[780] Lib. ii. epist. 2.
[781] Epig. 92: de birro castoreo.
[782] De dignitate sacerdotali, cap. 5.
[783] Lib. xvii. cap. 28. § 47; xxxii. cap. 9 and 10.
[784] Lib. xix. cap. 27, p. 474.
[785] Lib. xix. cap. 22.
[786] Constantin. de Ceremoniis Aulæ Byzantinæ, i. p. 254: σκαραμάγγων καστώριον. The editor, Reiske, thinks that it may have been a pelisse, because Herodotus, iv. 109, speaks of the beaver’s skin being used for clothing. But how different must the old Sarmatian manners have been from the Byzantine!
[787] Epist. 42.
[788] Eginhartus, Vita Caroli Magni, cap. 23.
[789] This anecdote is related by the monk of St. Gall, whose name is supposed to be Notker, in his book De Gestis Caroli Magni, ii. 27, printed in Bouquet, Historiens de la Gaule, v. p. 152. Whether Notker was the author of this chronicle or not, there can be no doubt that it was written after the year 883 and before 887, as has been proved by Basnage. Pavontalis vestis, a term used in this passage, does not always signify cloth wove or painted so as to resemble the colours of the peacock; the skin of the peacock was used for ornament; the people of all nations indeed decorated themselves with feathers till they became acquainted with dyeing. The art of those who prepared feathers was banished by that of the dyers.