be the Reasons of this Institution, I can
find none but this. That since it had been the ancient Custom of the
_Gauls_ and _Franks_ to wear their Hair long (as it was also of the
_Sicambri_, and of most others in those Parts) our Ancestors thought fit
to continue, and in Process of Time to appropriate this Ornament, and
Mark of Distinction to the Regal Family. No Person, tho' but
indifferently learn'd, needs any Proof that the _Gauls_ wore their Hair
long, especially when he calls to mind that of the Poet _Claudian_, ex
lib. in Ruffin. 2.

_Inde truces flavo comitantur vertice_ Galli
_Quos_ Rhodanus _velox_, Araris _quos tardior ambit_,
_Et quos nascentes explorat gurgite_ Rhenus.

Now that the _Franks_ did so too, whom we have shewn to be descended
from the _Chauci_ or _Chaiici_, that single Passage of the Poet _Lucan_
is sufficient to confirm.

_Et vos_ Crinigeros _bellis arcere_ Chaycos
_Opposui, petitis_ Roman, &c.

Which being so, we may easily comprehend the Reason why Strangers, who
were ill affected towards our Nation, contumeliously called our Kings,
who wore so great a Head of Hair, _Reges setatos, bristled Kings_; and
not only so, but (tho' Bristles and long Hair be common to Lyons, Horses
and Swine, all which are therefore called _Setosi_, or _Setigeri_) they
stretched the Contumely so far, as to say, they had Hogs Bristles. From
whence arose that filthy Fiction and foul Name, [Greek: trichorachaton]
of which _Georgius Cedrenus_ writes thus in his History, [Greek:
"Helegonto de hoi ek tou genous hekenou katagomenoi kristatoi ho
hermeneuetai trichorachai heichon gar kata tes racheos auton trichas
ekphuomenas hos choiroi"] that is, "They who were of the Kingly Race
were called _Cristati_, which may be interpreted _Bristleback'd_;
because they had all along their Back bones, Bristles growing out like
Swine"--, Which Passage of _Cedrenus_, I believe, is corrupted, and
instead of the Word [Greek: kristatoi], ought to be [Greek: setatoi], or
perhaps both. For as some Persons called them pleasantly _Christati_ by
Reason of their large erected Bunch of Hair upon the Tops of their
Helmets; so their Ill-Willers called them upbraidingly _Setati_, or
_Setigeri_. If _Cedrenus_ had not been so very plain in this Passage,
and the Appellation of _Cristati_ be to be retained, I shou'd rather
have thought they might have been called [Greek: trichocharaktoi], as
being remarkable for their large Heads of Hair.