Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

£15
clothing of all the northern nations who wore a
kind of loose trouse, but the radical meaning of
the name is to be ascribed to the speckled and
variegated colours of the vestments of the Gauls.
That the sagum of the Romans, the cxyn of the
Greeks, was a Gallic word, and used to denote
clothes, may be asserted on good authority.
" Sagum, et vox et vestis Gallica, ut ex Varrone,
*' Isidore, et aliis constat."*
Prior to the knowledge of weaving the hair,
fur or fleece of any animal, or down of any plant,
into cloth for covering the body, the skins of ani-
mals, furnished with their natural hair or fur,
would readily attract the attention of the prime-
val inhabitants of the earth living beyond the
limits of the torrid zone, as a proper defence for
the body against the inclemencies of seasons
varying with the sun's apparent course. With-
out the tropical, and in the polar regions of the
earth, animals' skins were first used as clothing
for the human body: There were then no dis-
tinctions of forms of various vestments ; one
skin, or several skins sewed together, served as
a cover for the human body. Any degree of
knowledge of the arts of the first necessity,
would put in practice the selection of the hair
and fur of animals, matted or twisted together,
as a lighter and less cumbersome, more pliant,
and more easily adjusted cover for the body,
* Fabri Thes. voce Sagum.