II
THE TUNIC
The earliest made-up garment, that in which the art of the tailor was called into play, was doubtless a simple bag, more or less closely fitting to the body and of varying length, with holes for the arms and an opening for the neck. Such a primitive garment has been worn in varying forms at all periods of the world's history, and is in use at the present time in the form of the ordinary singlet. The modern singlet is, in fact, the simple, primeval type of the tunic.
The coat of many colours which Israel made for his son Joseph was unquestionably an embroidered tunic, although probably made loose and ample. The little coat which the mother of Samuel made for her child when he was dedicated to the priesthood, and brought to him from year to year, was doubtless of the same character.
Sir Henry Layard, describing the dresses of the Assyrians, says "many are represented naked, but the greater number are dressed in short chequered tunics with a long fringe attached to the girdle."
TUNIC, PETTICOAT AND GIRDLE, BRONZE AGE.
From "Industrial Arts of Old Denmark" (Worsaae).
Some remarkable discoveries have been made during the last thirty years in different portions of Scandinavia, which serve to give us a very clear idea of the dress of both men and women of the remote period of the Bronze Age. The dresses were found in coffins made of an oak-tree split in two and hollowed out, the bodies having been buried completely dressed. An illustration is given of a simple woollen tunic with short sleeves and a petticoat with girdle. This was found at Borum, in the neighbourhood of Aarhus, Jutland.
