants of Britain stained or tinctured their bodies.§§ The British

*Montfaucon's Antiquities expliques.

+ Herodotus, iv.

|| Pliny, xxii. 1.

** Amm. Mar. xxxi. Solinus, c. 15. Virgil. ++ Virgil.

tii. 7. p. 129. ed. 1770.

§ Georgics, ii. 115.

Dio Chrysostom.

tt Pliny, xxii. 1.

§§ Claudian de Bello Getica

FIRST ARTICLES OF DRESS.

153 youth, says Solinus, were "marked with the figures of different animals by nice incisions, and there was nothing which they bore with more fortitude than the operation, by which their limbs received a deep coloring in durable scars." Isodore says, the bodies of the Picts were punctured with a sharp instrument, and his expression "stigmata Britonum" seems to imply a deeper incision than other nations made.*

The marks produced by this operation generally appear blue, when the matter applied is not exactly of that color, as may be observed on the hands and arms of seamen and others, from which it may be conIcluded that the ancient Britons did not confine themselves to the use of woad. Isodore, who describes the Goths as using red, says, the Picts colored themselves with the juice of green grass;† and Ovid terms the Britons "Virides." Martial calls them blue, and the expression "cœruleas scuta Brigantes," is applied to the personal appearance of that nation. Herodian seems to represent the Britons as painted with various colors, "notant corpora pictura varia et omnifariam formis animalium, "S which is translated by several authors as meaning paintings of different colors, and is applied to the Caledonians. Maule says, that Argentocoxus, or rather Argachocoxus, a celebrated chief of the Caledonian Picts, derived his name from the ancient word Coch, or Goch, red, and that therefore he was of the red clan, as others might be of Clan-buy, the yellow tribe, &c. The conjecture is ingenious, if not satisfactory.

This practice of staining the body was retained by the Angli, to so low a period as the Norman conquest. They are even described by William of Malmsbury, as having their skins marked with figures. The custom had before his time been very prevalent, but the attention of the clergy was at last called to this relick of paganism; and the council of Cealhythe, in 787, denounces those who used such ornaments, as moved "diabolico instinctu," the body which was created fair and comely, being colored with dirty stains, unprofitable to salvation.

Mankind did not at first clothe themselves for the sake of decency. Dress is assumed more from pride and ostentation among savages, and is rendered subservient to their protection in war, rather than adopted as a defence from the severities of climate. The Greeks and Romans thought it no indelicacy, to appear naked in public. Larcher on Herodotus states a remark of Plato, that the Greeks had not long considered it ridiculous and disgraceful for a man to appear in a state of nudity.

In dress, as before observed, the chief object was to impress the enemy with dismay, by producing a strange and terrific appearance: a second, and not less strong feeling in decorating the person, was vanity. Pride of dress is found to influence the lowest savages, who are, according to their circumstances, as ostentatious in this respect, as the most civilized society.

* Origines, xix. 23. Pliny says, some Eastern nations marked their bodies with hot searing irons. † Ap. Maule's History of the Picts. § Hist. iii.

Seneca de Claudio.

|| De G. R. A. L. 3, "picturatis stigmatibus cutem insigniti."