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# Magic trousers of human skin called naubrouki, and the rules for making and passing them on
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-islandii-po-krainei-mere-do-xvii-veka-chelovek-zhazhdushchii-razbogatet-mog-dlia-etoi-tseli-izgotovit-magicheskie-shtany/
- Published: 2017-08-11T16:48:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:36.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Museums, Ethnography, Humour

In Iceland, at least until the seventeenth century, a man eager to grow rich could make himself a pair of magic trousers for the purpose.

First, one had to ask a man for permission to make trousers from his skin. When he died, one had to dig up his corpse, flay him from the waist down in a single piece, without a single cut, and put the skin on oneself. In the scrotum one had to place a coin stolen from a widow at Easter, Christmas or Whitsun, together with a slip of paper bearing a special spell; so long as the coin stayed in the purse, wealth was guaranteed.

One subtlety: after death the owner of the sorcerous underthings was doomed to eternal torment, unless he managed to pass the trousers on to someone before he died. The new owner had to put on the right leg while the old one took off the left, otherwise the transfer would not take place.

Unfortunately, there is no information on how many people grew golden thanks to these magical drawers, but to date only one such artefact is known. Who can say, perhaps the other nábrókur are still being handed down from generation to generation in some distinguished family.