That which would strike the stranger as most extraordinary, is our having one costume in the morning and one in the evening; one dress which lives only in daylight, another which never sees the sun. This is a peculiarity for which no age and no race afford a parallel. Take Cherokee or ancient Egyptian, Hindoo, Athenian, Hottentot, or Kamschatdale, you will not find one who has dressed his body according to the motions of the sun and earth; or held a checked waistcoat, or a close-bodied gown as appropriate at one hour and inappropriate at another. When dress was associated with respect, change either by the hour or month was impossible: the man was then more than the food and the body--than the raiment;--change could only become habitual where such feelings were dead; and then dress, escaping from the guidance of taste, became the trappings of vanity. This evening-dress of Europe is the common in-door dress, slightly disfigured, of the Spanish lady. The veil and fan, the chief adornment of the female costume, are from Spain; so also is that richest and most distinguishing of its materials, _lace_. Barbara of Brabant has received the credit of the discovery; but her share can extend no further than to the mode of working in flax. The texture in silk and cotton must have been carried thither by the Spaniards. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, the word _blonda_ is found in a Castilian law,[89] it is referred to as a manufacture in general use, and consequently long established. It was not known in Europe for at least a century later.[90] Lace is to be seen in every hut, on every domestic article:--pillow-case, napkins, sheets--it is a national type, and must be of ancient date; in all likelihood, from that common source of Spanish things, Judæa. In this conclusion, I was confirmed by finding in Barbary the term _Guipoör_. It is used by the Jews for the festival of atonement, when they wear white mantles in the synagogue, with the fringes in open embroidery. The name of the country was given to the texture. The texture, then, comes from the Jews.[91] The word _dentelle_[92] is explained as meaning the teethlike points of the serrated border lace, as distinguished from the Guipoör, Mechlin, Brussels, and English point, &c. But there was an ancient festival in Spain on the occasion of the child cutting its teeth, which was known to the Christians under the name of Dentilia.[93] Such would be a fitting time for the display of this finery. Whoever has seen the festival of _Corpus Christi_ in Spain, or Portugal, will understand how natural it was to give the name; for on it all the procession, or at least all the public functionaries to this day, wear scarfs of lace over their uniforms.