THE DRESS OF THE BRITISH FEMALES
may be ascertained from Dion Cassins's account of the appearance of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. Her light hair fell down her shoulders. She wore a torque of gold, a tunic of several colours, all in folds, and over it, fastened by a fibula or brooch, a robe of coarse stuff[1].
THE COMMONALTY
and the less civilized tribes that inhabited the interior, as we have already .stated on the authority of Cæsar, went simply clad in skins[2] The hide of the brindled or spotted ox was generally preferred, but some wore the ysgyn, which was the name for the skin of any wild beast, but more particularly the bear; while others assumed the sheepskin cloak, according as they were herdsmen, hunters, or shepherds[3]. That, in the absence of more valuable fastenings, the cloak was secured, as amongst the ancient Germans, by a thorn, we have tolerable evidence in the fact of this primitive brooch being still used in Wales.
There remains another class to be considered—
THE PRIESTHOOD.
It was divided into three orders. The Druids, the Bards, and the Ovates. The dress of the druidical or sacerdotal order was white, the emblem of holiness and peculiarly of truth. The Welsh bard Taliesin calls it "the proud white garment which separated the elders from the youth [4].
The bards wore a one-coloured robe of sky-blue, being emblematical of peace; thus another bard [5], in
