Braccae

The braccae (translated as 'hose' in Epigram 46, page 70) were a kind of loose trousers, covering little save the pudenda, in use amongst the Medes, Indians and Scythians. The following passage from Smollett's curious satirical novel, The Adventures of an Atom, deserves quotation in extenso, although somewhat lengthy--

Here I intended to insert a dissertation on trousers or trunk breeches, called by the Greeks, brakoi, et perísdomata; by the Latins, braccae laxae; by the Spaniards, bragas anchas; by the Italians, calzone largo; by the French, haut de chausses; by the Saxons, braecce; by the Swedes, brackor, by the Irish, briechan; by the Celtae, brag, and by the Japanese, bra-ak. I could make some curious discoveries touching the analogy between the perísdomata and zonion gunaikîon, and point out the precise time at which the Grecian women began to wear the breeches. I would have demonstrated that the cingulum muliebre was originally no other than the wife's literally wearing the husband's trousers at certain orgia, as a mark of dominion transferred, pro tempore, to the female. I would have drawn a curious parallel between the zonion of the Greek, and the shim or middle cloth worn by the black ladies in Guinea. I would have proved that breeches were not first used to defend the central parts from the injuries of the weather, inasmuch as they were first worn by the Orientals in a warm climate; as you may see in Persius, Braccatis illita medis--porticus. I would have shown that breeches were first brought from Asia to the northern parts of Europe by the Celtae, sprung from the ancient Gomanaus; that trousers were worn in Scotland long before the time of Pythagoras; and indeed we are told by Jamblychus that Abaris, the famous Highland philosopher, contemporary and personally acquainted with the sage of Crotona, wore long trousers. I myself can attest the truth of that description, as I well remember the person and habit of that learned mountaineer. I would have explained the reasons that compelled the posterity of these mountaineers to abandon the breeches of their forefathers, and expose their posteriors to the wind. I would have convinced the English antiquaries that the inhabitants of Yorkshire came originally from the Highlands of Scotland, before the Scots had laid aside their breeches, and wore this part of dress long after their ancestors, as well as the southern Britons, were unbreeched by the Romans. From this distinction they acquired the name of Brigantes, quasi Bragantes, and hence came the word to brag or boast contemptuously; for the neighbours of the Brigantes, being at variance with that people, used, by way of contumelious defiance, when they saw any of them passing or repassing, to clap their hands on their posteriors and cry Brag-Brag. I would have drawn a learned comparison between the shield of Ajax and the sevenfold breeches of a Dutch skipper. Finally, I would have promulgated the original use of trunk-breeches, which would have led me into a discussion of the rites of Cloacina, so differently worshipped by the southern and northern inhabitants of this kingdom. These disquisitions would have unveiled the mysteries that now conceal the origin, migration, superstition, language, laws and connections of different nations-- sed nunc non erit his locus. I shall only observe that Linscot and others are mistaken in deriving the Japanese from their neighbours the Chinese; and that Dr Kempfer is right in his conjecture, supposing them to have come from Media immediately after the confusion of Babel. It is no wonder, therefore, that being Braccatorum filii, they should retain the wide breeches of their progenitors.