short, and were analogous to our cloaks, mantles, &c., and were made both with and without hoods.  There were many varieties of the tunic and cloak invented by female ingenuity, as well as of other articles of dress, which formed elegant accessories to the toilet, but there was no essential alteration in the national costume, nor was there any change in the shape of the numerous descriptions of shoes.  The barbarian invasions brought about a revolution in the dress as well as in the social state of the people, and it is from the time of these invasions that we may date, properly speaking, the history of modern dress; for the Roman costume, which was in use at the same time as that of the Franks, the Huns, the Vandals, the Goths, &c., was subjected to various changes down to the ninth century.  These modifications increased afterwards to such an extent that, towards the fourteenth century, the original type had altogether disappeared.

[Illustration:  Figs. 400 and 401.—­Gallo-Roman Costumes.—­From Bas-reliefs discovered in Paris in 1711 underneath the Choir of Notre-Dame.]

It was quite natural that men living in a temperate climate, and bearing arms only when in the service of the State, should be satisfied with garments which they could wear without wrapping themselves up too closely.  The northern nations, on the contrary, had early learned to protect themselves against the severity of the climate in which they lived.  Thus the garments known by them as braies, and by the Parthians as sarabara, doubtless gave origin to those which have been respectively called by us chausses, haut-de-chausses, trousses, gregues, culottes, pantalons, &c.  These wandering people had other reasons for preferring the short and close-fitting garments to those which were long and full, and these were their innate pugnacity, which forced them ever to be under arms, their habit of dwelling in forests and thickets, their love of the chase, and their custom of wearing armour.

The ancient Greeks and Romans always went bareheaded in the towns; but in the country, in order to protect themselves from the direct rays of the sun, they wore hats much resembling our round hats, made of felt, plaited rushes, or straw.  Other European nations of the same period also went bareheaded, or wore caps made of skins of animals, having no regularity of style, and with the shape of which we are but little acquainted.

Shoes, and head-dresses of a definite style, belong to a much more modern period, as also do the many varieties of female dress, which have been known at all times and in all countries under the general name of robes.  The girdle was only used occasionally, and its adoption depended on circumstances; the women used it in the same way as the men, for in those days it was never attached to the dress.  The great difference in modern female costume consists in the fact of the girdle being part of the dress, thus giving a long or short waist, according to the requirements of fashion.  In the same manner, a complete revolution took place in men’s dress according as loose or tight, long or short sleeves were introduced.