Popular tales of the West Highlands : orally collected . entembodied, the Black Watch. It was a tartan plaid oftwelve yards (that is, six yards long and two wide),plaited round the middle of the body, the upper partbeing fixed on the left shoulder, ready to be thrownloose, and wrapped over both shoulders and firelock inrainy weather. At night the plaid served the purposeof a blanket, and was a sufficient covering for the High-lander. In the barracks, and when not on duty,the little kilt or philibeg was worn. This form of dress, then, was the simplest possibleuse of a web of cloth, as the patte
Popular tales of the West Highlands : orally collected . entembodied, the Black Watch. It was a tartan plaid oftwelve yards (that is, six yards long and two wide),plaited round the middle of the body, the upper partbeing fixed on the left shoulder, ready to be thrownloose, and wrapped over both shoulders and firelock inrainy weather. At night the plaid served the purposeof a blanket, and was a sufficient covering for the High-lander. In the barracks, and when not on duty,the little kilt or philibeg was worn. This form of dress, then, was the simplest possibleuse of a web of cloth, as the pattern of tartan is itssimplest ornament. The word plaid is the Gaelicplaide—a blanket. The Gaelic for a plaid is breacan,the variegated (garment); the Welsh is brychan. TheGaelic for a kilt is feile, the covering or the shelter; WEST HIGHLAND STORIES. 377 the garment now worn is called feile beag, the littlecovering which my friends often pronounce filly-bag/and suppose to mean the sporran or purse. Thekilt is sewn, and is made of a web three feet Avide. Highland Dress, 1742. Copied from a book kept at the Horse Guards— 42d Regiment of Foot, formed from the Independent Conifianies ofScotland in 1739. The tartan varies from all others in that the coloursare disposed in diamonds instead of squares. Coat and waistcoat red. instead of six. The wide web was put on by foldingit backwards and forwards along a belt laid on theground, lying down upon it, and fastening the beltround the waist. One half of the cloth fell in folds tothe knee, the other half was fastened up to the shoulder, 378 CELTIC DRESS. and in wet weather was raised over the head. Atnight, the whole could be cast loose and worn as ablanket, and the wearer -was often buried in his plaid. This striped blanket, then, ought to be a very ancientform of dress, and the early dress of most nations issomething like a kilt. The Greeks and Eomans, for
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