The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-10-28

Scotland's National Costume Partially
Derived from the Ancients.


scotland's National Costume Partially
Derived from the Ancients.
In spite of claymores and royal edicts
the Scottish kilt and clan tartan still
remains the costume of particular Sec
tions of the Highland country. The
present form of the kilt dates back no
farther than John Lord, of Claver-
house, who caused the Highlanders to
form the huge plaids (which they
picturesque fashion, as the natives of
India do to this day. into the most
commodious kilt, with plaid for chest,
back and shoulders. 1t seems beyond
doubt that the original costume of the
Highlanders was of the above primi-
tive description. Whoever invented
the kilt preserved the picturesque
appearance, while gaining decidedly
in convenience. The fashion of
"kilting," i. e., forming a textile
fabric in a number of close, fat
plaits, dates back in the dim past,
for in many sculptures of the ancient
people of the east and of Egypt we find
evidence that the plating of linen and
wooden fabrics was recognized by the
modistes and tailors of thousands of
years ago; but the short, many-plaited
kilt of Scotland was spontaneous
modification of really national cos
tune. For lads and boys few costumes
are at once SO picturesque and yet so
manly as the short kilt, with jacket,
sporran, skein dhue and feathered cap.
The plaid, with which both men and
women of the Highlands clothed them
selves, was from time immemorial
woven with native-dyed wool into Curl
GUS patterns of colored lines, forming
various squares, so that the tartan
is genuine outcome of the primitive
instincts of tribal pride, which dates
to the dimmest past. No doubt
the difference of clan tartans
was originally due 70 geographic
al and local circumstances; for
the women who spun the wool
from the native fiocks dyed it
with natural dye stuffs of the neigh
borhood-the berries and bark of trees
growing wild on the mountain sides.
And to this fact, no doubt, was due the
popularity that Campbell should APP
pear in green and black with yellow
line, and Frazer in bright red with
green, gray and white lines.
The advantages of this outward diff
ference in the tribal appearance must
have early become apparent, and means
would naturally have been adopted to
enhance the peculiar differences of
clan tartans, so as to give manifestly
dissimilar appearance to men of each
clan. This design, thanks to the deft
fingers and clever brains of the women
folk, was SO successfully achieved that
soon each clansman was transformed
into a walking emblem of discord
should he venture beyond the borders
of his own tribal domain. Hence
fairs and other functions, where
men of different localities met
and mingled, soon became more
or less CORY battlefields, for each map
regarded an opposing tartan in the
same light as savage bull looks upon
a red erag. The wearer of the green
and red striped tartan was seized with
! wild desire to make a hole through
the blue and yellow striped plaid, to
, the manifest discomfort of its wearer.
, 1t became so popular pastime this
slashing of opposing tartans with clay
mores and skein dhues that at last q
paternal government, sending forth its
edicts from st. James palace, made it
a penal offense to wear tartans in
the Highlands of Scotland.
1t was not long obeyed. And re-
sumption of the custom brought more
pronounced coloring and more numer-
GUS variations. Some of the tartans
seem to have been specially designed
to set the heather on fire. Such is that
all the Macduffs Ito which clan the
Princess Victoria of Wales has been
! united by marriage with the duke OF
Fife), which is red with far apart bars
Of black and green. The Macfes' tar
| tan is also bright red, with broad
very far apart bands of green and
small lines of white, the Macgregors
having another alarming combination
of the kind. The Macleod tartan is a
most trying arrangement of bright vel.
low with broad tight black thread
band, forming black spots where they
cross, and thin red lines; while quite
as bad is the light yellow and bright
red of the Macmillans, and the eccen.
trio complication of white, blue, black
and red of the Ogilvies.
Some of the tartans are reserved fol-
the chief of the clan and his heir. or
at all events, his family alone. Chiefs
of the Highland clans sport two eagles
feathers in their caps and their sons a
single eagles feather. The armorial
or crested brooch on the shoulders was
| not only used to fasten the plaid, but
to hold the clan badge, sprig of some
native shrub, such as the wild thyme
and holly of the Drummonds, the broom
of the Forbes and MacKays, the wild
myrtle and club moss of the Campbells
Ivy of the Gordons and juniper of the
Macleods-London Queen.
DELIGHTS OF CAMPING OUT