“Thou shalt always choose brown cloth for hose; it is not wrong to use black skin for hose or other kinds of cloth except scarlet. Thou shalt also have a brown or green or red kirtle of good and beseeming cloth. Thy linen clothes thou shalt have made of good linen, but not much of it; have thy shirt short and all thy linen-clothes light. Always have thy shirt a good deal shorter than thy kirtle, for no good-mannered man can make himself look well with flax or hemp. Thy beard and hair thou shalt have well prepared before thou comest before the king, after the customs prevailing at the time in the hird.[218] When I was in the hird it was customary to cut the hair shorter than the lobes of the ears, and comb it so that each hair would lie flat, and a short lock of hair be over the eyebrows. It was customary to cut the beard and the moustaches short and have whiskers like the German custom; it is not likely that there will be any better or more becoming fashion for warriors” (Konungs Skuggsjá, p. 66). [Illustration: Fig. 1158. ] [Illustration: Fig. 1159. ] Iron tweezers, ⅔ real size, found in a quadrangular stone setting, with a bent sword, a bent spear head, both of iron, and burnt bones.—Öland. From the earlier Edda and the Sagas we find that kings or warriors were easily recognised by the splendour of their accoutrements. They wore gilt spurs. “When the king (St. Olaf) had said this, he sat down and let his shoes and stockings be pulled off, put cordovan hose on his feet and put on gilt spurs. Then he took off his cloak and kirtle and dressed himself in clothes of pell, and over these a scarlet cloak. He girded himself with an ornamented sword, put a gilt helmet on his head, and mounted his horse” (St. Olaf’s Saga, c. 32). “King Hakon was easily recognized before all others; his helmet glittered when the sun shone upon it” (Hakon the Good’s Saga, c. 31). “Kjartan Olafsson took up the scarlet clothes which King Olaf (Tryggvason) gave him at their parting and dressed himself magnificently; he girt himself with the sword which was the king’s gift; he wore on his head a gilt helmet, and had a red shield at his side with the holy cross marked thereon in gold, and in his hand a spear with a gilt handle. All his men were in coloured clothes; they were more than twenty” (Laxdæla, c. 44). “The king (Hakon) put on his dress of war; he wore a coat of ring-mail, and was girt with the sword _Kvernbit_; he had on a gilt helmet, a spear in his hand, and a shield at his side. Then he arrayed in ranks his hird and the bœndr, and raised his standard” (Fornmanna Sögur, vol. i., pp. 42, 43).