Some of the common order of Britons wore, instead of the skins of beasts, very thick coarse wrappers made of wool; a sort of blanket or rug, fastened about the neck with a piece of sharp pointed stick. They used also a coarse, slit, short vest, with sleeves; it barely reached down to the knees. As armour, the Britons had a long two-handed sword, hanging by a chain on the right hand side; a great long wooden shield as tall as a man; long spears; and a sort of missile wooden instrument, like a javelin, longer than an arrow, which they darted merely by the hand: modern writers call these two last mentioned, _Celts_, fixed on the end of staves and sticks. Some of them used slings for stones, others had breast plates, made of plates of iron, with hooks, or with wreathed chains: some had helmets of different forms. Many went to battle nearly naked, and some wound chains of iron around their necks and loins. They generally lay and reposed themselves on the bare ground, yet most of them ate their food sitting on seats. A very beautiful print is given by Mr. King of their various dresses. The plaid seems to be derived from them. The coins of the old British, which are engraven in Speed, in Borlase’s Cornwall, in Gough’s edition of Camden’s Britannia, and in Plot’s History of Oxfordshire, will explain these descriptions of the classics. Even Julius Cæsar had noticed that the Britons used either brass money, or iron circular coins reduced to a standard weight. In the scale of civilization, therefore, the ancient Britons were as advanced in the era of Cæsar, as the Romans themselves at the expulsion of their kings; as the Grecians in the age of Homer; as the Mexicans at the Spanish conquest; and as the modern Tartars.[49] Footnote 48: The practice of tattooing is of great antiquity, and has been common to numerous nations in Turkey, Asia, the Southern parts of Europe, and perhaps to a great portion of the inhabitants of the earth. It is still retained among some of the Moorish tribes, who are, probably, descendants of those who, formerly, were subjected to the Christians of Africa, and who to avoid paying taxes, like the Moors, thus imprinted crosses upon their skins, that they might pass for Christians. This custom, which originally might serve to distinguish tribes by their religion, or from each other, became afterwards a mode of decoration that was habitually retained, when all remembrance of its origin was effaced. It may be inferred that the Canaanites and the other nations of the East, were in the habit of tattooing their skins, because Moses, (Levit. xix, 28.) expressly enjoins the Israelites not to imprint any marks upon their bodies, in imitation of the heathens.