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CHAPTER V.
COSTUMES, COUNTRY, RIVERS, AND SEA.
The history of the dresses and costumes of the
inhabitants of the Fylde is interesting not only on
account of the multifarious changes and peculiarities
which it exhibits, but also as a sure indication of the
progress in civilisation, wealth, and taste, made in our section at
different eras. To Julius Cæsar we are indebted for our earliest
knowledge of the scanty dress worn by the aborigines of this
district, and from that warrior it is learnt that a slight covering
of roughly prepared skins, girded about the loins, and the
liberal application of a blue dye, called woad, to the rest of the
body constituted the sole requisites of their primitive toilets.
Cæsar conjectures that the juice or dye of woad was employed by
the people to give them a terror-striking aspect in battle, but here
he seems to have fallen into error, for the wars engaged in by the
Setantii would be confined to hostilities with neighbouring tribes,
stained in a similar manner, and it is scarcely reasonable to
suppose that either side would hope to intimidate the other by
the use of a practice common to both. A more probable explanation
of the custom is, that it was instituted for the ornamental
qualities it possessed in the eyes of the natives. Such a view
is supported by the remarks of Solinus, a Roman author, who
informs us that the embellishments usually consisted of the
figures of animals, "which grew with the growth of the body";
and from this it is evident that before the frame had arrived at
maturity, in either youth or childhood, the skin was subjected to
the painful and laborious process of tattooing, for such according
to Isidore, appears to have been the nature of the operation. The
