seems to have been in general use. The other cincture, called the hiria zona, and sometimes mitra, was intended to encircle the figure and fasten the waving folds of the drapery. These articles may be observed on several of the ancient statues of Asia.
Stiff stays with busks are an undoubted product of the middle ages, although the precise period of their introduction is uncertain. Singularly enough Satan is the first figure that we have seen in which the use of the article is undoubted. In an illuminated MS., made soon after the Conquest, there is a representation of Christ's Temptation, in which the artist has satirically dressed his Infernal Majesty in the full costume of a lady of the period. His waist is most charmingly slender, and its shape admirably preserved by tight lacing from the waist upwards, the ornamental tag depending from the last hole of the bodice. But the first real figure that we have met with, in which the corset may be fairly detected, is that of Constance, Queen of Castle, who, in 1372, married John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. From this it would appear that the custom of wearing them is of foreign, and not native origin; and this impression will be further confirmed by a study of the pure English dresses of the period. Almost a century after this, the Duchess
