If we examine the dresses of both sexes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we shall find that ties were used to a great extent instead of buttons, and they were provided with metal tags of an ornamental character called aiglets, or, more properly, aiguillettes. In many cases the chief object of the ribbons which they adorned was that of embellishment, for as many as a dozen or more might be found round one knee. Sometimes the tags were in the form of little figures, and in the "Taming of the Shrew" it is said of Petruchio that if you gave him gold enough any one "might marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby." [Illustration: FIG. 95.--A silk lace with simple metal tags.] [Illustration: FIG. 96.--Ornamental metal tags on a velvet neck ribbon.] Of recent years the velvet ribbons which ladies have worn round their necks have been provided in like manner with little tags (see Figure 96), though the fashion does not seem to have developed again to any very great extent. The safety-pin is an object which may well occupy our attention for a moment. As we knew it when we were children, it was merely a piece of wire that had been pointed at one end and bent into the required shape. (See Figure 97.) [Illustration: FIG. 97.--A simple safety-pin.] The point was protected in a very simple manner, and the safety-pins used for fastening hooks to curtains are still constructed in the same way. Occasionally gold safety-pins of a plain and even ornamental character were made and used as brooches by ladies for fastening lace, or by men for securing their ties in the place of the straight scarf-pins. It would seem therefore that a brooch is a development of the safety-pin rather than the reverse; but if we study the brooches or fibulæ of the Romans, we shall find that the pin, instead of being hinged, was often made in one piece with the rest of the structure. A coil or two in the metal acted as a spring, as in the case of the safety-pin, and prevented breakage. We may even find an Etruscan fibula of such simple construction (see Figure 98) that it is to all intents and purposes a safety-pin. All sorts of devices have been invented for the better protection of the points in modern safety-pins, as well as for rendering the opening and closing more easy; but this is the development which has taken place along practical lines. Such pins are for use only, and are not intended to be seen. When, on the other hand, safety-pins are not hidden, they retain their more simple character as regards their fastenings, though they themselves again become decorative, and are ornamented in various ways. We have therefore a very good illustration of the evolution of one thing along two different lines, and of the survival of the fittest types in each case. [Illustration: FIG. 98.--An Etruscan brooch or fibula, resembling a safety-pin. (In the collection of Major W. J. Myers in Eton College Museum.)]