If you thought skinny pants were a new trend, think again -- they've been around in Iceland since the 17th century.
Legend has it that you'd be gifted with an endless money supply if you were to flay a corpse from the waist down and wear the skin -- hair, genitalia and all -- as pants, io9 reports. Icelandic mystics called them nábrók, or "necropants."
Many news outlets are inaccurately reporting that Strandagaldur, The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery & Witchcraft owns the last pair of necropants. In actuality the museum has a (terrifying) replica, seen below.
The Strandagaldur website explains the intricate procedure for fashioning skin pants from a corpse:
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.
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