Garters when visible on men's legs become very ornamental, and one in use now, merely as a decoration, gave its name to the celebrated Order of Knighthood, among the insignia of which it is still to be found. At the present day garters are hidden, and there is a tendency for them to be replaced by more comfortable straps or "suspenders," but those which ladies wear still retain their gaudy character. In this connection an interesting ceremony may be mentioned, which is carried in Haute-Vienne on the day of St. Eutropius. All the girls of the neighbourhood troop to the church dedicated to the saint at St. Junien-les-Gombes, and each damsel hangs her left garter on the cross hard by, which becomes so smothered with garters of different colours that when seen from a short distance it looks as if it were covered with flowers. VIII PETTICOATS AND TROUSERS THE BELTED PLAID AND KILT--EARLY SKIRTS--THE ANTIQUITY OF TROUSERS--TROUSER STRIPES We were at some pains to trace the evolution of the coat from the shawl, and it is possible also to show that the petticoat, and through this even trousers, have equal claims to the same ancestry. The plaid as we saw it in Chapter III is only a shawl, and at one time in Scotland it was used as a covering for practically the whole of the person. It was ingeniously disposed, and part of it was fastened by a belt round the waist so as to form a kind of kilt or petticoat. Hence arose the name of belted plaid. It seems to have needed a considerable amount of practice to put on this garment properly, and the method customarily adopted by the wearer was to spread the plaid on the ground and, after duly arranging it in its proper folds, to lie down upon it and fix it with the belt. Some races seem to have recognized very much earlier that it would be more convenient to separate the kilt from the upper garment. In fact, if we examine the woven garments which the Danish chieftain wore under his deer-skin cloak, at a time before the use of iron had spread to Western Europe, we find that round his loins he had a small shawl held in place by a girdle. (See Figure 75.) [Illustration: FIG. 75.--A shawl used as a kilt by a chieftain of Denmark in the bronze stage of culture (after Worsaae).] The next stage in the evolution of the petticoat would be characterized by the permanent joining of the edges of the cloth, so that a garment would be formed which resembled the lower part of the tubular tunic which played its part in the evolution of the shirt or coat. Such a state of affairs is to be seen in the simple skirt of the Danish chieftainess whose bodice we have already described. (See page 18.) Here the petticoat was not shaped in any way at the top, but was gathered in round the waist and fastened as in the case of the man with a girdle. [Illustration: FIG. 76.--A simple dress in the form of a petticoat from an Egyptian figure of the Sixth Dynasty (3500 B.C.), from the Myers collection in Eton College Museum.]