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190 Symbolism of the East and West
vailed in Britain and the North of Europe, and it is con-
sidered very probable that the same custom was in use at
one time over a great part of the world. It would seem that
the modern custom in Bavaria and in other parts of Germany,
both among-st the higher and lower classes, of dressing their
infants very lightly—usually one cotton garment only—and
placing it on its back on a large pillow folded over the body,
leaving the head alone visible, is a survival of the ancient
cradle board.
In the matter of shoes, too, there is much similarity some-
times between the East and the more uncivilized parts of the
West. Sir A. Mitchell, in his most interesting work, The Past
in the Pi'esent, says : " I once met a funeral procession in the
Highlands of Scotland, in which one of the men who carried
the coffin wore shoes made of the untanned hide of the ox,
with the hair still on it. Such shoes are known as rivilins,
and are described in books of costumes as the shoes of the
ancient Britons. They are correcdy so described, and have
properly a place in collections of antiquities ; and
yet it hap-
pens that there are thousands of people in Scotland who wear
this shoe at this hour. It is in most common use in Shetland,
where thousands of pairs could at this moment be purchased,
and likewise in the Hebrides. There is probably no older
form of shoe known. It is nothing but a piece of untanned
hide folded when fresh, or moistened and placed up the sides
of the foot and over the toes, and then stitched or closed at
the heel and toes with a piece of twine or a thong of hide,
and then secured to the foot, more or less like a sandal."
A similar species of foot covering can also be now seen
on the borders of Central Asia, where shoes on the model