Necropants

Ah Iceland, beautiful vistas, Bjork, Sigur Ros and necropants.

Yes, you heard right, necropants. A wonderful pastime for all the family in 17th century Iceland. What are they? Well it's a little Silence of the Lambs meets those trendy printed tights, minus the trendy printed tights.

The only known intact pair is housed in the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft and is shown below. I thought I ought to include a warning, but let's face it, you all had a good look at the pic way before reading this boring text.

More explanation from the Museum:

"If you want to make your own necropants (literally; nábrók) you have to get permission from a living man to use his skin after his dead. After he has been buried you must dig up his body and flay the skin of the corpse in one piece from the waist down. As soon as you step into the pants they will stick to your own skin. A coin must be stolen from a poor widow and placed in the scrotum along with the magical sign, nábrókarstafur, written on a piece of paper. Consequently the coin will draw money into the scrotum so it will never be empty, as long as the original coin is not removed. To ensure salvation the owner has to convince someone else to overtake the pants and step into each leg as soon as he gets out of it. The necropants will thus keep the money-gathering nature for generations."