Weird Facts

"In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats."

"Roman women especially enjoyed when their husbands went to war against Germany because the naturally-blond hair of Germans captured in battle would be used to make wigs."

"The punishment of a Vestal Virgin who broke her oath of chastity was to be buried alive."

Plague Fashion?

During the 14th century when the Bubonic Plague was spreading in Europe, physicians wore these getups to supposedly keep the disease away from them. I don't know about anyone else (I'm sure most people find this creepy) but I think this is wicked fascinating.

“The beak of the mask was often filled with strongly aromatic herbs and spices to overpower the miasmas or “bad air” which was also thought to carry the plague. At the very least, it may have served a dual purpose of dulling the smell of unburied corpses, sputum, and ruptured bouboules in plague victims.”