haircloth
noun
- object made of animal hair which is painful on the skin; used as a torture device during the Scottish witch-hunt
Wiktionary
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree English hair English cloth English haircloth From hair + cloth.
- A coarse cloth made of the mane or tail hairs of a horse, associated with furniture upholstery, and with uncomfortable clothing worn by people practising religious asceticism.
“And amongst these, there are some so rigidly Religious, that their upper Garment is hair-Cloth, their inner of the finest Linnen; and on the contrary, others wear Linnen without, and hair next their skins:”
“On that day, the Mufti, and other ecclesiastical servants, cloathed with penitential garments of hair-cloth, with down-cast eyes, beards uncombed, and all in tears, shall repair first to the public places, and afterwards to the mosques,”