Christ's garment); the harlot
falling at the feet of Jesus; Lazarus coming from the tomb: and they
fancy there is great piety in all this, and that putting on such
garments must be pleasing to God."

The palmated garment was figured with palm-leaves, and was a triumphal
or festive garment. It is referred to in an epistle of Gratian to
Augustus: "I have sent thee a palmated garment, in which the name of
our divine parent Constantine is interwoven."

In allusion to these lettered garments Ausonius celebrates Sabina
(textrice simul ac poetria), whose name thus lives when those of more
important personages are forgotten:--

They who both webs and verses weave,
The first to thee, O chaste Minerva, leave;
The latter to the Muses they devote:
To me, Sabina, it appears a sin
To separate two things so near akin,
So I have wrote thy verses on my coat.[7]

And again:

Whether the Tyrian robe your praise demand,
Or the neat verse upon the edge descried,
Know both proceed from the same skilful hand:
In both these arts Sabina takes a pride.[8]

It is imagined that the embroidered vestments worn in Homer's time
bore a strong resemblance to those now worn by the Moguls; and the
custom of making presents, so discernible through his work, still
prevails throughout Asia. It is not (says Sir James Forbes) so much
the custom in India to present dresses ready made to the visitors as
to offer the materials, especially to Europeans. In Turkey, Persia,
and Arabia, it is generally the reverse. We find in Chardin that the
kings of Persia had great wardrobes, where there were always many
hundred habits, sorted, ready for presents, and that more than forty
tailors were always employed in this service.

It is not improbable that this ancient custom of presenting a visitor
with a new dress as a token of welcome, a symbol of rejoicing at his
presence, may have led to many of the general customs which have
prevailed, and do still, of having new clothes at any season of joy or
festivity. New clothes are thought by the people of the East
_requisite_ for the due solemnization of a time of rejoicing. The
Turks, even the poorest of them, would submit to any privation rather
than be without new clothes at the Bairam or Great Festival. There is
an anecdote recorded of the Caliph Montanser Billah, that going one
day to the upper roof of his palace he saw a number of clothes spread
out on the flat