Fig. 105.—A lady’s dress, showing the part which is called a yoke, and recalls a primitive method of carrying burdens.
Even more intimately connected with dress are pockets, and they may be touched upon here, for they are intended for carrying small objects. We have seen how the flaps of pockets which have become ornamental survive after the pockets themselves have disappeared (see Figure [21]), and it is worthy of note that clothes in various countries lend themselves to the transportation of commodities. It has been pointed out by Mr. Otis T. Mason[9] that the Oriental, especially the Korean, has pockets in his sleeves having the capacity of half a bushel; while the Turk and Arab can stow an equal amount in the ample folds of their robes. The writer also remembers hearing the account of a journey in Asia from a traveller who, when riding in wide trousers fastened at the ankle, used to keep all his clean linen in one trouser-leg and his dirty clothes in the other.
We are reminded by the name given to the upper part of a lady’s dress, namely, the yoke (see Figure [105]), of another means of carrying burdens, which still survives in London, where a few milk-women even now carry round their pails on a yoke. Their costume, which includes a small shawl and an apron, can be compared with that of the barge-girl, though the picturesque sun-bonnet of the latter is lacking.
[XII]
ORNAMENTS
PRIMITIVE NECKLACES—FINGER-RINGS—THE ORIGIN OF THE HAIR COMB—BUTTONS—STUDS—FLOWERS—FEATHERS—AMULETS
We have touched upon one or two objects which may have a decorative character, but we now come to a consideration of ornaments themselves. Roughly speaking, they owe their survival to one of two reasons: either the deep-rooted instinct which exists in even the lowest races for adorning their person, or, secondly, the adoption of various objects which have been worn as charms or amulets.