Thither they retire for shelter in the winter,
and thither convey their grain: for by such close places they mollify the
rigorous and excessive cold. Besides when at any time their enemy invades
them, he can only ravage the open country, but either knows not such
recesses as are invisible and subterraneous; or must suffer 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.
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