r them to escape him, on this very account
that he is uncertain where to find them.

For their covering a mantle is what they all wear, fastened with a clasp
or, for want of it, with a thorn. As far as this reaches not they
are naked, and lie whole days before the fire. The most wealthy are
distinguished with a vest, not one large and flowing like those of
Sarmatians and Parthians, but girt close about them and expressing the
proportion of every limb. They likewise wear the skins of savage beasts,
a dress which those bordering upon the Rhine use without any fondness or
delicacy, but about which such who live further in the country are more
curious, as void of all apparel introduced by commerce. They choose
certain wild beasts, and, having flayed them, diversify their hides with
many spots, as also with the skins of monsters from the deep, such as
are engendered in the distant ocean and in seas unknown. Neither does
the dress of the women differ from that of the men, save that the
women are orderly attired in linen embroidered with purple, and use no
sleeves, so that all their arms are bare. The upper part of their breast
is withal exposed.

Yet the laws of matrimony are severely observed there; for in the whole
of their manners is aught more praiseworthy than this: for they are
almost the only Barbarians contented with one wife, excepting a very few
amongst them; men of dignity who marry divers wives, from no wantonness
or lubricity, but courted for the lustre of their family into many
alliances.

To the husband, the wife tenders no dowry; but the husband, to the wife.
The parents and relations attend and declare their approbation of the
presents, not presents adapted to feminine pomp and delicacy, nor such
as serve to deck the new married woman; but oxen and horse accoutred,
and a shield, with a javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts, she
is espoused. She too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they
esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial Gods.
That the woman may not suppose herself free from the considerations of
fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the casualties of war, the very
first solemnities of her wedding serve to warn her, that she comes to
her husband as a partner in his hazards and fatigues, that she is to
suffer alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war.
This the oxen joined in the same yoke plainly indicate, this the horse
ready equipped,