of the Franks by Sidoine Apollinaire, who says, “They tied up their flaxen or light-brown hair above their foreheads, into a kind of tuft, and then made it fall behind the head like a horse’s tail.  The face was clean shaved, with the exception of two long moustaches.  They wore cloth garments, fitting tight to the body and limbs, and a broad belt, to which they hung their swords.”  But this is a sketch made at a time when the Frankish race was only known among the Gauls through its marauding tribes, whose raids, from time to time, spread terror and dismay throughout the countries which they visited.  From the moment when the uncultivated tribes of ancient Germany formally took possession of the territory which they had withdrawn from Roman rule, they showed themselves desirous of adopting the more gentle manners of the conquered nation.  “In imitation of their chief,” says M. Jules Quicherat, the eminent antiquarian, “more than once the Franks doffed the war coat and the leather Belt, and assumed the toga of Roman dignity.  More than once their flaxen hair was shown to advantage by flowing over the imperial mantle, and the gold of the knights, the purple of the senators and patricians, the triumphal crowns, the fasces, and, in short, everything which the Roman Empire invented in order to exhibit its grandeur, assisted in adding to that of our ancestors.”

[Illustration:  Figs. 404 and 405.—­Saints in the Costume of the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries.—­From Miniatures in old Manuscripts of the Royal Library of Brussels (Designs by Count H. de Vielcastel).]

One great and characteristic difference between the Romans and the Franks should, however, be specially mentioned; namely, in the fashion of wearing the hair long, a fashion never adopted by the Romans, and which, during the whole of the first dynasty, was a distinguishing mark of kings and nobles among the Franks.  Agathias, the Greek historian, says, “The hair is never cut from the heads of the Frankish kings’ sons.  From early youth their hair falls gracefully over their shoulders, it is parted on the forehead, and falls equally on both sides; it is with them a matter to which they give special attention.”  We are told, besides, that they sprinkled it with gold-dust, and plaited it in small bands, which they ornamented with pearls and precious metals.

Whilst persons of rank were distinguished by their long and flowing hair, the people wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely shaved.  It was customary for the noble and free classes to swear by their hair, and it was considered the height of politeness to pull out a hair and present it to a person.  Fredegaire, the chronicler, relates that Clovis thus pulled out a hair in order to do honour to St. Germer, Bishop of Toulouse, and presented it to him; upon this, the courtiers hastened to imitate their sovereign, and the venerable prelate