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TRATED BY STEEL ENGRAVINGS. BOSTON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. 1873. PREFACE History, until a recent period, was mainly a record of gi- gantic crimes and their consequent miseries. The dazzling glow of its narrations lighted never the path of the peaceful Husbandman, as his noiseless, incessant exertions transformed the howling wilderness into a blooming and fruitful garden, but gleamed and danced on the armor of the Warrior as he rode forth to devastate and destroy. One year of his labors sufficed to undo what the former had patiently achieved through cen- turies ; and the campaign was duly chronicled while the labors it blighted were left to oblivion. The written annals of a na- tion trace vividly the course of its corruption and downfall, but are silent or meagre with regard to the ultimate causes of its growth and eminence. The long periods of peace and prosper- ity in which the Useful Arts were elaborated or perfected are passed over with the bare remark that they afford little of in- terest to the reader, when in fact their true history, could it now be written, would prove of the deepest and most substantial value. The world might well afford to lose all record of a hun- dred ancient battles or sieges if it could thereby regain the knowledge of one lost art, and even the Pyramids bequeathed to us by Egypt in her glory would be well exchanged for a few of her humble workshops and manufactories, as they stood in the days of the Pharaohs. Of the true history of mankind only a few chapters have yet been written, and now, when the deficiencies of that we have are beginning to be realized, we find that the materials for supplying them have in good part perish- ed in the lapse of time, or been trampled recklessly beneath the hoof of the war-horse. In the following pages, an effort has been made to restore a portion of this history, so far as the meagre and careless traces VI PREFACE. scattered through the Literature of Antiquity will allow. — Of the many beneficent achievements of inventive genius, those which more immediately minister to the personal convenience and comfort of mankind seem to assert a natural pre-eminence. Among the first under this head may be classed the invention of Weaving, with its collateral branches of Spinning, Netting, Sewing, Felting, and Dyeing. An account of the origin and progress of this family of domestic arts can hardly fail to inter- est the intelligent reader, while it would seem to have a special claim on the attention of those engaged in the prosecution or improvement of these arts. This work is intended to subserve the ends here indicated. In the present age, when the re- sources of Science and of Intellect have so largely pressed into the service of Mechanical Invention, especially with reference to the production of fabrics from fibrous substances, it is somewhat remarkable that no methodical treatise on this topic has been offered to the public, and that the topic itself seems to have al- most eluded the investigations of the learned. With the ex- ception of Mr. Yates's erudite production, " Textrinwn Anti- quorum" we possess no competent work on the subject ; and valuable as is this production for its authority and profound re- search, it is yet, for various reasons, of comparative inutility to the general reader. That a topic of such interest deserved elucidation will not be denied when it is remembered that, apart from the question of the direct influence these important arts have ever exerted upon the civilization and social condition of communities, in various ages of the world, there are other and scarcely inferior consider- ations to the student, involved in their bearing upon the true understanding of history, sacred and profane. To supply, therefore, an important desideratum in classical archaeology, by thus seeking the better to illustrate the true social state of the ancients, thereby affording a commentary on their commerce and progress in domestic arts, is one of the leading objects con- templated by the present work. In addition to this, our better acquaintance with the actual condition of these arts in early times will tend, in many instances, to confirm the historic ac- curacy and elucidate the idiom of many portions of Holy Writ.. PREFACE. VU How many of the grandest discoveries in the scientific world owe their existence to accident ! and how many more of the boasted creations of human skill have proved to be but restora- tions of lost or forgotten arts ! How much also is still being revealed to us by the monumental records of the old world, whose occult glyphs, till recently, defied the most persevering efforts of the learned for their solution ! To be told that the Egyptians, four thousand years ago, were cunning artificers in many of the pursuits which consti- tute lucrative branches of our modern industry, might surprise some readers : yet we learn from undoubted authorities that such they were. They also were acquainted with the fabrica- tion of crapes, transparent tissues, cotton, silk, and paper, as well as the art of preparing colors which still continue to defy the corrosions of defacing time. If the spider may be regarded as the earliest practical weaver upon record — the generic name Textorice, supplying the root from which is clearly derived the English terms, texture and textile, as applied to woven fabrics, of whatever materials they may be composed — the ivasp may claim the honor of having been the first paper-manufacturer, for he presents us with a most undoubted specimen of clear white pasteboard, of so smooth a surface as to admit of being written upon with ease and legibility. Would the superlative wisdom of man but deign, with microscopic gaze, to study the ingenious move- ments of the insect tribe more minutely, it would not be easy to estimate how much might thereby be achieved for human science, philosophy, and even morals ! For those who love to add to their fund of general knowledge, especially in the department of natural history, the author trusts that much valuable and interesting information will be found comprised in those pages of this work which delineate the habits of the Silk- Worm, the Sheep, the Goat, the Camel, the Beaver, &c. ; while another department, being devoted to the history of the Pastoral Life of the Ancients, will naturally enlist the sympathies of such as take a deeper interest in the records of ages and nations long since passed away. From a mass of heterogeneous, though highly valuable materials, it has Vlll PREFACE. been the design of the author to select, arrange, and conserve all that was apposite to his subject and of intrinsic value. Thus has he endeavored to render the piles of antiquity, to adopt the words of a recent writer, well compacted — a process which has been begun in our times, and with such eminent suc- cess that even the men of the present age may live to see many of the thousand and one folios of the ancients handed over without a sigh to the trunk-maker. The ample domains of Learning are fast being submitted to fresh irrigation and renewed culture, — the exclusiveness of the cloister has given place to an unrestricted distribution of the in- tellectual wealth of all times. What civilization has accom- plished in the physical is also being achieved in the mental world. The sterile and inaccessible wilderness is transformed into the well-tilled garden, abounding in luxurious fruits and fragrant flowers. It is the golden age of knowledge — its Para- dise Regained. The ponderous works of the olden time have been displaced by the condensing process of modern litera- ture ; yielding us their spirit and essence, without the heavy, obscuring folds of their former verbal drapery. We want real and substantial knowledge ; but we are a labor-saving and a time-economizing people, — it must therefore be obtained by the most compendious processes. Except those with whom learning is the business of life, we are too generally ignorant of the mighty mysteries which Nature has heaped around our path ; ignorant, too, of many of the discoveries of science and philosophy, in ancient as well as modern times. To meet the exigencies of our day, a judgment in the selection and con- densation of works designed for popular use is demanded — a fa- cility like that of the alchymist, extracting from the crude ores of antiquity the fine gold of true knowledge. The plan of this work naturally divides itself into four de- partments. The first division is devoted to the consideration of Silk, its early history and cultivation in China and various other parts of the world ; illustrated by copious citations from ancient writers : From among whom to instance Homer, we learn that embroidery and tapestry were prominent arts with the Thebans, that poet deriving many of his pictures of domestic PREFACE. IX life from the paintings which have been found to ornament their palaces. Thus it is evident that some of the proudest attain- ments of art in our own day date their origin from a period co- eval at least with the Iliad. Again we find that the use of the distaff and spindle, referred to in the Sacred Scriptures, was al- most as well understood in Egypt as it now is in India ; while the factory system, so far from being a modern invention, was in full operation, and conducted under patrician influence, some three thousand years ago. The Arabians also, even so far back as five centuries subsequent to the deluge, were, it is stated on credible authority, skilled in fabricating silken textures ; while, at a period scarcely less remote, we possess irrefragable testi- mony in favor of their knowledge of paper made from cotton rags. The inhabitants of Phoenicia and Tyre were, it appears, the first acquainted with the process of dyeing : the Tyrian purple, so often noticed by writers, being of so gorgeous a hue as to baffle description. The Persians were also prodigal in their indulgence in vestments of gold, embroidery and silk: the memorable army of Darius affording an instance of sumptuous magnificence in this respect. An example might also be given of the extravagance of the Romans in the third century, in the fact of a pound of silk being estimated literally by its weight in gold. The nuptial robes of Maria, wife ot Honorius, which were discovered in her coffin at Ronie in 1544, on being burnt, yielded 36 pounds of pure gold ! In the work here presented, much interesting as well as valuable information is given under this section, respecting the cultivation and manufacture of Silk in China, Greece and other countries. The second division of the work, comprising the history of the Sheep. Goat, Camel, and Beaver, it is hoped will also be ^>und curious and valuable. The ancient history of the Cot- ton manufacture follows — a topic that has enlisted the pens of many writers, though their essays, with two or three exceptions, merit little notice. The subsequent pages embody many new and important facts, connected with its early history and prog- ress, derived from sources inaccessible to the general reader. The fourth and last division, embracing the history of the Linen manufacture, includes notices of Hemp. Flax. Asbestos, &c. B PREFACE. This department again affords a fruitful theme for the curious, and one that will be deemed, perhaps, not the least attractive of the volume. Completing the design of the work, will be found the Appendices, comprising rare and valuable extracts, derived from unquestionable authorities. Of the Ten Illustrations herewith presented, five are en- tirely original. It is hoped that these, at least, will be deemed worthy the attention of the scholar as well as of the general reader, and that their value will not be limited by their utility as elucidations of the text. Among these, especial notice is re- quested to the engraving of the Chinese Loom, a reduced fac- simile, copied by permission from a magnificent Chinese produc- tion, recently obtained from the Celestial Empire, and now in the possession of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in this city. Another, equally worthy of notice, represents an Egyptian weaving factory, with the processes of Spinning and Winding ; also a reduced fac-simile, copied from Champolliorts great work on Egypt. The Spider, magnified with his web, and the Indian Loom, it is presumed, will not fail to attract at- tention. Throughout the entire work, the most diligent care has been used in the collation of the numerous authorities cited, as well as a rigid regard paid to their veracity. As a work so elaborate in its character would necessarily have to depend, to a consider- able extent, for its facte and illustrations, upon the labors of previous writers, the authoi deems no apology necessary in thus publicly and gratefully avowing his indebtedness to the several authors cited in order at the foot of his pages ; but he would especially mention the eminent name of Mr. Yates, to the fruits of whose labors the present production owes much of its novel- ty, attractiveness, and intrinsic value. CONTENTS, PART FIRST. ANCIENT HISTORY OF SILK CHAPTER I. SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING. Whether Silk is mentioned in the Old Testament — Earliest Clothing — Coats of Skin, Tunic, Simla — Progress of Invention — Chinese chronology relative to the Culture of Silk — Exaggerated statements — Opinions of Mailla, Le Sage, M. Lavoisne, Rev. J. Robinson, Dr. A. Clarke, Rev. W. Hales, D.D., Mairan, Bailly, Guignes, and Sir William Jones — Noah supposed to be the first empe- ror of China — Extracts from Chinese publications — Silk Manufactures of the Island of Cos— Described by Aristotle — Testimony of Varro— Spinning and Weaving in Egypt — Great ingenuity of Bezaleel and Aholiab in the production of Figured Textures for the Jewish Tabernacle — Skill of the Sidonian women in the Manufacture of Ornamental Textures — Testimony of Homer — Great antiquity of the Distaff and Spindle — The prophet Ezekiel's account of the Broidered Stuffs, etc. of the Egyptians — Beautiful eulogy on an industrious woman — Helen the Spartan, her superior skill in the art of Embroidery — Golden Distaff presented her by the Egyptian queen Alcandra — Spinning a domestic occupation in Miletus — Theocritus's complimentary verses to Theuginis on her industry and virtue — Taste of the Roman and Grecian ladies in the decoration of their Spinning Implements — Ovid's testimony to the skill of Arachne in Spinning and Weaving — Method of Spinning with the Distaff — Described by Homer and Catullus — Use of Silk in Arabia 500 years after the flood — For- ster's testimony 1 CHAPTER II. HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED TO THE 4TH CENTURY. SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING. — HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THESE ARTS. Testimony of the Latin poets of the Augustan age — Tibullus — Propertius — Virgil — Horace — Ovid — Dyonisius Perigetes — Strabo. Mention of silk by authors in Xll CONTENTS. the first century — Seneca the Philosopher — Seneca the Tragedian — Lucan — Pliny — Josephus — Saint John — Silius Italicus — Statius — Plutarch — Juvenal — Martial — Pausanias — Galen — Clemens Alexandrinus — Caution to Christian converts against the use of silk in dress. Mention of silk by authors in the second century — Tertullian — Apuleius — Ulpian — Julius Pollux — Justin. Men- tion of silk by authors in the third century — iElius Lampidius — Vopiscus — Trebellius Pollio — Cyprian — Solinus — Ammianus — Marcellinus — Use of silk by the Roman emperors — Extraordinary beauty of the textures — Use of water to detach silk from the trees — Invectives of these authors against extravagance in dress — The Seres described as a happy people — Their mode of traffic, etc. — (Macpherson's opinion of the Chinese.) — City of Dioscurias, its vast commerce in former times. — (Colonel Syke's account of the Kolissura silk-worm — Dr. Roxburgh's description of the Tusseh silk-worm.) .... 22 CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURY. SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING. HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THESE ARTS. Fourth Century — Curious account of silk found in the Edict of Diocletian — Ex- travagance of the Consul Furius Placidus — Transparent silk shifts — Ausonius describes silk as the produce of trees — Quintus Aur Symmachus, and Claudians testimony of silk and golden textures — Their extraordinary beauty — Pisander's description — Periplus Maris Erythraei — Dido of Sidon. Mention of silk in the laws of Manu — Rufus Festus Avinus — Silk shawls — Marciannus Capella — In- scription by M. N. Proculus, silk manufacturer — Extraordinary spiders' webs — Bombyces compared to spiders — Wild silk-worms of Tsouen — Kien and Tiao- Kien — M. Bertin's account — Further remarks on wild silk-worms. Christian authors of the fourth century — Arnobius — Gregorius Nazienzenus — Basil — Il- lustration of the doctrine of the resurrection — Ambrose — Georgius Pisida — Macarius — Jerome — Chrysostom — Heliodorus — Salmasius — Extraordinary beauty of the silk and golden textures described by these authors — Their invec- tives against Christians wearing silk. Mention of silk by Christian authors in the fifth century — Pridentius — Palladius — Theodosian Code — Appolinaris Si- donius — Alcimus Avitus. Sixth century — Boethius. (Manufactures of Tyro and Sidon — Purple — Its great durability — Incredible value of purple stuffs found in the treasury of the King of Persia) . . . . . 41 CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED FROM THE INTRO- DUCTION OF SILK- WORMS INTO EUROPE, A.D. 530, TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. A. D. 530. — Introduction of silk-worms into Europe — Mode by which it was effected — The Serinda of Procopius the same with the modern Khotan — The CONTENTS. XU1 «ilk-worm never bred in Sir-hind — Silk shawls of Tyre and Berytus — Tyran- nical conduct of Justinian — Ruin of the silk manufactures — Oppressive conduct of Peter Barsames — Menander Protector — Surprise of Maniak the Sogdian am- bassador — Conduct of Chosroes, king of Persia — Union of the Chinese and Per- sians against the Turks — The Turks in self-defence seek an alliance with the Romans — Mortification of the Turkish ambassador — Reception of the Byzan- tine ambassador by Disabul, king of the Sogdiani — Display of silk textures — Paul the Silentiarys account of silk — Isidorus Hispalensis. Mention of silk by authors in the seventh century — Dorotheus, Archimandrite of Palestine — In- troduction of silk- worms into Chubdan, or Khotan — Theophyl actus Simocatta — Silk manufactures of Turfan — Silk known in England in this century — First worn by Ethelbert, king of Kent — Use of by the French kings — Aldhel- mus's beautiful description of the silk-worm — Simile between weaving and vir- tue. Silk in the eighth century — Bede. In the tenth century — Use of silk by the English, Welsh, and Scotch kings. Twelfth century — Theodorus Prodro- mus — Figured shawls of the Seres — Ingulphus describes vestments of silk in- terwoven with eagles and flowers of gold — Great value of silk about this time — Silk manufactures of Sicily — Its introduction into Spain. Fourteenth century — Nicholas Tegrini — Extension of the Silk manufacture through Europe, illus- trated by etymology — Extraordinary beauty of silk and golden textures used in the decoration of churches in the middle ages — Silk rarely mentioned in the ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth centuries ...... 66 CHAPTER Y. SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THIS MANUFACTURE. Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses — Homer — Golden tunics of the Lydians — Their use by the Indians and Arabians — Extraordinary display of scarlet robes, purple, striped with silver, golden textures, Ace, by Darius, king of Persia — Purple and scarlet cloths interwoven with gold — Tunics and shawls variegated with gold — Purple garments with borders of gold — Golden chlamys — Attalus, king of Pergamus, not the inventor of gold thread — Bostick — Golden robe worn by Agrippina — Caligula and Heliogabalus — Sheets inter- woven with gold used at the obsequies of Nero — Babylonian shawls intermixed with gold — Silk shawls interwoven with gold — Figured cloths of gold and Ty- rean purple — Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the Greeks — 4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero for a Baby- lonish coverlet — Portrait of Constantius II. — Magnificence of Babylonian car- pets, mantles, &c. — Median sindones ...... 84 CHAPTER VI. SILVER TEXTURES, ETC., OF THE ANCIENTS. EXTREME BEAUTY OF THESE MANUFACTURES. Magnificent dress worn by Herod Agrippa, mentioned in Acts xii. 21 — Josephus's account of this dress, and dreadful death of Herod — Discovery of ancient Piece- XIV CONTENTS. goods — Beautiful manuscript of Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, who lived in the ninth century — Extraordinary beauty of Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, and other manufactured goods preserved in this manuscript — Egyptian arts — Wise regulations of the Egyptians in relation to the arts — Late discoveries in Egypt by the Prussian hierologist, Dr. Lepsius — Cloth of glass ... 93 CHAPTER VII. DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK- WORM, ETC. Preliminary observations — The silk-worm — Various changes of the silk-worm — Its superiority above other worms — Beautiful verses on the May-fly, illustra- tive of the shortness of human life — Transformations of the silk-worm — Its small desire of locomotion — First sickness of the worm — Manner of casting its Exuviae — Sometimes cannot be fully accomplished — Consequent death of the insect — Second, third, and fourth sickness of the worm — Its disgust for food — Material of which silk is formed — Mode of its secretion — Manner of unwinding the filaments — Floss-silk — Cocoon — Its imperviousness to moisture — Effect of the filaments breaking during the formation of the cocoon — Mr. Robinet's curi- ous calculation on the movements made by a silk-worm in the formation of a cocoon — Cowper's beautiful lines on the silk-worm — Periods in which its vari- ous progressions are effected in different climates — Effects of sudden transitions from heat to cold — The worm's appetite sharpened by increased temperature — Shortens its existence — Various experiments in artificial heating — Modes of ar- tificial heating — Singular estimate of Count Dandolo — Astonishing increase of the worm — Its brief existence in the moth state — Formation of silk — The silken filament formed in the worm before its expulsion — Erroneous opinions enter- tained by writers on this subject — The silk-worm's Will ... 98 CHAPTER VIII. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK- WORMS, ETC. Great antiquity of the silk-manufacture in China — Time and mode of pruning the Mulberry-tree — Not allowed to exceed a certain height — Mode of planting — Situation of rearing-rooms, and their construction — Effect of noise on the silk- worm — Precautions observed in preserving cleanliness — Isan-mon, mother of the worms — Manner of feeding — Space allotted to the worms — Destruction of the Chrysalides — Great skill of the Chinese in weaving — American writers on the Mulberry-tree — Silk-worms sometimes reared on trees — (M. Marteloy's ex- periments in 1764, in rearing silk-worms on trees in France) — Produce inferior to that of worms reared in houses — Mode of delaying the hatching of the eggs — Method of hatching — Necessity for preventing damp — Number of meals — Mode of stimulating the appetite of the worms — Effect of this upon the quan- tity of silk produced — Darkness injurious to the silk-worm — Its effect on the Mulberry -leaves — Mode of preparing the cocoons for the reeling process — Wild CONTENTS. XV silk-worms of India — Mode of hatching, &c. — (Observations on the cultivation of silk by Dr. Stebbins — Dr. Bowring's admirable illustration of the mutual de- pendence of the arts upon each other.) . . . • 119 CHAPTER IX. THE SPIDER. ATTEMPTS TO PROCURE SILKEN FILAMENTS FROM SPIDERS. Structures of spiders — Spiders not properly insects, and why — Apparatus for spin- ning — Extraordinary number of spinnerules — Great number of filaments com- posing one thread — Reaumur and Leeuwenhoeck's laughable estimates — At- tachment of the thread against a wall or stick — Shooting of the lines of spiders — 1. Opinions of Redi, Swammerdam, and Kirby — 2. Lister, Kirby, and White —3. La Pluche and Bingley — i. D'Isjonval, Murray, and Bowman — 5. Ex- periments of Mr. Blackwall — His account of the ascent of gossamer — 6. Ex- periments by Rennie — Thread supposed to go off double — Subsequent experi- ments — Nests, Webs, and Nets of Spiders — Elastic satin nest of a spider — Eve- lyn's account of hunting spiders — Labyrintliic spider's nest — Erroneous account of the House Spider — Geometric Spiders — attempts to procure silken filaments from Spiders' bags — Experiments of M. Bon — Silken material — Marnier of its preparations — M. Bon's enthusiasm — His spider establishment — Spider-silk not poisonous — Its usefulness in healing wounds — Investigation of M. Bon's estab- lishment by M. Reaumur — His objections — Swift's satire against speculators and projectors — Ewbank's interesting observations on the ingenuity of spiders — Mason-spiders — Ingenious door with a hinge — Nest from the West Indies with spring hinge — Raft-building Spider — Diving Water-Spider — Rev. Mr. Kirby's beautiful description of it — Observations of M. Clerck — Cleanliness of Spiders — Structure of their claws — Fanciful account of them patting their webs — Pro- ceedings of a spider in a steamboat — Addison — His suggestions on the compila- tion of a " History of Insects" . 138 CHAPTER X. FIBRES OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. The Pinna — Description of — Delicacy of its threads — Reaumur's observations — Mode of forming the filament or thread — Power of continually producing new threads — Experiments to ascertain this fact — The Pinna and its Cancer Friend — Nature of their alliance — Beautiful phenomenon — Aristotle and Pliny's account — The Greek poet Oppianus's lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer friend — Manner of procuring the Pinna — Poli's description — Specimens of the Pinna in the British Museum — Pearls found in the Pinna — Pliny and Athenaeus's ac- count — Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna for weaving — Scarceness of this material — No proof that the ancients were acquainted with the art of knitting — Tertullian the first ancient writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres of the Pinna — Procopius mentions a XVI CONTENTS. chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of gold — Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors — Golden fleece of the Pinna — St. Basil's account — Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India — Diving for the Pinna at Col- chi — Arrian's account 174 CHAPTER XI. FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE-APPLE. Fibres of the Pine Apple — Facility of dyeing — Manner of preparing the fibres for weaving — Easy cultivation of the plant — Thrives where no other plant will live — Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke's patent process of manufacturing cloth from the fibres of this plant — Its comparative want of strength — Silken material pro- cured from the Papyfera — Spun and woven into cloth — Cloth of this description manufactured generally by the Otaheiteans, and other inhabitants of the South Sea Islands — Great strength (supposed) of ropes made from the fibres of the aloe — Exaggerated statements 185 CHAPTER XII. MALLOWS. CULTIVATION AND USE OF THE MALLOW AMONG THE ANCIENTS. — TESTIMONY OF LATIN, GREEK, AND ATTIC WRITERS. The earliest mention of Mallows is to be found in Job xxx. 4. — Varieties of the Mallow — Cultivation and use of the Mallow — Testimony of ancient authors — Papias and Isidore's mention of Mallow cloth — Mallow cloth common in the days of Charlemagne — Mallow shawls — Mallow cloths mentioned in the Peri- plus as exported from India to Barygaza (Baroch) — Calidasa the Indian dram- atist, who lived in the first century B. C. — His testimon) r — Wallich's (the In- dian botanist) account — Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Sacontala of Calidasa — Valerias, or Mantles of woven bark, mentioned in the Ramayana, a noted poem of ancient India — Sheets made from trees — Ctesia's testimony — Strabo's account — Testimony of Statius Caecilius and Plautus, who lived 169 B. C. and 184 B. C. — Plautus's laughable enumeration of the analogy of trades — Beauty of garments of Amorgos mentioned by Eupolis — Clearchus's testi- mony — Plato mentions linen shifts — Amorgine garments first manufactured at Athens in the time of Aristophanes . . . . . . .191 CHAPTER XIII. SPARTTJM OR SPANISH BROOM. CLOTH MANUFACTURED FROM BROOM BARK, NETTLE, AND BULBOUS PLANT. TESTIMONY OF GREEK AND LATIN AUTHORS. Authority for Spanish Broom — Stipa Tenacissima — Cloth made from Broom- bark — Albania — Italy — France — Mode of preparing the fibre for weaving — CONTENTS. XV11 Pliny's account of Spartum — Bulbous plant — Its fibrous coats — Pliny's transla- tion of Theophrastus — Socks and garments — Size of the bulb — Its genus or species not sufficiently defined — Remarks of various modern writers on this plant — Interesting communications of Dr. Daniel Stebbins, of Northampton, Mass. to Hon. H. L. Ellsworth 202 PART SECOND. ORIGIN AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE SHEEP. CHAPTER I. SHEEP S WOOL. SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS — ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. The Shepherd Boy — Sheep-breeding in Scythia and Persia — Mesopotamia and Syria — In Idumsea and Northern Arabia — In Palestine and Egypt — In Ethio- pia and Libya — In Caucasus and Coraxi — The Coraxi identified with the modern Caratshai — In Asia Minor, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Samos, &c. — In Caria and Ionia — Milesian wool — Sheep-breeding in Thrace, Magnesia, Thessaly, Euboea, and Boeotia — In Phocis, Attica, and Megaris — In Arcadia — Worship of Pan — Pan the god of the Arcadian Shepherds — Introduction of his worship into Attica — Extension of the worship of Pan — His dances with the nymphs — Pan not the Egyptian Mendes, but identical with Faunus — The philosophical explanation of Pan rejected — Moral, social, and political state of the Arcadians ' — Polybius on the cultivation of music by the Arcadians — Worship of Mercury in connection with sheep-breeding and the wool trade — Present state of Arca- dia — Sheep-breeding in Macedonia and Epirus — Shepherds' dogs — Annual migration of Albanian shepherds 217 CHAPTER II. SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS ILLUS- TRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Sheep-breeding in Sicily — Bucolic poetry — Sheep-breeding in South Italy — An- nual migration of the flocks — The ram employed to aid the shepherd in con- ducting his flock — The ram an emblem of authority — Bells — Ancient inscription at Sepino — Use of music by ancient shepherds — Superior quality of Tarentine sheep — Testimony of Columella — Distinction of the coarse and soft kinds — Names given to sheep — Supposed effect of the water of rivers on wool — Sheep- breeding in South Italy, Tarentum, and Apulia — Brown and red wool — Sheep- breeding in North Italy — Wool of Parma, Modena, Mantua, and Padua — Ori- XV111 CONTENTS. gin of sheep-breeding in Italy — Faunus the same with Pan — Ancient sculptures exhibiting Faunus — Bales of wool and the shepherd's dress — Costume, appear- ance, and manner of life of the ancient Italian shepherds . . 256 CHAPTER III. SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS ILLUS- TRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Sheep-breeding in Germany and Gaul — In Britain — Improved by the Belgians and Saxons — Sheep-breeding in Spain — Natural dyes of Spanish wool — Golden hue and other natural dyes of the wool of Baetica — Native colors of Baetic WO ol — Saga and chequered plaids — Sheep always bred principally for the weaver, not for the butcher — Sheep supplied milk for food, wool for clothing — The moth 282 CHAPTER IV. GOATS-HAIR. ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE GOAT ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Sheep-breeding and goats in China — Probable origin of sheep and goats — Sheep and goats coeval with man, and always propagated together — Habits of Gre- cian goat-herds — He-goat employed to lead the flock — Cameo representing a goat -herd — Goats chiefly valued for their milk — Use of goats'-hair for coarse clothing — Shearing of goats in Phrygia, Cilicia, &c. — Vestes caprina, cloth of goats'-hair — Use of goats'-hair for military and naval purposes — Curtains to cover tents — Etymology of Sack and Shag — Symbolical uses of sack-cloth — The Arabs weave goats'-hair — Modern uses of goats'-hair and goats'-wool — Introduction of the Angora or Cashmere goat into France — Success of the Project 293 CHAPTER V. BEAVERS-WOOL. Isidorus Hispalensis — Claudian — Beckmann — Beavers'-wool — Dispersion of Bea- vers through Europe — Fossil bones of Beavers .... 309 CHAPTER VI. CAMELS-WOOL AND CAMELS-HAIR. Camels' -wool and Camels' -hair — Ctesia's account — Testimony of modern travel- lers — Arab tent of Camels' -hair — Fine cloths still made of Camels' -wool — The use of hair of various animals in the manufacture of beautiful stuffs by the ancient Mexicans — Hair used by the Candian women in the manufacture of broidered stuffs — Broidered stuffs of the negresses of Senegal — Their great beauty 312 CONTENTS. XIX PART THIRD. ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. CHAPTER I. GREAT ANTIQUITY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN INDIA UNRIVALLED SKILL OF THE INDIAN WEAVER. Superiority of Cotton for clothing, compared with linen, both in hot and cold cli- mates — Cotton characteristic of India — Account of Cotton by Herodotus, Ctesias, Theophrastus, Aristobulus, Nearchus, Pomponius Mela — Use of Cot- ton in India — Cotton known before silk and called Carpasus, Carpasum, Car- basum, &c. — Cotton awnings used by the Romans — Carbasus applied to linen — Last request of Tibullus — Muslin fillet of the vestal virgin — Linen sails, Sec., called Carbasa — Valerius Flaccus introduces muslin among the elegancies in the dress of a Phrygian from the river Rhyndacus — Prudentius"s satire on pride — Apuleius's testimony — Testimony of Sidonius Apollinaris, and Avienus — Pliny and Julius Pollux — Their testimony considered — Testimony of Tertullian and Philostratus — Of Martianus Capella — Cotton paper mentioned by The- ophylus Presbyter — Use of Cotton by the Arabians — Cotton not common an- ciently in Europe — Marco Polo and Sir John MandevihVs testimony of the Cotton of India — Forbes's description of the herbaceous Cotton of Guzerat — Testimony of Malte Brun — Beautiful Cotton textures of the ancient Mexicans — Testimony of the Abbe Clavigero — Fishing nets made from Cotton by the inhabitants of the West India Islands, and on the Continent of South Amer- ica — Columbus's testimony — Cotton used for bedding by the Brazilians . 315 CHAPTER II. SPINNING AND WEAVING MARVELLOUS SKILL DISPLAYED IN THESE ARTS. Unrivalled excellence of India muslins — Testimony of the two Arabian travellers — Marco Polo, and Odoardo Barbosa's accounts of the beautiful Cotton tex- tures of Bengal — Caesar Frederick, Tavernier, and Forbes's testimony — Extra- ordinary fineness and transparency of Decca muslins — Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins ; compared with English muslins — Sir Joseph Banks's experi- ments — Extraordinary fineness of Cotton yarn spun by machinery in England Fineness of India Cotton yarn — Cotton textures of Soonergong — Testimony of R. Fitch — Hamilton's account — Decline of the manufactures of Dacca ac- counted for — Orme's testimony of the universal diffusion of the Cotton manu- facture in India — Processes of the manufacture — Rude implements — Roller gin — Bowing. (Eli Whitney inventor of the cotton gin — Tribute of respect paid to his memory — Immense value of Mr. Whitney's invention to growers and man- ufacturers of Cotton throughout the world.) Spinning wheel — Spinning without 3 XX CONTENTS. a wheel — Loom — Mode of weaving — Forbes's description — Habits and remuner- ation of Spinners, Weavers, &c. — Factories of the East India Company — Mar- vellous skill of the Indian workman accounted for — Mills's testimony — Principal Cotton fabrics of India, and where made — Indian commerce in Cotton goods — Alarm created in the woollen and silk manufacturing districts of Great Britain — Extracts from publications of the day — Testimony of Daniel De Foe (Au- thor of Robinson Crusoe.) — Indian fabrics prohibited in England, and most other countries of Europe — Petition from Calcutta merchants — Present con- dition of the City of Dacca — Mode of spinning fine yarns — Tables showing the comparative prices of Dacca and British manufactured goods of the same quality 333 PART FOURTH. ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. CHAPTER I. FLAX. CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF FLAX BY THE ANCIENTS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Earliest mention of Flax — Linen manufactures of the Egyptians — Linen worn by the priests of Isis — Flax grown extensively in Egypt — Flax gathering — Envel- opes of Linen found on Egyptian mummies — Examination of mummy-cloth — Proved to be Linen — Flax still grown in Egypt — Explanation of terms — Bys- sus — Reply to J. R. Forster — Hebrew and Egyptian terms — Flax in North Africa, Colchis, Babylonia — Flax cultivated in Palestine — Terms for flax and tow — Cultivation of Flax in Palestine and Asia Minor — In Elis, Etruria, Cis- alpine Gaul, Campania, Spain — Flax of Germany, of the Atrebates, and of the Franks — Progressive use of linen among the Greeks and Romans . 358 CHAPTER II. HEMP. Cultivation and Uses of Hemp by the Ancients — Its use limited — Thrace — Col- chis — Caria — Etymology of Hemp 387 CHAPTER III. ASBESTOS. Uses of Asbestos — Carpasian flax — Still found in Cyprus — Used in funerals — As- bestine-cloth — How manufactured — Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks — Relic at Monte Casino . ... 390 CONTENTS. XXI APPENDICES APPENDIX A. on pliny's natural history. Sheep and wool — Price of wool in Pliny's time — Varieties of wool and where pro- duced — Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets — Woollen cloth of Egypt — Embroidery — Felting — Manner of cleansing — Distaff of Tanaquil — Varro — Tunic — Toga — Undulate or waved cloth — Nature of this fabric — Fig- ured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.) — Cloth of gold — Figured cloths of Babylon — Damask first woven at Alexandria — Plaided textures first woven in Gaul — $150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet — Dyeing of wool in the fleece — Observations on sheep and goats — Dioscurias a city of the Colchians — Manner of transacting business 401 APPENDIX B. ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABIANS, A. D. 704. Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany — Schonemann to Italy — Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern — Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A. D. 1200— Testimony of Abdollatiph— Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century — Cotton paper — The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom — Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturers — Clugny's testimony — Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100 — Ancient water-marks on linen paper — Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. (The Wasp a paper-maker — Manufacture of paper from shavings of wood, and from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn.) ..... 404 APPENDIX C. ON FELT. MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS. Felting more ancient than weaving — Felt used in the East — Use of it by the Tartars — Felt made of goats' -hair by the Circassians — Use of felt in Italy and Greece — Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c. — Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap — Desultores — Vulcan — Ulysses — Phrygian bonnet — Cap worn by the Asiatics — Phrygian felt of Camels'-hair — Its great stiffness — Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators — Mode of manufacturing Felt — Northern nations of Europe — Cap of liberty — XX11 CONTENTS. Petasus — Statue of Endymion— Pctasus in works of ancient art— Hats of Thes- saly and Macedonia — Laconian or Arcadian hats — The Greeks manufacture Felt 900 B. C. — Mercury with the pileus and petasus — Miscellaneous uses of Felt ... 414 APPENDIX D. ON NETTING. MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom — General terms for nets — Nets used for catching birds — Mode of snaring — Hunting-nets — Method of hunting — Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes — Manner of fixing them — Purse-net or tunnel-net — Homer's testimony — Nets used by the Persians in lion-hunting — Hunting with nets practised by the ancient Egyptians — Method of hunting — Depth of nets for this purpose — Description of the purse-net — Road-net — Hallier — Dyed feathers used to scare the prey — Casting-net — Manner of throw- ing by the Arabs — Cyrus king of Persia — His fable of the piper and the fishes — Fishing-nets — Casting-net used by the Apostles — Landing-net (Scap-net) — The Sean — Its length and depth — Modern use of the Sean — Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians and ancient Egyptians — Corks and leads — Figurative application of the Sean — Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the Persians — Nets used in India to catch tortoises — Bag- nets and small purse-nets — Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian praetor 436 LIST OF PLATES. I. Frontispiece — Chinese Looms. II. Egyptian Looms, with the Processes of Spinning and Winding, to face page 93 III. Silk Worm, Cocoons, Chrysalis, Moths, and Pinna . . . 118 IV. Spiders, with the Processes of Spinning and Weaving . . .172 V. Indian Loom, with the Process of Winding off the Thread . 315 VI. Egyptian Flax-gathering. Magnified Fibres of Flax and Cotton 359 VII. Map, showing the Divisions of the Ancient World, coloured ac- cording to the Raw Materials principally produced in them for Weaving 400 VTII. Caps worn by Cynic Philosopher, Vulcan, Daedalus, Ulysses, and a Desultor. Caps worn by Modern Greek Boy and Fisherman. Mysian Cap or Phrygian Bonnet. Coins hi the British Museum 415 IX. Statue of Endymion. Hats worn by Shepherds and Athenian EphebL Coins in the British Museum 434 X. Hunting-scenes in bas-reliefs at Ince-Blundell. Egyptians with the Drag-Net . 464 PART FIRST, ANCIENT HISTORY OF SILK, CHAPTER I. SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING. Whether Silk is mentioned in the Old Testament — Earliest Clothing — Coats of Skin, Tunic, Simla — Progress of Invention — Chinese chronology relative to the Culture of Silk — Exaggerated statements — Opinions of Mailla, Le Sagre. M. Lavoisne, Rev. J. Robinson, Dr. A. Clarke, Rev. W. Hales, D.D., Mairan, Bailly, Guignes, and Sir William Jones — Noah supposed to be the first empe- ror of China — Extracts from Chinese publications — Silk Manufactures of the island of Cos — Described by Aristotle — Testimony of Varro — Spinning and Weaving in Egypt — Great ingenuity of Bezaleel and Aholiab in the production of Figured Textures for the Jewish Tabernacle — Skill of the Sidonian women in the Manufacture of Ornamental Textures — Testimony of Homer — Great antiquity of the Distaff and Spindle — The prophet Ezekiel's account of the Broidered Stuffs, etc. of the Egyptians — Beautiful eulogy on an industrious woman — Helen the Spartan, her superior skill in the art of Embroidery — Golden Distaff presented her by the Egyptian queen Alcandra — Spinning a domestic occupation in Miletus — Theocritus's complimentary verses to Theuginis on her industry and virtue — Taste of the Roman and Grecian ladies in the decoration of their Spinning Implements — Ovid's testimony to the skill of Arachne in Spinning and Weaving — Method of Spinning with the Distaff — Described by Homer and Catullus — Use of Silk in Arabia 500 years after the flood — For- ster's testimony. To please the flesh a thousand arts contend : The miser's heaps of gold, the figur'd vest, The gem, the silk-worm, and the purple dye, By toil acquir'd, promote no other end. — Peristeph. Hymn. x. Whether silk is ever mentioned in the Old Testament cannot perhaps be determined. In Ezek. xvi. 10 and 13, '-'silk" is used in the common English bible for *^£, which occurs no where except here, but which, as appears from the context, certainly meant some 1 A CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF valuable article of female dress. Le Clerc and Rosenmiiller translate it "serico;" Cocceius, Schindler, Buxtorf, in their Lexicons, and Dr. John Taylor in his Concordance., give the same interpretation. Augusti and De Wette in their German translation make it signify " a silken veil." Others give dif- ferent interpretations. The only ground, on which silk of any kind is supposed to be meant, is that in the Alexandrine or Septuagint version iff ft * s translated rpi X anrov, and Tpixam-ov is explained by Hesychius to mean " the silken web fitted to be placed over the hair of the head " (™ Po^vkivov wpaa/ta inip t&v rpix^v T?js K£(pa\r}i airrdpevov)) and that other ancient Greek lexicogra- phers also suppose a silken garment to be meant.* But the meaning of rpi x ^rov is in reality as obscure as that of ♦{JJjJ}. Jerome could not discover it, and concluded that the word was invented by the Greek translator. It is now extant no where else except in a passage of the comic Pherecrates preserved in Athenaeus. Schneider, followed by Passow, supposes it to mean some garment made of hair, and quotes to this effect the explanation of Pollux (2. 24.), itUy^a u tptx&v. Although, therefore, the term in question may possibly have denoted some elegant and costly ornament for the head, made at least partly of silk, yet this opinion appears to rest altogether upon the assumption, first, that the ancient lexicographers are ac- curate in their use of the epithet popPwivov, and secondly, that the Alexandrine version is accurate in adopting the word rpi X aiTTOv. In Isaiah xix. 9, according to King James's Translators and Bishop Lowth, mention is made of those " that work in fine flax? in the orignal JYIpnB> D*fl&'3 H3V- Rosen- miiller adopts nearly the same interpretation, which is founded upon the use of the verb p^)^ or 7)10 in the Chaldee and Syriac dialects to denote the operation of combing flax, wool, hair, and other substances. In this sense the word has been taken by the author of the Alexandrine Version, rots tpya^oficvovi to \ivov to o X ioTdv; by Symmachus, who instead of on£vr)s Bvccov. L. xv. 695. (v. vi. p. 40. Tzschucke.) This is repeated by Eustathius on Dyonisius Periegetes*. The account seems to have been taken by Strabo, perhaps in- accurately, from Nearchus. It is doubtful, whether E^oca de- noted silken webs in this passage. But whatever Strabo meant, he supposed the raw material to be scraped from the bark of treesf. As contemporary with the authors last quoted, Dyonisius and Strabo, we may here mention the law passed by the Roman Senate early in the reign of Tiberius, " Ne vestis Serica viros foedaret."' Taciti Annates, ii. 33. Dion. Cass. I. 57. p. 860. L. 1107. p. 308, Bernhardy. t Book ii. ch. 3. p. 307. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 27 Reim. Suidas in v. Ttfiipus*. Silk was to be worn by women only. The next emperor Caligula had silk curtains to his throne (Dion. Cass. I. 59. p. 915. Reim.), and he wore silk as part of his dress, when he appeared in public. Dio Cassius particularly mentions, that, when he was celebrating a kind of triumph at Puteoli. he put on what he alleged to be the thorax of Alex- ander, and over that a silken chlamys, dyed with the murex, and adorned with gold and precious stones. On the following day he wore a tunic interwoven with goldt. The use of shawls and tunics of silk was, however, except in the case of the extravagances of a Caligula, still confined to the fe- male sex. Under the earlier emperors it is probable, that silk was obtained in considerable quantities for the wardrobe of the empress, where it was preserved from one reign to another, until in the year 176 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the philosopher, in consequence of the exhausted state of his treasury, sold by pub- lic auction in the Forum of Trajan the imperial ornaments and jewels together with the golden and silken robes of the Em- press*. FIRST CENTURY. Posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serum. — Epist. 91. We may clothe ourselves without any commerce with the Seres. Video Sericas vestes, si vestes vocandae sunt, in quibus nihil est, quo defendi aut corpus aut denique pudor possit : quibus sumtis mulier parum liquido nudam se non esse jurabit. Hiec ingenti summa ab iguotis etiam ad commercium gentibus accersunter, ut matronae nostras ne adulteris quidem plus sui in cubiculo quam in publico ostendant. — De Beneficiis, L. vii. c. 9. I see silken (Seric) garments, if they can be called garments, which cannot afford any protection either for the body or for shame : Gn taking which a woman will scarce with a clear conscience deny, that she is naked. These are sent for * Dio Cassius (1. 43. p. 358. Rheim.) mentions as a report, that Julius Caesar employed silk curtains {-apa-eraa^ara Taipi**) to add to the splendor of his triumph. f In describing the effeminate dress of the emperor Caligula, Suetonius tells us {cap. 52), that he often went into public, wearing bracelets and long sleeves, and sometimes in a garment of silk and a cyclas. X Jul. Capitol, c. xvii. p. 65. Bip. 28 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF at an enormous price from nations, to which our commerce has not yet extended, in order that our matrons may display their persons to the public no less than to adulterers in their chamber ! — Yates's Translation. The Seres must be supposed to have dwelt somewhere in the centre of Asia. Perhaps those geographers who represent Lit- tle Bucharia as their country*, are nearest the truth, and thus far neither Greeks nor Romans had penetrated. Silk was brought to them " from nations, to which even their commerce had not yet extended." Hence their inaccurate ideas respecting its originf. SENECA, THE TRAGEDIAN. Nee Maeonia distinguit acu, Quae Phoebeis subditus Euris Legit Eois Ser arboribus. Here. (Elans, 664. Nor with Mseonian needle marks the web, Gather'd by Eastern Seres from the trees. Seres, illustrious for their fleece. Thyestes, 378. Remove, ye maids, the vests, whose tissue glares With purple and with gold ; far be the red Of Tyrian murex, and the shining thread, Which furthest Seres gather from the boughs. Hyppolitus, 386. (Phadra loquitur.) At a very early period the art of dyeing had been carried to a very great degree of perfection in Phoenicia. The method of dyeing woollen cloths purple was, it is said, first discovered at Tyre. This color, the most celebrated among the ancients, appears to have been brought to a degree of excellence, of which we can form but a very faint idea : * The position of Serica is discussed by Latreille in his paper hereafter cited. See also Mannert. iv. 6. 6, 7. Brotier, Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscrip. torn. 46. John Reinhold Forster (De Bysso, p. 20, 21.) thinks that Little Bucharia was certainly the ancient Serica. Sir John Barrow (Travels in China, p. 435-438.) thinks the Seres were not the Chinese. t The first author who speaks of the Seres as a distinct nation, is Mela, iii. 7. He describes them as a very honest people, who brought what they had to sell, laid it down and went away, and then returned for the price of it. The same account is given by Eustathius, on Dyonisius, 1. 752. p. 242, Bernhardy. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 29 " In oldest times, when kings and hardy chiefs In bleating sheep-folds met, for purest wool Phoenicia's hilly tracts were most renown'd, And fertile Syria's and Judaea's land, Hermon, and Seir, and Hebron's brooky sides, Twice with the murex, crimson hue, they ting'd The shining fleeces— hence their gorgeous wealth ; And hence arose the walls of ancient Tyre*." LUC AN. Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo, Quod Nilotis acus percussum pectine Serum Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo. L. x. 141. Her snowy breast shines through Sidonian threads, First by the comb of distant Seres struck, Divided then by Egypt's skilful toil, And with embroidery transparent made. The poet is describing; the dress of Cleopatra. He supposes her to have worn over her breast a piece of silk, woven by the Seres, imported through Sidon into Egypt, and then embroider- ed. By the last process, in which the Egyptians greatly excell- ed, the threads were in part separated, so as to exhibit the ap- pearance of lace, and to allow the white breast of the queen to be visible through the texture. Amidst the braidings of her flowing hair, The spoils of orient rocks and shells appear : Like midnight stars, ten thousand diamonds deck The comely rising of her graceful neck ; Of wondrous work, a thin transparent lawn O'er each soft breast in decency was drawn, Where still by turns the parting threads withdrew, And all the panting bosom rose to view. Her robe, her every part, her air confess The power of female skill exhausted in her dress. Pharsalia, x. In glowing purple rich the coverings lie, Twice had they drunk the noblest Tyrian dye Others, as Pharian artists have the skill To mix the party-color'd web at will, * Old Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in the second year after the destruction of Jerusalem, or 534 B. C. 30 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF With winding trails of various silks were made, Whose branching gold set off the rich brocade. Ibid. With this description we compare that of Seneca, which rep- resents silk as embroidered in Asia Minor, with the " Maeonian needle." PLINY speaks copiously and repeatedly of the manufacture of silk. Nevertheless we learn from him scarce anything, which we did not know from the earlier authorities. His accounts are taken from Aristotle, from Varro, and probably also from persons who accompanied the Parthian expeditions, or who engaged in the trade with inner Asia. But according to his usual manner, when he speaks of what he has not himself seen, he confounds accounts from different witnesses, which are inconsistent with one another. He asserts that the bombyx was a native of Cos : but it is not probable that the women of that island would, in such case, have recourse to the laborious operation of convert- ing foreign finished goods into threads for their own weaving. It is, therefore, only reasonable to suppose* that whatever man- ufacture was carried on from the raw material, was, like that of Tyre or Berytus, composed of unwrought silk imported from the East. It is mentioned both by Theophanes and Zonares, the Byzantine historians, that before silk-worms were brought to Constantinople in the middle of the sixth century, no person in that capital kneAV that silk was produced by a worm ; a toler- ably strong evidence that none were reared so near to Constan- tinople as Cos. Pliny's account of the Coan bombyx is evidently a cloud of fable and absurdity, in which, however, we may discern a few lines of truth, probably derived from the accounts of the silk- worm of the Seres. JOSEPHUS says, that the emperors Titus and Vespasian wore silk dresses*, when they celebrated at Rome their triumph over the Jews. * De Bello Jud. vii. f. 4. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 31 SAINT JOHN. Silk (EupHfdv) occurs but once in the New Testament, Rev. xviii. 12. It is here mentioned in a curious enumeration of all the most valuable articles of foreign traffic. SILIUS ITALICUS. Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis. Punica. vi. 4. Seres took fleeces from the woolly groves. Munera rubri Praeterea Ponti, depexaque vellera ramis, Femineus labor. lb. xiv. 664. The produce of the Erythraean seas, And fleeces comb'd by women from the trees*. Videre Eoi (monstrum admirabile !) Seres Lanigeros cinere Ausonio canescere lucos. lb. xvii. 595, 596. The Seres' woolly groves, O wondrous sight ! In the far East, were with Italian ashes white. In the last passage Silius is describing the effects of the re- cent eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79. That its ashes should reach the country of the Seres, whether it was in Persia or China, would indeed have been " Monstrum admirabile !" STATIUS. Seric (i. e. silken) palls. Sylva, iii. 4. 89. PLUTARCH dissuades the virtuous and prudent wife from wearing silkf. He mentions, that webs of silk and fine linen were at the same time thin and compact or closet. * See latter part of Chapter viii. Part First. t Conjugailia Praecepta, torn. vi. p. 550. ed. Reiske. \ De Pythiee Orac. c. iv. p. 557. Reiske. 32 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF JUVENAL speaks of women, Quarum Delicias et panniculus bombycinus urit. Sat. vi. 259. Whose beauty e'en a silken veil o'erheats. MARTIAL. Nec vaga tam tenui discursat aranea tela, Tarn levo nec bombyx pendulus urget opus. L. viii. 33 The spider traces not so thin a line, Nor does the pendent silk-worm spin so fine. Foemineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus, Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua. L. viii. 68. Thus through her silk a lady's body looks, Thus count we pebbles in the sparkling brooks. De Pallatinis dominae quod Serica prelis. L. xi. 9. Here Martial alludes to the employment of presses (prela) for preserving the garments of silk and other precious materials, belonging to the Empress, in the same way, in which we now use presses to keep table-linen. He says to a lady (L. ix. 38.), Nec dentes aliter, quam Serica, nocte reponas. Your teeth at night, like silks, you lay aside. In another passage (L. xi. 27.) he speaks of silken goods (Serica) as procurable in the Vicus Tuscus at Rome : and lastly in L. xiv. Ep. 24, he mentions ribbons or fillets of silk as used for adorning the hair. Tenuia ne madidi violent bombycina crines, Figat acus tortas, sustineatque comas. Lest your moist hair defile the ribbons thin, Twist it in knots, and fix it with a pin. a native of Asia Minor, and an inquisitive traveller in the second century, gives the following distinct account of Sericum according to the ideas received among the Greeks in his time. The threads from which the Seres make webs, are not the produce of bark, but are obtained in the following manner. There is an animal in that country, which SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 33 the Greeks call Ser, but which they call by some other name. Its size is twice that of the largest beetle. In other respects it resembles the spiders, which weave under the trees. It has also the same number of feet as the spider, namely, eight*. In order to breed these creatures, the Seres have houses adapted both for summer and winter. The produce of the animal is a fine thread twisted about its legs. The Seres feed it four years on '•' panicum." In the fifth year they give it green reed, of which it is so fond as to eat of it until it bursts, and after this the greatest part of the thread is found within its bodyt. The most interesting circumstance, mentioned by Pausanias. is the breeding of the silk-worms within doors in houses adapt- ed both for summer and winter. There seems no reason to doubt the truth of this fact : and. if admitted, it proves, that their country, the Serica of the ancients, lay so far North, or was so elevated, as to have a great difference of temperature in summer and in winter. It is remarkable, that in China the worms are now reared in small houses, and this practice has long prevailed in that country^. GALEN recommends silk thread for tying blood-vessels in surgical opera tions. observing that the opulent women in many parts of the Roman empire possessed such thread, especially in the great cities §. He also mentions cloths of silk and gold in his treatise, c. 9. (Hippocratis et Galeni Opp. ed. Char tier, torn. vi. p. 533.) : " Of this kind are the shawls interwoven trith gold, the materials of which are brought from afar, and which are called Seric or silk." CLEMENS ALEXANDRINES. dissuading the Christian convert from luxury in dress, thus speaks : Ei r.l avu-toiiiptcQai ^or, 6'S'tyov Ivcorzov airaTs ua\aKuripois ;^Ofjer0at r:~ * This does not apply to the silk-worm, which has sixteen legs, in pairs : six proper legs before, and ten holders behind. (See Figure 1, Plate iii.) t L. vi. 26. p. 125. ed. Siebel. $ Barrow's Travels in China, p. 437, Sac. Resume des Traites Chinas, &lc. traduit par Julien, p. 70-72. 77-80. The practice is here shown to have pre- vailed as early as the fifth century B. C § Methodna Medendi, 1. xiii. c. 22. 5 34 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OP jxovovTas ixefiwprjjxei/ag \e7TT0vpyiai, nal ras lv reus iipats irtpdpyovs ir\oKas hxiroSoiv fiedaTTavraS' vrjua xpvtrov, tcai urjpas 'IvSikovs, /cat rovg nepiipyovg (SdfxPvKng %aipeiv Icovras, us \ri£ (pvtrai to npeorop' elra e£ avrov iaatla dviKpaiverat /a^cr/j. fied' f\v aj Tphr\v fitranopcpojariv veoxpovTai Pojj{3v\iov' oi Si vtKv6a\ov avro Ka\ovo-iv' e| ov pa/cpos TiKTSfai crfifiuvy KaBairep Ik rrjs dpd^irig b rrjs dpa^vm /">°J- — Pccdag. ii. 10. But, if it is necessary to accommodate ourselves to the women, let us concede to them the use of cloths, which are a little softer, only refusing that degree of fine- ness, which would imply folly, and such webs as are excessively labored and in- tricate; bidding farewell to gold thread, and to the Indian Seres, and that indus- trious bombyx, which is first a worm, then puts on the appearance of a hairy cat- erpillar, and hence passes, in the third place, into a Bombylius, or, as some call it, a Necydalus ; and out of which is produced a long thread, in the same man- ner as the thread of the spider. — Yates 's Translation. The use of the epithet " Indian" in this passage may be ac- counted for from the circumstance, that in the time of the writer silken goods were brought to Alexandria and other cities of Egypt from India. Clemens has evidently borrowed this description from Aristotle. SECOND CENTURY. TERTULLIAN. thus describes the Bombyx : Vermiculi genus est, qui per aerem liquando aranearum horoscopis idoneas sedes tendit, dehinc devorat, mox alvo reddere ; proinde si necaveris, animata jam stamina volves. It is a kind of worm, which extends abodes like the dials of spiders by float- ing them through the air. It then devours them so as to restore them to its stom- ach. Therefore, if you kill it, you will roll living threads. (See chap, ix.) In the same treatise (De Pallio, c. 4.) we find the following notice : Such as Hercules was in the silk of Omphale. Soon after, the same author, speaking of Alexander the Great, says, Vicerat Medicam gentem, et victus est Medici veste : pectus squamarum signaculis disculptum, textu pellucido tegendo, nudavit: et anhelum adhuc ab opere belli, ut mollius, ventilante serico extinxit. Non erat satis animi tumens Macedo, ni ilium etiam vestis inflatior delectasset. He had conquered the Medes, and was conquered by a Median garment. When his breast exhibited the sculptured resemblances of scales, he covered it SILK BY THE ANCIEXTS. 35 with a pellucid texture, which rather laid it bare ; panting from the work of war, he cooled and mollified it by the use of silk, exposing it to the wind. It was not sufficient for the Macedonian to have a tumid mind ; he required to be delighted also with an inflated garment. He afterwards says of a philosopher, He went wearing a garment of silk, and sandals of brass. Again he says of a low character, u She exposes her silk to the wind? In his treatise on Female Attire he mentions silk in relation to Milesian wool, and he concludes that treatise in the following terms : Manus lanis occupate, pedes domi figite, et plus quam in auro placebitis. Ves- tite vos serico probitatis, byssino sanctitatis, purpura pudicitise. Employ your hands with wool ; keep your feet at home. Thus will you please more than if you were in gold. Clothe yourselves with the silk of probity, with the fine linen of sanctity, and with the purple of modesty. Lastly, this author says (Adv. Marcionem. I. i. p. 372.), Imitare, si potes, apis aedificia, forrnicae stabula, aranei retia, bombycis stamina. Imitate, if thou canst, the constructions of the bee, the retreats of the ant, the nets of the spider, the threads of the silk-worm. APULEIUS. Prodeunt, mitellis, et crocotis, et carbasinis. et bombycinis injecti. * * * Deam- que, serico contectam amiculo, mihi gerendam imponunL Metamorphoseon, I. viii. p. 579, 580. ed. Oudendorpii. They came forward, wearing ribbons, and cloths of a saffron color, of cotton, and of silk, loosely thrown over them. * * * And they place on me the Goddess covered with a small silken scarf, to be carried by me. Hie incinctus baltheo militem gerebat ; ilium succinctum chlamyde, copides et venabula venatorem fecerant ; alius soccis obauratis, indutus serica veste, mun- doque pretioso, et adtextis capite crinibus, incessu perfluo feminam mentiebatur. Ibid. I. xi. p. 769. One performed the part of a soldier, girt with a sword ; another had his chla- mys tucked up by a belt, and carried scimitars and hunting-poles, as if engaged in the chace ; another, wearing gilt slippers, a silken tunic, precious ornaments, and artificial hair, by his flowing attire represented a woman. ULPIAX. Yossius, in his Etymologicum Lingnce Latince, in the learned and copious article Sericum, says, " Inter sericum et 36 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF bombycinam discrimen ponit Ulpianus, 1. xxiii. de aur. arg*. leg. ' Vestimentorum sunt omnia lanea, lineaque, vel serica, vel bombycina.' " JULIUS POLLUX. The Bombyces are worms, which emit from themselves threads, like the spider. Some say, that the Seres collect their webs from animals of this kind. L. vii. 76. p. 741.— Kuhn JUSTIN evidently refers to the use of silken garments in his account of the customs of the Parthians, where he says, They formerly dressed after their own fashion. After they became rich, they adopted the pellucid and flowing garments of the Medes. L. xli. c. 2. All doubt, whether the transparent garments, mentioned by Justin, were of silk, must be removed by the authority of Pro- copius, from whom we shall hereafter cite ample and important testimony in reference to the time when he lived, and who in the two following passages expressly states, that the Avebs, called by the Greeks in his time Seric, were more anciently de- nominated Median. Among the valuable and curious effects of the emperor Commodus, which after his death (A. D. 192.) were sold by his successor Pertinax, was a garment with a woof of silk, of a bright yellow color, the appearance of which was more beau- tiful than if the material had been interwoven with threads of gold*. THIRD CENTURY. The authorities now quoted supply evidetice respecting the use of silk among the Greeks and Romans down to the end of the second century. It is rarely mentioned by any writer be- longing to the following centuryt ; so far as we have discovered, * Vestis subtegmine serico, aureis filis insignior. — Jul. Capitolini Pertinax, c. 8. in Scrip. Hist. Augustae. t Mannert (Geogr. iv. 6. 7. p. 517.) attributes the excessive dearness of silk in the third century to the victories of the Persians, which at that time cut off all direct communication between Serica and the western world. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 37 only by the three historians now to be quoted, by Cyprian, and by Solinus. But we have from these historians some remark- able accounts of the regard paid to it by the emperors Heliogab- alus, Alexander Severus, Aurelian, Claudius II., Tacitus, and Carinus, all of whom reigned in the third century. JElius Lampridius says (c. 26.), that the profligate and effeminate emperor Heliogabalus w T as the first Roman, who wore cloth made wholly of silk, the silk having been formerly combined with other less valuable materials, and, in consequence of his example, the custom of wearing silk soon became gen- eral among the wealthy citizens of Rome. He mentions (c. 33) among the innumerable extravagances of this emperor, that he had prepared a silken rope of purple and scarlet colors to hang himself with. Of the emperor Alexander Severus he says (c. 40), that he himself had few garments of silk, that he never wore a tunic made wholly of silk, and that he never gave away cloth made of silk mixed with less valuable materials. The following is the testimony of Flavius Vopiscus in his life of the emperor Aurelian. Aurelian neither had himself in his wardrobe a garment wholly of silk, nor gave one to be worn by another. "When his own wife begged him to allow her to have a single shawl of purple silk, he replied, Far be it from us to permit thread to be reckoned worth its weight in gold. For a pound of gold was then the price of a pound of silk. c. 45. Although the above mentioned restrictions in the use of silk may be partly accounted for from the usual severity of Aure- lian's character, yet the facts here stated abundantly show the rarity and high value of this material in that age. Flavius Vopiscus further states, that the emperor Tacitus made it unlawful for men to wear silk unmixed with cheaper mate- rials. Carinus, on the other hand, made presents of silken garments, as well as of gold and silver, to Greek artificers, and to wrestlers, players, and musicians. Trebellius Pollio, in his life of Claudius II. (c. 14 and 17.), twice mentions white garments of silk mixed with cheaper materials, which were destined for that emperor. 38 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage in the third century, inveighs in the follow- ing terms against the use of silk : Tu licet indumenta peregrina et vestes sericas induas, nuda es. Auro te licet et margaritis gemmisque condecores, sine Christi decore deformis es. De Lapsis, p. 135. ed. Fell. Although thou shouldest put on a tunic of foreign silk, thou art naked ; al- though thou shouldest beautify thyself with gold, and pearls, and gems, without the beauty of Christ thou art unadorned. Also in his treatise on the dress of Virgins he says, Sericum et purpuram indutae, Christum induere non possunt : auro et margari- tis et monilibus adornatse, ornamenta cordis et pectoris perdiderunt. Those who put on silk and purple, cannot put on Christ : women, adorned with gold and pearls and necklaces, have lost the ornaments of the heart and of the breast. In the same place he gives us a translation of the well- known passage of Isaiah enumerating the luxuries of female attire among the Jews : "In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head-bands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings, the rings, and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils." Isaiah iii. 18-23. SOLINUS, Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, qui, aquarum aspergine inundatis frondi- bus, vellera arborum adminiculo depectunt liquoris, et lanuginis teneram subtilita- tem humore domant ad obsequium. Hoc illud est sericum, in quo ostentare po- tius corpora quam vestire, primo feminis, nunc etiam viris persuasit luxuriae libido. Cap. 1. The Seres first, having inundated the foliage with aspersions of water, combed down fleeces from trees by the aid of a fluid, and subdued to their purposes the tender and subtile down by the use of moisture. The substance so prepared is silk ; that material in which at first women, but now even men, have been per- suaded by the eagerness of luxury rather to display their bodies, than to clothe them. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 39 AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS. This historian describes the Seres as u a quiet and inoffen- sive people who. avoiding all quarrels with then neighbors, are exempt from the distresses and alarms of war, and not being under the necessity of using offensive arms, do not even know their use, and occupy a fertile country under a delicious and healthy climate. He represents them as passing their happy life in the most perfect tranquillity and the most delicious re- pose amidst shady thickets refreshed by pleasant zephyrs, and where the soil furnishes so soft a wool, that after having been sprinkled with water and combed, it forms cloths resembling silk." Marcellinus proceeds to describe the Seres as being content with their own felicitous condition, and so reserved in their in- tercourse with the rest of mankind, that when foreigners ven- ture within their boundaries for wrought and unwrought silk. and other valuable articles, they consider the price offered in silence, and transact their business without exchanging a word ; a mode of traffic which is still practised in some eastern coun- tries. Macpherson, in the Annals of Commerce, a very valuable work, thinks that according to all appearances, the Seres were themselves the authors of this story, in order to make stran- gers believe that their country enjoyed all these benefits by the peculiar' blessing of heaven, and that no other nation could participate in them. The remarks of Solinus and Ammianus conspire to show, how much more common silk had become about the end of the third century, being then worn, at least with a warp of cheaper materials, by men as well as by women, and not being confined to the noble and the wealthy. These authors likewise dilate upon the use of showers of water to detach silk from the trees on which it was found. According to Pliny and Solinus. water was also employed after the silk was gathered from the trees* : and probably the fact was so. Silk, as it * " The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchloeni 40 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE, ETC. comes from the worm, contains a strong gum, which would be dissolved by the showers of water dashed against the trees, and thus the cocoons, being loosened from the leaves and twigs, would be easily collected. In the subsequent processes, water would be further useful in enabling the women to spin the silk or to wind it upon bobbins. It may be observed that in this use of water art only follows nature. When the moth is ready to leave its cell, it always softens the extremity of it by emitting a drop of fluid, and thus easily obtains for itself a passage. In the third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society (p. 543.), Colonel Sykes gives the following account of the process by which the moth of the Kolisurra silk-worm liberates itself from confine- ment. " It discharges from its mouth a liquor, which dissolves or loosens that part of the cocoon adjoining to the cord which attaches it to the branch, causing a hole, and admitting of the passage of the moth. The solvent property of this liquid is very remarkable ; for that part of the cocoon, against which it is directed, although previously as hard as a piece of wood, be- comes soft and pervious as wetted brown paper." In the seventh volume of the Linnsean Transactions, is an account by Dr. Roxburgh of the Tusseh silk-worm. Both species are natives of Bengal. The cocoons require to be im- mersed in cold water before the silk can be obtained from them. In the latter species it is too delicate to be wound from the co- coons, and is therefore spun like cotton. Thus manufactured it is so durable, that the life of one person is seldom sufficient to wear out a garment made of it, and the same piece descends from mother to daughter. (See Chap. VIII. of this Part.) and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a City of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that three hundred nations used to resort to it speaking different languages; and that business was afterwards transacted on our part through the medium of one hundred and thirty interpreters." CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURY. SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING. HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THESE ARTS. Fourth century — Curious account of silk found in the Edict of Diocletian — Extrav- agance of the Consul Furius Placidus — Transparent silk shifts — Ausonius de- scribes silk as the produce of trees — Quintus Aur Symmachus, and Claudian's tes- timony of silk and golden textures — Their extraordinary beauty — Pisanders de- scription — Periplus Maris Erythraei — Dido of Sidon. Mention of silk in the laws of Manu — Rufiis Festus Avinus — Silk shawls — Marciannus Capella — In- scription by M. N. Proculus, silk manufacturer — Extraordinary spiders' webs — Bombyces compared to spiders — Wild silk-worms of Tsouen — Kien and Tiao- Kien — M. Bertin's account — Further remarks on wild silk-worms. Chris- tian authors of the fourth century — Arnobius — Gregorius Xazienzenus — Basil — Illustration of the doctrine of the resurrection — Ambrose — Georgius Pisida — Macarius — Jerome — Chrysostom — Heliodorus — Salmasius — Extraordinary beauty of the silk and golden textures described by these authors — Their invec- tives against Christians wearing silk. Mention of silk by Christian authors in the fifth century — Prudentius — Palladius — Theodosian Code — Appolinaris Si- donius — Alcimus Avitus. Sixth century — Boethius. (Manufactures of Tyre and Sidon — Purple — Its great durability — Incredible value of purple stufls found in the treasury of the King of Persia.) FOURTH CENTURY. Some curious evidence respecting the use of silk, both un- mixed with linen and with the warp of linen, or some inferior material, is found in the Edict of Diocletian, which was published A. D. 303 for the purpose of fixing a maximum of prices for all articles in common use throughout the Roman Empire*. The passage pertaining to our present subject, is as follows : * It was edited A. D. 1826, by Colonel Leake, as a sequel to his Journal of a Tour in Asia Mvnor, and is also published in Tr. of the Royal Society of Litera- ture, vol. i. p. 181. 42 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF Sarcinatori in veste soubtili replicat(u)rae . . * sex Eidem aperturue cum subsutura olosericas . . * quinquaginta Eidem aperturae cum subsutura su(b)sericae . . * triginta (Sub)suturae in veste grossiori * quattuor. Denarii*. To the Tailor for lining a fine vest 6 To the same for an opening and an edging with silk 50 To the same for an opening and an edging with stuff made of a mixed tis- sue of silk and flax 30 For an edging on a coarser vest 4 Colonel Leake's translation. This document proves, in exact conformity with the passages quoted from Solinus and Ammiaiius, that silk had come into general use at the commencement *of the fourth century. It is also manifest from this extract, that silk was employed in giv- ing to garments a greater proportion of intricacy and ornament than had been in use before. The authors who make mention of silk in the fourth and fol- lowing centuries are very numerous. We shall first take the heathen authors, and then the Christian writers, whose observa- tions often have some moral application, which gives them an additional interest. The unknown author of the Panegyric on the emperor Con- stantine, pronounced A. D. 317, thus mentions silk as charac- terizing oriental refinement. Facile est vincere timidos et imbelles, quales amoena Graecia et deliciae Orientis educunt, vix leve pallium et sericos sinus vitando sole tolerantes. It is easy to vanquish the timid and those unused to war, the offspring of pleas- sant Greece and the delightful East, who, whilst they avoid the heat of the sun, can scarcely bear even a light shawl and folds of silk. The testimony of the Roman historian Flavius Yopiscus, in reference to the practice of the emperor Aurelian and the dearness of silk during his reign, has already been produced. This author, in his life of the same emperor, makes the follow- ing remarks on a display of silk which he had himself recently witnessed. * A Roman coin of the value of about sixteen or seventeen cents, called De- narii from the letter X upon it ; which denoted ten. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 43 We have lately seen the Consulate of Furius Placidus celebrated in the Circus with so great eagerness for popularity, that he seemed to give not prizes, but pa- trimonies, presenting tunics of linen and silk, borders of linen, and even horses, to the great scandal of all good men. The exact period here referred to is no doubt the Consulship of Placidus and Romulus, A. D. 343. In the Epistles of Alciphron (i. 39.) Myrrhine, a courtesan, loosens her girdle, which probably fastened her upper garment or shawl. Her shift was silk, and so transparent as to show the color of her skin. ausonius satirizes a rich man of mean extraction, who nevertheless made lofty pretensions to nobility of birth, pretending to be de- scended from Mars, Romulus, and Remus, and who therefore caused their images to be embossed upon his plate and woven in a silken shawl. — Epig. 26. In the following line, he alludes to the production of silk in the usual terms : Vellera depectit nemoralia vestifluus Ser. Idyll. 12. The Ser remote, in flowing garments drest, Combs down the fleeces, which the trees invest. QUINTUS AUR SYMMACHUS. This distinguished officer, in a letter to the Consul Stilicho, apologizes in the following terms for his delay in sending a con- tribution of Holoseric pieces, that is, webs wholly made of silk, to the public exhibitions. Others have deferred supplying the water for the theatre and the Holoseric pieces, so that I have examples in my favor. — Epist, I. iv. 8. In a letter to Magnillus (I. v. 20.) he speaks of Subseric pieces, webs made only in part of silk, as presents ; At your instigation the Subseric pieces have been supplied, which my men kept back after the price had been settled ; and likewise everything else pertain- ing to the prizes which were to be given. CLAUDIAN mentions silk in numerous passages. This poet, in describing 44 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF the consular robes of the two brothers Probinus and Olybrius (A. D. 395. ), represents the Gabine Cincture, by which the toga was girt over the breast, as made of silk. In the following passage he represents the two brothers, Honorius and Arcadius, as dividing the empire of the world be- tween them and receiving • tributes of its productions from the most distant regions : Vestri juris erit, quicquid complectitur axis. Vobis rubra dabunt pretiosas aequora conchas, Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres. Be III. Cons. Honorii, I 209-211. To you the world its various wealth shall send : Their precious shells the Erythrean seas ; India its iv'ry, Araby its boughs, The distant Seres fleeces from the trees. In a poem, which immediately succeeds this in the order of time, Claudian describes a magnificent toga, worn by Honorius on being appointed a fourth time consul, by saying, that it re- ceived its color (the Tyriau purple) from the Phoenicians ; its woof (of silk forming stripes or figures) from the Seres ; and its weight (produced by Indian gems) from the river Hydas- pes*. Again, in his poem on the approaching marriage of Honorius and Maria, he mentions yellow silk curtains (I. 211.) as a decoration of the nuptial chamber. Again he says (in Eutrop. I. i. v. 225, 226. 304. I ii. v. 337.) : Te grandibus India gcmmis, Te foliis Arabes ditent, te vellere Seres. Let India with her gems thy wealth increase, The Arabs with their leaves, the Seres with their fleece. He also mentions with delight the use of gold in dress, as well as of silk. The following passage represents the manner in which Proba, a Roman matron, near the end of the fourth century, expressed her affectionate congratulations on the ele- vation of her two sons to the Consulship, by preparing robes in- terwoven with gold for the ceremony of their installation. « De IV. Cons. Honorii, i. 600, 601. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 45 "With joy elated at this proud success, Their venerable mother now prepares The golden trabeas, and the cinctures bright With Seric fibres shorn from woolly trees : Her well-train'd thumb protracts the length'ning gold, And makes the metal to the threads adhere. In Probini et Olyhrii Consulatum, I. 177-182. From these verses we learn that Proba had herself acquired the art of covering the thread with gold, and that she then used her gold thread in the woof to form the stripes or other ornaments of the consular trabeae. These are afterwards call- ed ••stiff togas"' (togce rigentes, I. 205.). on account of the rigidity imparted to them by the gold thread. The same poet gives an elaborate description of a Trabea which he supposes to have been woven by the Goddess Rome with the aid of Minerva for the use of the Consul Stilicho. Five different scenes are said to have been woven in this admi- rable robe (regentia dona, graves anro trabeas). and certain parts of them were wrought in gold*. Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold and purple for her son Achilles : Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. (Ep. 35.) The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that Serena, mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius. wove garments of the same kind for him. Maria, the daughter of the above-mentioned Stilicho, was bestowed by him upon Honorius, but died shortly after, about A. D. 400. In February, 1544, the marble coffin, containing her remains, was discovered at Rome. In it were preserved a garment and a pall, which, on being burnt, yielded 36 pounds of gold. There were also found a great number of glass ves- sels, jewels, and ornaments of all kinds, which Stilicho had given as a dowry to his daughtert. We may conclude, that the garments discovered in the tomb of Maria were woven by the hands of her mother Serena, since the epigram of Claudian * In I. Cons. Stilichonis, L. ii. 330-359. t Surii Comment. Rerum Gest. ab anno 1500, &c. 46 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF proves that she wove robes of a similar description for Hono- rius, and probably on the same occasion. Anastasius Biblio- thecarius says, that when Pope Paschal was intent on finding the body of St. Caecilia, having performed mass with a view to obtain the favor of a revelation on the subject, he was di- rected A. D. 821 to a cemetery on the Appian Way near Rome, and there found the body enveloped in cloth of gold*. Although there is no reason to believe, that the body found by Paschal was the body of the saint pretended, yet it may have been the body of a Roman lady who had lived some centuries before, and probably about the time of Honorius and Maria. Pisander, who belonged to the same period (900 B. C.) with Homer, speaks of the Lydians as wearing tunics adorned with gold. Lydus observes, that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the Hermust- Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was manufactured by Dido, the Sidonian, one by Androm- ache, and another was in the possession of Anchisest. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of Phcenice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia. He describes an ape ludicrously attired in a silk jacket ; and, inveighing against the progress of luxury, he speaks of some to whom even silk garments were a burthen. In elaborate descriptions of the figured consular robes (the Trabese) of Ho- norius and Stilicho, he mentions the reins and other trap- jnngs of horses, as being wrought in silk§. The frequent allusions to silk in the complimentary poems of Claudian, receive illustration from various imperial laws, which were promulgated in the same century, and in part by the very emperors to whom his flattery is addressed, and which * " Aureis vestitum indumentis." De Vitis Rom. Pontificum Mogunt. 1602, p. 222. t De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64. $ JEn, iii. 483. ; iv. 264. ; viii. 167. ; xi. 75. § Rubra Serica, De VI. Cons. Honor. I. 577. Serica Fraena. In I. Cons. Stih- cbonis 1. ii. V. 350. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 47 are preserved in the Code of Justinian. Their object was not to encourage the silk manufacture, but. on a principle very opposite to that of modern times, to make it an imperial mo- nopoly. The admiration excited by the splendor and elegance of silk attire was the ground, on which it was forbidden that any individual of the male sex should wear even a silken bor- der upon his tunic or pallium, with the exception of the em- peror, his officers and servants. To confine the enjoyment of these luxuries more entirely to the imperial family and court, all private persons were strictly forbidden engaging in the manufacture, gold and silken borders were to be made only in the imperial Gyneecea*. THE PERIPLUS MARIS ERYTHR^I. In this important document on ancient geography and com- merce, we find repeated mention of silk in its raw state, in that of thread, and wovent. These articles were conveyed down the Indus to the coast of the Erythrean Sea. They were also brought to the great mart of Barygaza, which was on the Gulf of Cambay near the modern Surat, and to the coast of Lymirica, which was still more remote. The author of the Periplus states, that they were carried by land through Bactria to Barygaza from a great city called Thina. lying far towards the North in the interior of Asia. He of course refers to some part of Serica. It is remarkable, that he makes no mention of silk as the native production of India. Silk is mentioned in two passages of the laws of Manu, viz. XL v. 168, and XII. v. 64. It is, however, observed by Heer- en, who quotes passages of the Ramayana that make mention of silk, that garments of this material are there represented as worn only on festive occasions, and that they were undoubt- edly Seric or Chinese productions}:. Indeed it appears that * See the Corpus Juris Civilis, Lugduni 1627, folio, tom. v. Codex Justiniani, 1. x. tit. vii. p. 131. 134. t Arriani Opp., vol. ii. Blancardi, pp. 164, 170. 173. 177. X Ideen iiber die Politik, &c. der alten Welt, i. 2. pp. 647. 648. 665-668. 677. 3rd edition. Gottincren, 1815. 48 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF the cloth made from the thread of the native worms of Hin- dostan, although highly valued for strength and durability, is not remarkable for fineness, beauty, or splendor. RUFUS FESTUS AVIENUS. This author, adopting the common notion of his time, sup- poses the Seres to spin thread from fleeces which were produced upon the trees. He also mentions silk shawls (Serica pallia, I. 1008.) as worn by the female Bacchantes of Ionia in their processions in honor of Bacchus ; and it is worthy of remark, that they are not mentioned in the original passage of Dionys- ius, the author whom Avienus translates, so that we may reasonably infer, that the use of them on these occasions was introduced between the time of Dionysius (about 30 B. C.) and that of Avienus (A. D. 400). MARTIANUS CAPELLA. Beyond these (the Anthropophagi) are the Seres, who asperse their trees with water to obtain the down, which produces silk. L. vi. p. 223. ed. Grotii, 1599. The following Inscription is given in Gruter, Tom. iii. p. dcxlv. It was found at Tivoli, and expresses that M. N. Proculus, silk-manufachirer, erected a monument to Yaleria Chrysis, his excellent and deserving wife. D. M. VALERIAE. CHRYSIDI. M. NVxMIVS. PROCVLVS. SERICARIVS. CONJVGI. SVAE. OPTIMA. BENEM. FECIT. Before proceeding to the Christian writers of the 4th and fol- lowing centuries we may now introduce the remarks of Servius on the passage formerly quoted from Virgil. He is supposed to have written about A. D. 400. Among the Indians and Seres there are on the trees certain worms, called Bombyces, which draw out very fine threads after the manner of spiders ; and these threads constitute silk. SLIK BY THE ANCIENTS. 49 It will be seen hereafter, that these " Indian Seres" were the inhabitants of Khotan in Little Bucharia. The frequent comparison of Bombyces to spiders by the an- cients suggests the inquiry whether they employed the thread of any kind of spider to make cloth, as was attempted in France by 31. Bon. The failure of his attempt is sufficient, as it appears, to show, that the extensive manufacture of gar- ments from this material must have been scarcely possible in ancient times. It is also to be observed, that the ancients, when they compare the silk-worm to the spider, refer to the spider's iveb, whereas M. Bon, not finding the web strong enough, made his cloth from the thread with which the spider envelopes its eggs*. But. although we have no reason to believe, that the web of any spider was anciently employed to make cloth, yet these accounts may have referred to worms, possibly varieties of the silk-worm, which spun long threads floating in the air. The * The most extraordinary account of a spider's web. which we have ever seen, is that given by Lieutenant W. Smyth. He says, " We saw here (viz. at Pachi- za, on the river Huayabamba in Peru) a gigantic spider's web suspended to the trees: it was about 25 feet in height, and near 50 in length; the threads were very strong, and it had the empty sloughs of thousands of insects hanging on it. It appeared to be the habitation of a great number of spiders of a larger size than we ever saw in England. - ' Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para, London, 1S36. p. 141. For some interesting notices of the great spider of Brazil the reader is referred to Caldcleuglvs Travels in South America, London 1^25, vol i. eh. 2. p. 41 ; and to the Rev. R. Walsh's Notices of Brazil, London 1830, vol. ii. p. 300, 301. Mr. Caldcleugh •'•' assisted in liberating from a spider's net a bird of the size of a sicalloic, quite exhausted icith struggling, and ready to fall a prey to its inde- fatigable enemies." Mr. Walsh had his light straw hat removed from his head by a similar web extending from tree to tree in an opening through winch he had occasion to pass. He wound upon a card several of the threads composing the web : and he observes, that, as these spiders are gregarious, the difficulties expe- rienced by M. Bon from the ferocity of the solitary European spiders in killing and devouring one another, would not exist if the attempt were made to obtain clothing; from the former. In the forests of Java Sir George Staunton " found webs of spiders, woven with threads of so strong a texture as not easily to be divided without a cutting instrument." — Account of Lord Macartney's Embassy to China, London 1797, vol. i. ch. 7. p. 302. (See Chap. IX.) 7 50 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF common silk- worm spins and suspends itself by its thread, long before it begins its cocoon. It appears probable, therefore, that there may have been wild varieties of this creature, or perhaps other species of the same genus, which in the earlier stages of their existence spun threads long enough for use. We ground this conjecture partly on the following passage from Du Halde's History of China*. " The province of Chan-tong produces a particular sort of silk, which is found in great quantities on the trees and in the fields. It is spun and made into a stuff called Kien-tcheou. This silk is made by little insects that are much like cater- pillars. They do not spin an oval or round cocoon, like the silk-worms, but very long threads. These threads, as they are driven about by the winds, hang upon the trees and bushes, and are gathered to make a sort of silk, which is coarser than that made of the silk spun in houses. But these worms are wild, and eat indifferently the leaves of mulberry and other trees. Those who do not under- stand this silk would take it for unbleached cloth, or a coarse sort of drugget. " The worms, which spin this silk, are of two kinds : the first, much larger and blacker than the common silk-worms, are called Tsouen-kien ; the second, being smaller, are named Tiao-kien. The silk of the former is of a reddish gray, that of the latter darker. The stuff made of these materials is between both colors, it is very close, does not fret, is very lasting, washes like linen, and, when it is good, receives no damage by spots, even though oil were to be shed on it. \ " This stuff is much valued by the Chinese, and it is sometimes as dear as satin or the finest silks. As the Chinese are very skilful at counterfeiting, they make a false sort of Kien-tcheou with the waste of the Tche-kiang silk, which without due inspection might easily be taken for the genuine article." This account affords a remarkable illustration of many of the expressions of the ancient writers, such as " Bombyx pen- dulus urget opus," Martial; "Per aerem liquando aranearum horoscopis idoneas sedes tendit," Tertullian ; " In aranearum morem tenuissima fila deducunt," iServius. In further illustration of the subject, and as tending to show that the Kien-tcheou is manufactured from the thread of a silk- worm, modified in its habits and perhaps in its organization by circumstances, we shall now quote a few passages from a work having the following title : " China ; its costume, arts, ma?i- ufactures, $'C, edited from the origi7ials in the cabinet of M. Bert in, with observations by M. Breton. Translated from, the French. London, 1812." Vol. iv. p. 55, §*c. * Vol. ii. p. 359, 360, 8vo. edition, London, 1736. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 51 " The wild silk-worms are found in the hottest provinces of China, especially- near Canton. They live indifferently on all sorts of leaves, particularly on those of the ash, the oak, and the fagara, and spin a greyish and rarely white silk. The coarse cloth manufactured from it is called Kicn-tcheou, will bear washing, and on that account persons of quality do not disdain to wear clothes of it. With this silk also the strings of musical instruments are made, because it is stronger and more sonorous. •• Entomologists treat but very* superficially of the habits of the wild silk- worms,' while they dwell in minute detail on the method of rearing them in Pro- vence. n It is between the nineteenth and twenty-second day of their existence, that they undertake the great work of spinning their cocoon. They curve a leaf into a kind of cup, and then form a cocoon as large and nearly as hard as a hen's egg ! This cocoon has one end open like a reversed funnel : it is a passage for the butterfly, which is to come out. " The oak-worms are slower in making their cocoon than those of the fagara and ash, and they set about it differently. Instead of bending a single leaf, they roll themselves in two or tliree and spin their cocoon. It is larger, but the silk is inferior in quality, and of course not so valuable. '•' The cocoons of wild silk-worms are so strong and compact, that the insects encounter great difficulty in extricating themselves, and therefore remain inclosed from the end of the summer, to the spring of the following year. These butter- flies, unlike the domestic insect, fly very- well. — The domestic silk-worm is but a variety of the wild species. It is fed on the leaves of the mulberry tree." (Seo chap. VIII.) The circumstance that the worms were sometimes fed with oak-leaves is mentioned in Du Halde's History of China, vol. ii. p. 363. Here then we have a justification of the ancients in asserting, both that the silk-worms produced long threads and webs float- ing in the air like those of spiders, and that they fed upon the leaves of the oak. the ash. and many other trees. It may be recollected, that Pliny expressly mentions both the oak (quercus) and the ash {fraxinus). Until very lately the use of silk among the ancients was in- vestigated only by philologists. Within a few years M. Latreille, an entomologist of the highest distinction, has directed his at- tention to the subject and has examined particularly the above- cited passages of Aristotle, Pliny, and Pausanias*. He never * M. LatreihVs paper is published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tome xxiii. pp. 58-84. 52 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF supposes the ancient Sericum to have been the produce of any- thing except the silk-worm. But of this there are several va- rieties, partly perhaps natural, and partly the result of domes- tication. He endeavors to explain some parts of Pliny's descrip- tion by showing their seeming correspondence with some of the practices actually observed by the Orientals in the management of silk-worms. An account of the wild silk-worms of China is to be found in the "Memoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, &c, des Chinois," compiled by the missionaries of Peking*. This account is principally derived from the information of Fa- ther U'Incarville, one of the missionaries. It coincides gen- erally with the accounts already quoted from Du Halde and Breton. We extract the following particulars as conveying some further information : " The Chinese annals from the year 150 B. C. to A. D. 638 make frequent mention of the great quantity of silk produced by the wild worms, and observe that their cocoons were as large as eggs or apricots." The following passage is also deserving of attention : " Le papillon de ces vers sauvages, dit le Pere d'Incarville, est a ailes vitrees." This information, if correct, would prove that there was at least one kind of wild silk-worms in China, which was a different species from the Phaleena Mori ; for that has no transparent membranes in its wings, and would not be likely to receive them in consequence of any change in its mode of life. We now proceed to take the Christian authors of the fourth and following centuries in the order of time. arnobius (a. d. 306.) thus speaks of the heathen gods : They want the covering of a garment : the Tritonian virgin must spin a threat, of extraordinary fineness, and according to circumstances put on a tunic either of mail, or silkt. * Tome ii. pp. 579-601. Paris, 1777, 4to. This Memoir is reprinted with abridgments as an Appendix to Stanislaus Julien's Translation of the Chinese Treatise on the Breeding of Silk-worms, Paris, 1837, 8vo. t Adv. Gentes, 1. iii. p. 580, ed. Erasmi. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 53 GREGORIUS NAZIENZENUS, CL., A. D. 370. The following passage contains, we believe, the earliest al- lusion to the use of silk in the services of the Christian Church. "AAXqi i*iv %pva6vT£ Kal apyvpov, ol 6i tu Tir]p<2v Atipa cpspovai 6eu) vfi^ara XeTtraXsa. K«t XptoTM dvairiv tij ayvr\v dviQr]Kev iavrov' K.al airivSei SapKvwv aXXos ayvds X(/?a<5a?. Ad Hellenium pro Monachis Carmen, torn. ii. p. 106. ed. Par. 1630. Silver and gold some bring to God Or the fine threads by Seres spun : Others to Christ themselves devote, A chaste and holy sacrifice, And make libations of their tears. Yates's Translation. BASIL, CL., A. D. 370. Although this celebrated author was a native of Asia Minor, and had studied in Syria and Palestine, he appears to have known the silk- worm only from books and by report. His de- scription of it in the following passage, in which we first find the beautiful illustration of the doctrine of a resurrection from the change of the chrysalis, is chiefly copied from Aristotle's ac- count as formerly quoted. Ti (pare ol dnioTovvTei rwYlavXw nepl rrjs Kara t>w dvdaTatriv dXXoiu>o£o)$ } bp&vTes noWa tCjv depiwv Tag poppas ixera0dX\ovra ; OTtota Kal irepl rov 'IvSikov o-kojXi^kos IcToptZrai rov tcepaatyopov 05 tig Kafjnrriv to. irpojra ^£ra/?aXwi/, £ira irpo'iibv pO[x0vXios yivtrai, Kal ovSi. inl ravrris 'to-Tarai rfj<; ^op^)/?, dXXa %avvoi$ Kal nXareai nerdXois v-rroivTepovTai. "Orav ovv Ka9s^a9e t>iv tovtuv ipyaaiav dvaTrtivi^ojxivai al yvvaiKtg, to. pfijxara Xeyw, a irsfiTrovdiv ijiTv oi Hrjpes irpds Trjv roiv /xaXaKuv ivSv/xaTOv KaTaaKtvhv, nejxvri^evai rrjs Kara, to £a>oi/ tovto neraffoXfjs, evapyrj Xa^fidvere rrjs dvatrrdaewg evvotov, Kal //>; dirio-TEiTE ttj dXXaytj, jfv JTauXoj linao-L KareirayyiXXeTai. — Hexahemeron, p. 79. A. Ed. Benedict. What have you to say, who disbelieve the assertion of the Apostle Paul con- cerning the change at the resurrection, when you see many of the inhabitants of the air changing their forms ? Consider, for example, the account of the horned worm of India, which (i. e. the silk-worm) having first changed into a caterpillar (eruca, or veruca), then in process of time becomes a cocoon (bombylius, or bom- bulio), and does not continue even in this form, but assumes light and expanded wings. Ye women, who sit winding upon bobbins the produce of these animals, namely the threads, which the Seres send to you for the manufacture of fine gar- ments, bear in mind the change of form in this creature ; derive from it a clear conception of the resurrection ; and discredit not that transformation which Paul announces to us all. — Yates's Translation. 54 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF When St. Basil says of the new-born moth, that " it as- sumes light and expanded wings," the beauty of the com- parison in illustrating the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is enhanced, when we consider that in its wild state the moth flies very well, although, when domesticated, its flight is weak and its wings small and shrivelled* : but still more beautiful does the figure become, if we suppose a reference to those larger and more splendid Phalamse which produce the coarser kinds of silk in India, and probably in China also. Basil is the first writer, who distinctly mentions the change of the silk-worm from a Chrysalis to a moth. In his applica- tion of that fact he addresses himself to his countrywomen in Asia Minor, and his language represents them sitting and winding on bobbins the raw silk obtained from the Seres and designed to be afterwards woven into cloth. Between these two authors, Aristotle and Basil, we observe a difference of phraseology which appears deserving of notice. While they both describe the women, not as spinning the silk, but as winding it on bobbins, they designate the ma- terial so wound by two different names. Basil uses the term v^ara, which might be meant to imply that the silk came from the Seres in skeins as it comes to us from China : Aris- totle, on the contrary, uses the term PoyptKia, which can only refer to the state of silk before it is wound into skeins. As it might appear impossible to convey it in this state to Cos, we shall here insert from the authorities already quoted, the Chinese Missionaries, an account of the process by which the cocoons are prepared for winding, and it will then be seen, that the cocoons might have been transported to any part of the world. " To prepare the cocoons of the wild silk-worms, the Chinese cut the extremities of them with a pair of scissors. They are then put into a canvass bag, and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling lye, which dissolves the gum. When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle; * The Phalaena Atlas, apparently a native of China, measures eight inches across the wings from tip to tip. SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 55 pressed to expel the lye, and then laid out to dry. Whilst they are still moist, the chrysalises are extracted : each cocoon is then turned inside out. so as to make a sort of cowl. It is necessary only, to put them again into lukewarm water, after which ten or twelve of them are capped one upon an- other like so many thimbles, to insert a small distaff through them, when the silk may he reeled off. Basil, in one of his Homilies, (Opp. torn. ii. p. 53. 55. ed. Benedict.) inveighs against the ladies of Caesarea, who em- ployed themselves in weaving gold : and lie is no less indig- nant at their husbands who adorned even then horses with cloths of gold and scarlet as if they were bridegrooms. The author of a Treatise - De discipline et bono pudicitia?,*' which is usually published with Cyprian, and which may be referred to the fourth or fifth century, thus speaks (Cypriani Opera, ed. Erasmi. p. 499.) : To weave gold in cloth is. as it were. to adopt an expensive method of spoiling it. Why do they interpose stiff metals between the delicate threads of the warp ? The same censure is implied in the following address of Al- cimus Avitus to his sister. Non tibi gemmato posuere nonilia collo, Nee te contexit, neto quae fulguratauro Vestis, ductilibus concludens fila talentis : Nee te Sidonium bis eoeti muricis ostrum Induit, aut rutilo perlucens purpura suceo. Mollia vel tactu quse mittunt vellera Seres : Nee tibi transfossis fixerunt auribus aurum. No threaded gems have pressed thy sparkling neck : No cloth, with lines incased in ductile gold, Or twice with the Sidonian murex dved, Has glittered on thee : thou hast never worn The fleeces soft which distant Seres send : Nor are thy ears transfixed for pendent gold. The effect of such exhortations as the preceding, was to in- duce piously disposed persons to apply pieces of gold cloth to public and sacred, instead of private purposes. After this period we find continual instances of their use in the decoration of churches and hi the robes of the priesthood. 56 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OP AMBROSE, CL. A. D. 374. Sericae vestes, et auro intexta velamina, quibus divitis corpus ambitiir, damna viventium, non subsidia defunr.torum sunt. — Be Nabutko Jezraelitd, cap. i. torn, i. p. 566. Ed. Bened. Silken garments, and veils interwoven with gold, with which the body of the rich man is encompassed, are a loss to the living, and no gain to the dead. Here we think it not out of place to introduce the account of the silk- worm by Georgius Pisida, who flourished about A. D. 640, although he lived at Constantinople after the breeding of silk-worms had been introduced there. According to him the silk -worm pines or moulders almost to nothing in its tomb, and then returns to its former shape. The verses are however deserving of attention for their elegance, and for the repetition of Basil's idea, which Ambrose has left out, of the analogy be- tween the restoration of the silk-worm and the resurrection of man. IioiOJ Jt K> 7:a\ai [Ji6p(f>Ld(7iv dp/$jjra>? tyva 'Ei> tC) -epiTTtvoavTi piKpoj Xeiipavy, Upas Tt]v d~' dp%fjs aw^aTOVjitvog TrXdiriv. I. 1265-1262. What law persuades the Seric worm to spin Those shining threads, which, dyed with purple hue, Inflate, yet check the pride of mighty men ? For, whilst they blaze in grand attire, the thought Steals on, — This splendid robe once cloth'd a worm : Type of our resurrection from the grave, It dies within the tomb itself has spun, That perishing abode, which is at once Its house and tomb ; in which it rots away, SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 57 Till at the call of time it gladly leaves Corruption, and its anci«nt shape resumes. A little remnant of its mould'ring flesh, By processes unspeakable and dark, Restores the wonders of its earliest form. Yates's Translation MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373. This author gives us an additional proof (Homil. 17, § 9.) that the use of silken clothing was characteristic of dissolute women. JEROME; CL.. A. D. 378. This great author mentions silk in numerous passages. In his translation of Ezekiel xxvii. he has supposed silk (sericum) to be an article of Syrian and Phoenician traffic as early as the time of that prophet. In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Laeta on the Edu- cation of her Daughter (Opp. Paris, 1546, torn. i. p. 20. C), he says : Let her learn also to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her bosom, to twirl the spindle, to draw the threads with her thumb. Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c. Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks ; because we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, we are called re- strained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek. — Epist. ad Marcelluin, De Mgrotatione Blesillcs, torn. i. p. 156, ed. Erasmi, 1526. You formerly went with naked feet ; now you not only use shoes, but even ornamented ones. You then wore a poor tunic and a black shirt under it, dirty and pale, and having your hand callous with labor ; now you go adorned with linen and silk, and with vestments obtained from the Atrebates and from Laodi- cea. — Adv. Jovinianum, I. ii Opp. ed. Paris, 1546, torn. ii. p. 29. In. the following he further condemns the practice of wrap- ping the bodies of the dead in cloth of gold : "Why do you wrap your dead in garments of gold ? Why does not ambition cease amidst waitings and tears ? Cannot the bodies of the rich go to corruption except in silk ? Epist. L. ii. You cannot but be offended yourself, when you admire garments of silk and gold in others.— Epist. L. ii. No. 9, p. 138, ed. Par. 1613, 12ma 58 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF CHRYSOSTOM, CL., A. D. 398. 'AXXut cripiKa tu t/xoLTia] ctXXu paKicov yi^ovca r] xpv^f}. Comment, in Psalm 48. torn. v. p. 517. ed. Ben. Does the rich man wear silken shawls? His soul however is full of tatters. KaXa tu crrjpiKU , Sericum. In the more modern European languages we find two sets of terms for silk, the first evidently derived from the oriental Seric, but with the common substitution of I for r, the second of an uncertain origin. To the first set belong, Chelk, silk, in Slavonian. Silke, in Suio-Gothic and Icelandic]: . Silcke, in Danish. Siolc or Seolc, silk, in Anglo-Saxon. Also Siolcen or Seolcen, silken ; Gal reolcen, Holosericus ; Seolcpynm, silk- worm §. * Journal Asiatique, 1823, torn. ii. p. 246. Julius Klaproth (Tableau Historique de 1'Asie, Paris, 1826, p. 57, 58.) says, that in the year 165 B. C. the inhabi- tants of the country called by us Tangut, who constituted a powerful kingdom, were attacked by the Hioung Nou, and driven to the West, where they fixed themselves in Transoxiana, and that these events led to an uninterrupted com- munication with Persia and India, especially in regard to the silk trade. Klap- roth considers that the Seres of the ancients were the Chinese ; but he appears to include under that term all the nations which were brought into subjection to the Chinese. Professor Karl Ritter (Erdkunde, Asien, Band iv. 2 te Auflage, Berlin, 1835, p. 437.) observes, in allusion to the authority just quoted, that all the names of the silk-worm and its products are to be accounted for on the supposition (which he considers the true one) that they were first known and cidtivated in China, and from thence extended through central Asia into Europe* t See Schindler's Pentaglott, p. 1951, D. X Silki trojo ermalausa, a silk tunic without sleeves. Knitlynga Saga, p. 114, as quoted by Ihre, Glossar. Suio-Goth. v. Armalausa. § iElfric's Glossary (made in the tenth century), p. 68. Appendix to Sumner's Dictionary. AFTER ITS FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 81 Silk, silk, in English*. Sirig, in Welsht. To the second set belong", Seda, silk, in the Latin of the middle ages. Seta, in Italian. Seide, in German. Side, in Anglo-Saxon. Also Sidene, silken, iElfric as quoted by Lye ; Sidpypm, silk-worm, Junius, 1. c. Sidan, in Welsh. Satin, in French and English^. According to Abel Remusat {Journal Asiat. I. c.) the mer- chandise of Eastern Asia passed through Slavonia to the North of Europe in the middle ages, even without the mediation of Greece or Italy. This may account for the use of the terms of the first class, while it is possible that those of the second have been derived from the South of Europe, from whence we have seen that silken commodities were also occasionally trans- ported to the North. To the evidence now produced from authors and printed documents respecting the history of silk from the earliest times to the period of its universal extension throughout Europe, an- other species of proof may be added, viz. that afforded by Relics preserved in churches, and by other remains of the antiquities of the middle ages. As examples of this method for illustrating the subject, the following articles may be enumerated. I. The relics of St. Regnobert, Bishop of Bayeux in the seventh century. These consist of a Casula, or Chasuble, a Stole, and a Maniple. They are yet preserved in the cathe- dral of Bayeux, and worn by the Bishop on certain annual fes- * Nicholas Fuller (Miscellanea, p. 248.) justly observes, Vocabulum Anglica- num Selk non nisi Sericum authorem generis sui agnoscit. Selk enim nuncnpa- tum est quasi Selik pro Serik, literae r in 1 facili commutatione facta. Minshew and Skinner give the same etymology. t Junius, Etymologicum, v. Silk. It appears doubtful, however, whether Ju- nius is here to be depended on. t Menage, Diction. Etym. de la Langue Franchise, torn. ii. p. 457, ed. Joult 11 82 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK tivals. They are of silk interwoven with gold, and adorned with p > ear Is*. II. Portions of garments of the same description with those of St. Regnobert were discovered A. D. 1827 on opening the tomb of St. Cuthbert in the Cathedral of Durham. They are preserved in the library of that church, and accurately described by the Rev. James Raine, the librarian, in a quarto volume. III. The scull-cap of St. Simon, said to have been made in the tenth century, and now preserved in the Cathedral of Treves. Its border is interwoven with gold. In regard to these interesting relics, they may with confi- dence be looked upon as specimens of the manufacture of silk from the seventh to the twelfth century. IV. In the Cathedral at Hereford is a charter of one of the Popes with the bull (the leaden seal), attached to it by silken threads. Silk was early used for this purpose in the South of Europef. The Danish kings began to use silk to append the waxen seals to their charters about the year lOOOt. Y. Silk, in the form of velvet, may be seen on some of the ancient armor in the Tower of London. YI. The binding of ancient manuscripts affords specimens of silk. A French translation of Ludolphus Saxo's Life of Christ in four folio volumes, among Dr. William Hunter's MSS. at Glasgow, still has its original binding covered with red velvet, which is probably as old as the fourteenth century. A curious source of information on the art of book-binding at that period is the Inventory, or Catalogue of the library col- lected by that ardent lover of books, Charles Y. of France. As this catalogue particularly describes the bindings of about 1200 volumes, many of which were very elaborate and splen- did, it enables us to judge of the use made of all the most valu- able stuffs and materials which could be employed for this pur- pose, and under the head of silk we find the following : " soie," * See John Spencer Smythe's Description de la Chasuble de Saint Regnobert, in the Proces Verbal de 1' Academic Royale des Sciences, Arts, et Belles Lettres, de la Ville de Caen, Seance d'Avril 14, 1820. t Mabillon de Re Diplomatic^, 1. ii. cap. 19. §6. X Diplomatarium Arna-Magnaeanum, a Thorkelin, torn. i. p. xliv. AFTER ITS FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 83 silk ; " veluyau," velvet ; " satanin," satin ; " damas," damask ; " taffetas," taffetas ; " camocas ;" " cendal ;" and " drap dor," cloth of gold, having probably a basis or ground of silk*. From the few examples of ancient Catholic vestments that have escaped destruction, the generality of persons are but little acquainted with the extreme beauty of the embroidery worked for ecclesiastical purposes during the Middle Ages. The countenances of the images were executed with perfect expression, like miniatures in illuminated manuscripts. Every parochial church, previous to the Reformation, was furnished with complete sets of frontals and hangings for the altars. One of the great beauties of the ancient embroidery was its appro- priate design : each flower, leaf, and device having a signifi- cant meaning with reference to the festival to which the vest- ment belonged. Such was the extreme beauty of the English vestments in the reign of Henry III., that Innocent IV. for- warded bulls to many English bishops, enjoining them to send a certain quantity of embroidered vestments to Rome, for the use of the clergyt. * See Inventaire de FAncienne Biblioteque due Louvre, fait eu Fannee 1373. Paris, 1836, 8vo. t The art of embroider}- seems to have attained a higher degree of perfection in France, than any other country in Europe ; — it is not, however, so much prac- tised now. Embroiderers formerly composed a great portion of the working pop- ulation of the largest towns ; laws were specially framed for their protection, some of which would astonish the working people of the present day. They were formed into a company as early as 1272, by Etienne Boileau, Prevot de Paris, under their respective names of " Brodeurs, Decoupeurs, Egratigneurs, and Chasubiters." In the last and preceding centuries, when embroider}-, as an article of dress both for men and women, was an object of considerable importance, the Ger- mans, and more particularly those of Vienna, disputed the palm of excellence with the French. At the same period, Milan and Venice were also celebrated for their embroidery ; but the prices were so extravagantly high, that according to Lamarre, its use was forbidden by sumptuary laws. CHAPTER V, SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THIS MANUFACTURE. Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses — Homer — Golden tunics of the Lydians — Their use by the Indians and Arabians — Extraordinary display of scarlet robes, purple, striped with silver, golden textures, &c, by Darius, king of Persia — Purple and scarlet cloths interwoven with gold — Tunics and shawls variegated with gold — Purple garments with borders of gold — Golden chlamys — Attalus, king of Pergamus, not the inventor of gold thread — Bostick — Golden robe worn by Agrippina — Caligula and Heliogabalus — Sheets inter- woven with gold used at the obsequies of Nero — Babylonian shawls intermixed with gold — Silk shawls interwoven with gold — Figured cloths of gold and Ty- rean purple — Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the Greeks — 4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero for a Baby- lonish coverlet — Portrait of Constantius II. — Magnificence of Babylonian car- pets, mantles, &c. — Median sindone6. The use of gold in weaving may be traced to the earliest times, but seems to be particularly characteristic of oriental manners. It was employed in connexion with woollen and linen thread of the finest colors to enrich the ephod, girdle, and breast-plate of Aaron*. The sacred historian goes so far as to describe the * "And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel : six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel : thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel : and Aaron shall SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. 85 mode of preparing the gold to be used in weaving : " And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work/' — Ex. xxxix. 2-8. The his- torian certainly does not intend to describe the process of wire- drawing, nor probably the art of making gold thread. It seems likely, that neither of these ingenious manufactures were invented in his time. The queen described in Ps. xiv., wears " clothing of wrought gold*." Homer mentions :: a golden girdle," (Od. t. 232. «. 543.). He also describes an upper gar- ment, which Penelope made for Ulysses before going to lllium. On the front part of it a beautiful hunting piece was wrought in gold. It is thus described. " A dog holds a fawn with its fore feet, looking at it as it pants with fear and strives to make its escape." This, he says, was the subject of universal admi- rationt. Pisander, who probably lived at the same period with Homer, speaks of the Lydians as wearing tunics adorned with gold. Lydus, who has preserved this expression of the ancient cyclic poet, observes that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the HermusJ. Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was made by Dido, the Sidonian, another by Andromache, and a third was in the possession of Anchisesl. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of Phcenice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia. Among all the Asiatics, none were more remarkable than bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And thou shalt make ouches of gold ; and two chains of pure gold at the ends ; of tcreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches. And thou shalt make the breast -plate of judgment with cunning work ; after the work of the ephod shalt thou make it ; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen shalt thou make it." — Ex. xxviii. 5-15. * " The king's daughter is all glorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold."— Ps. xlv. 13. t Od. r. 225-235. t De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64. § JEin. iii. 483. ; iv. 264. ; viii. 167. ; xi. 75. 86 SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. the Persians for the display of textures of gold, as well as every other kind of luxury in dress. A tiara interwoven with gold was one of the presents which Xerxes gave as an expression of his gratitude to the citizens of Abdera {Herod, viii. 120.). The Indians also employed the same kind of ornament (Strabo, L. xv. c i. § 69.); and the Periegesis (I. 881.) of Priscian at- tributes the use of it to the Arabians*. The history of Alexander the Great affords frequent traces of the use of cloth interwoven with gold in Persia. Garments made of such cloth were among the most splendid of the spoils of Persepolist. Justin (L. xii.) says that Alexander, to avoid offending the Persians, ordered his principal attendants to adopt for their dress " longam vestem auream purpureamque." The dress prescribed was therefore of fine woollen cloth, or probably of silk, dyed purple, and interwoven with gold. Among the vast multitudes which preceded the King of Persia when he ad- vanced to oppose Alexander, was the band of ten thousand called the Immortals, whose dress was carried to the ' ne plus ultra' of barbaric splendor, some wearing golden collars, others "cloth variegated with gold." Some idea of the extravagance and pomp of the Persians on this occasion may be formed from the following passage, taken from Rollin's " Ancient History." " The order Darius observed in his march was as follows. Before the army were carried silver altars, on which burned the fire, called by them sacred and eternal ; and these were followed by the magi, singing hymns, and 365 youths in scarlet robes. After these proceeded a consecrated car, drawn by white horses and followed by one of an extraordinary size, which they called " The horse of the sun." The equerries were dressed in white, each bearing in his hand a golden rod. Next appeared ten sumptuous chariots, enriched with curious sculptures in gold and silver ; and then the vanguard of the horse, composed of twelve different nations, in various armor. This body was succeeded by those of the Persians, called " The Immortals," amounting to 10,000, who surpassed the rest of the barbarians in the extravagant richness and splendor of their dress ; for they all wore collars of gold, and were clothed in robes of gold tissue, having large sleeves, garnished with precious stones. About thirty paces from them came the * In Europe the nearest approach to oriental habits in regard to dress was made by the Gauls. Their principal men wore collars, armlets, and bracelets of gold, and clothes enriched with the same metal. — Strabo, L. iv. cap. 4. § 5. t Diod. Sic. L. xvii. 70. p. 214. Wessel. SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OP THE ANCIENTS. 87 king's relations or cousins, to the number of 15,000, apparelled like women, and more remarkable for the pomp of their dress than the glitter of their arms ; and af- ter these Darius attended by his guards, seated on a chariot, as on a throne. The chariot was enriched, on both sides, with images of the gods in gold and silver ; and from the middle of the yoke, which was covered with jewels, rose two statues, a cubit in height ; the one representing War, the other Peace, having between them a golden eagle with wings extended. The king was attired in a garment of purple striped with silver ; over which was a long robe, glittering with gold and precious stones, and whereon two falcons were represented as if rushing from the clouds at each other. Around his waist he wore a golden girdle, from whence hung scimitar, the scabbard of which was covered with gems. On each side of Darius walked 200 of his nearest relations, followed by 10,000 horsemen, whose lances were plated with silver, and tipped with gold. After these marched 30,000 foot, the rear of the army, and, lastly, 400 horses belonging to the king. " About 100 paces from the royal divisions of the army came Sisygambis, the mother of Darius, seated on a chariot, and his consort on another, with female at- tendants of both queens riding on horseback. Afterwards came fifteen chariots, in which were the king's children, and their tutors. Next to these were the royal concubines, to the number of 360, all attired like so many queens. These were followed by 600 mules, and 300 camels, carrying the king's treasure, and guarded by a body of bowmen. After these came the wives of the crown officers, and the 2ords of the court ; then the suttlers, servants ; and, lastly, a body of light armed troops, with their commanders." At the nuptials of Alexander purple and scarlet cloths, in- terwoven with gold, were expanded over the guests : and a pall of the same description covered the golden sarcophagus made to contain his body. Among the splendid ornaments of the tent erected not long after at Alexandria by Ptolemy Phil- adelphus, there were tunics interwoven with gold : and in the procession on the same occasion, the colossal statues of Bacchus and his nurse Nysa were attired ; the former in a shawl ; the latter in a tunic variegated with gold. Probably we may refer to the same country and age the " golden tunic" mentioned in one of the Arundle marbles (No. xxii. 2.), Also the tent pitch- ed by Arsace with hangings of gold and purple tissues, and the robe of similar materials worn by Arsace herself, as de- scribed by Heliodorus (JEthiop. vii.), relate to the customs of the same country. Another of the successors of Alexander, viz. Demetrius Poliorcetes, wore purple garments with borders of gold*. * Plutarch, Demet. 41. 88 SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. Themistius describes a portrait of one of the kings of Persia, who wore, together with the tiara and the collar or necklace, a purple shawl interwoven with gold {Or at 24. p. 369. ed. Dindorf.). During the periods to which the preceding evidence has allu- sion, it is not probable that cloth of gold was in use among the Greeks and Romans except to a very limited extent. Never- theless it does not appear to have escaped the avidity for every species of excellence, which in early times distinguished the in- habitants of Magna Grsecia. For, when Pythagoras became a teacher of wisdom and philosophy at Crotona, among other lessons of frugality he persuaded the matrons to put off their u golden garments" with other fashionable ornaments, and de- posit them in the temple of Juno as offerings to the goddess*. In a passage attributed to Menander we meet with the men- tion of a "golden or purple chlamys" as a suitable offering to the godsf. Hedylus of Samos, a writer of the same age, de- scribes a woman of loose morals, by name Niconoe, as wearing a tunic striped with gold {Brunch's Analecta, i. 483.), Attalus, king of Pergamus, is said by Pliny (L. viii. cap. 48.) to have invented the art of embroidering with gold threads Nevertheless we have seen, that gold was thus used long before the time of Attalus. But there can be no doubt, that he es- tablished and maintained a great manufacture of these stuffs at Pergamus ; thus contributing greatly to improve the art, and bring these cloths into more general use. The next passage is from Dr. Bostock's translation of the 33rd Book, ch. xix. " Gold may be spun or woven like wool, without the latter being mixed with it. We are informed by Verrius, that Tarquinius Priscus rode in triumph in a tunic of gold; and we have seen Agrippina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius, when he exhibited the spectacle of a naval combat, sitting by him covered with a robe made entirely of woven gold. In what are called the Attalic stuffs, the gold is woven * Justin, L. XX. c. 4. t Menandri Reliquiae, a, Meineke, p. 306. Bockh, Gr. Trag. Principes, p. 157. % See Appendix A. SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. 89 with some other substance. This art was the invention of one of the kings of Asia." In Book xxxv. c. 36. Pliny says that Zeuxis, to display his wealth at Olympia, caused his name to be woven in gold in the compartments of his outer garment. Caligula once wore a tunic interwoven with gold. Heliogab- alus was far more profuse in regard to this kind of splendor. White sheets, interwoven with gold, were used at the funeral obsequies of Nero*. We may here observe, that the use of gold in dress almost invariably accompanied that of silk. The same Emperors who took delight in the one, indulged them- selves with the other also. On the contrary, Alexander Seve- rus, as we shall show when treating of linen in Part IV., was economical in both these respects. In Chapters II. and III., we quoted several passages which make mention of cloth of gold, from Tibullus, Ovid, Seneca the Tragedian, Lucan, Dio Cassius, Claudian, Virgil, Gregorius Nazienzenus, and Basil, all of which speak of cloth of gold. Ovid mentions purple garments variously colored and inter- woven with gold, as belonging to Bacchus. — Met. iii. 556. Publius Syrus was a writer of the same period. In the fol- lowing fragment preserved by Petronius Arbiter, he compares the train of the peacock to Babylonian stuffs enriched with gold and various colors : Thy food the peacock, which displays his spotted train, As shines a Babylonian shawl with feather'd gold ! Shawls, interwoven with gold, are mentioned by Galent, and by Valerius Flaccust ; also by Lucan in the following passage, where he is describing the furniture of Cleopatra's palace (x. 125,126.): Part shines with feather'd gold, part sheds a blaze Of scarlet, intermixed by Pharian looms ! The following passages also contain evidence on the same subject. * Suetonius, Nero, 50. t Quoted in Chapter II. X Auro depicta chlamys. 12 90 SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. SENECA, THE PHILOSOPHER. As yet figured cloths di<* not exist : gold was not woven, it was not even ex- tracted from the ground. — Epist. 91. LUCIAN descnhes the tragic actors, when they performed the part of king?, as wearing a chlamys interwoven with gold*. APULEIUS. They carefully spread over the couches, cloths figured with gold and Tyrian purple. — Met PHILOSTRATUS depicts Midas wearing a golden robet- NEMESIANUS. In thy scarf's woof much sportive gold display.— Cyneg. 91. The poet is addressing Diana and describing her attire. AUSONIUS. Weave flexile gold within thy shawls, O Greece}. This is the first passage since the time of Homer, which men- tions Greece as concerned in weaving with gold. But Auso- nius probably alluded to the Greeks of Asia Minor, as, besides the evidence produced from Basil, we have seen that Pergamus was one of the most noted places for these productions, which were on that account called " Attalicae vestes§." * Somnium, vol. ii. p. 742. ed. Hemsterhusii. t Imag. i. 22. t Epigram 37. § " I find evidence that kings wore the striped toga ; that figured cloths were in use even in the days of Homer ; and that these gave rise to the triumphal. To produce this effect with the needle was the invention of the Phrygians, on which account cloths so embroidered have been called Phrygionic. In the same part of Asia king Attalus discovered the art of inserting a woof of gold (?) ; from which circumstance the Attalic cloths received their name (?). Babylon first ob- tained celebrity by its method of diversifying the picture with different colors, and gave its name to textures of this description. But to weave with a great number of leashes, so as to produce the cloths called polymita (the polymita were damask cloths), was first taught in Alexandria; to divide by squares (plaids) in SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. 91 When Ausonius was appointed Consul at Rome A. D. 379, his friend and former pupil, the Emperor Gratian, sent him as a present a toga in which was inserted a figure of Constantius II., wrought in gold. — Ausonii Gratiarum Actio, § 53. CLAUDIAN mentions with delight the use of gold in dress as well as of silk. His testimony has been given in chapter III. of this Part. SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS mentions the gold in the dress of Prince Sigismer. His testi- mony is also given in chapter III. CORIPPUS, describing the accession of Justin II. to the Empire (A. D. 565), mentions (L. ii.) his tunic enriched with gold as part of his im- perial costume. PAULINUS. Misceturque ostro mollitum in fila metcllura. De Vita Martini, L. iii. We find the following law in the Codex Justinianus : Nemo vir auratas in tunicis aut in lincis habeat paragaudas : nisi hi tantum- modo, quibus hoc propter Imperiale ministerium concessum est. Corpus Juris Civilis, torn. v. tit. viii. leg. 2. The " aurata paragauda"' was a border of gold lace or thread. It appears that ladies might wear it on their tunics, while men were only permitted to use it in token of their of- ficial character as being in the service of the emperor. In al- lusion to these or similar regulations, iElius Lampridius (34) says of the emperor Alexander Severus, Gaul. Metellus Scipio brought it as an accusation against Cato, that even in his time Babylonian coverlets for triclinia were sold for 800,000 sesterces (about S30.000), although the emperor Nero lately gave for them no less than 4,000,000 sesterces (about 8150,000). The prcetexta of Servius Tullius, covering the stat- ue of Fortune which he dedicated, remained until the death of Sejanus, and it is wonderful that they had neither decayed of themselves nor been injured by moths during the space of 560 years." — Plin. H. N. viii. 64. (See Appendix A.) 92 SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS. Auratam vestem ministerium nullus vel in publico convivio habuit. The testimony of Ambrose, Jerome, and Basil has been given in Chapter III., which see. From the book of Joshua we learn that the woven stuffs of Babylon were not confined to domestic use, but exported into foreign countries. The two chief productions of Babylonian looms were carpets and shawls. One of the principal objects of luxury in Asia from the remotest ages, were nowhere so finely woven, and in such rich colors as at Babylon. On the Babylonian carpets were woven or depicted representations of those fabulous animals the dragon and griffin, together with other unnatural combinations of form, probably originating in India, and with which we have become acquainted by the ruins of Persepolis. It was by means of the Babylonian man- ufactures, that the knowledge of these fanciful and imaginary beings, was conveyed to the Western world, and from them transferred to the Greek vases. " A mantle of Shinar," or as our translators have rendered it, "A Babylonish garment," was secreted by Achan from the spoils of Jericho ; and the delinquent speaks of this as being the most valuable part of his plunder*. Next to carpets and shawls, the Babylonian garments called Sindones were held in the highest estimation. The most costly Si?ido?ies, were so much valued for their fineness of texture and brilliancy of color, as to be compared to those of Media, and set apart for royal use ; they were even to be found at the tomb of Cyrus, which was profusely decorated With every species of furniture in use among the Persian monarchs during their lives. * " When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it." — Joshua vii. 21. .Platen with the processe: of :'■; id. Winding" CHAPTER VI. SILVER TEXTURES, &c, OF THE ANCIENTS. EXTREME BEAUTY OF THESE MANUFACTURES. Magnificent dress worn by Herod Agrippa, mentioned in Acts xii. 21 — Josephus's account of this dress, and dreadful death of Herod — Discovery of ancient Piece- goods — Beautiful manuscript of Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, who lived in the ninth century — Extraordinary beauty of Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, and other manufactured goods preserved in this manuscript — Egyptian arts — Wise regulations of the Egyptians in relation to the arts — Late discoveries in Egypt by the Prussian hierologist, Dr. Lepsius — Cloth of glass. The Evangelist Luke, in Acts xii. 21. speaks of the " royal apparel," in which Herod Agrippa, king of Judea, was arrayed when he received the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon, sitting in great state upon his throne at Csesarea. " And upon a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And im- mediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." Josephus describes the same garment, which was a tunic, as "all made of silver, and wonderful in its texture." He adds, that the king appeared in this dress at break of day in the theatre, and that the silver, illuminated by the first rays of the sun, glittered in such a manner as to terrify the behold- ers, so that his flatterers began to call out aloud, saluting him as a god. He was then seized with the painful and loath- some distemper, of which he soon after died*. We extract the following curious account of the discovery of Ancient Piece-goods and manufactured stuffs from a late * Ant. Jud. L. xix. cap. 8. § 2. p. 871. Hudson. 94 SILVER TEXTURES, ETC. OF THE ANCIENTS number of an English publication called the " Mining Re- view." Discovery of ancient Piece-goods and manufactured stuffs. — " It is more than a thousand years since Theodolphus, Bishop of Orleans, gave to Notre Dame du Puy en Yelay a beautiful manuscript, containing the ancient Testament, the chronogra- phy of St. Isidor, and other pieces, the whole distributed into 138 articles ; which he presented in token of gratitude for his deliverance from the prison of Angers, where he was confined in the year 835. It was on Palm Sunday that year, while Louis Le Debonnaire was passing, that he began to sing a well-known Canticle, which the Catholic church has since then introduced into its ceremonies. This precious manu- script, in a state of perfect preservation, is to be seen in the archives of the Bishopric of the Puy en Velay, department of the Haute Loire. A portion of the manuscript is written on leaves of common parchment, in letters of red and black, with a few of gold intermixed. The other portion is .inscribed on leaves of parchment, dyed purple, with letters of gold and silver, among which are observed, ornaments of different kinds and colors, designated the " Byzantine style? The manu- script, remarkable for its beauty and preservation, is still more valuable for the manufactured stuffs which it contains. When Theodolphus composed his manuscript, with the intention of preserving from contact and friction the gold and silver char- acters (which, in time, would have tended to displace and ob- literate them), he placed between each page a portion of the manufactured tissues peculiar to the era in which he lived. These specimens of the silk, and other pieces of goods of the time are thus curiously preserved*. Till lately, little attention was paid to these tissues, which are principally of India man- ufacture, bearing scarcely any analogy to the products of the modem loom. Some are CASHMERE SHAWLS of those patterns, which the French call broucha and espouline, and are * A shred of gold cloth is preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Leyden, which is supposed to have been discovered in one of the ancient tombs at Tar- quinia in Etruria. In this tissue the gold forms a compact covering over bright yellow silk. SILVER TEXTURES, ETC., OF THE ANCIENTS. 95 made in the Indian fashion, but with this difference, that they are limited to four colors, and demonstrate the greatest anti- quity by the primitive simplicity of their colors and design. Others are CRAPES and GAUZES, against the luxury of whose transparent tissues, the fathers of the church at that time so perseveringly fulminated their censures. The rest consist of muslins and China-crape of exquisite beauty. The components of the majority of these tissues are of goats' or camels' hair of exceeding delicacy and fineness. Like the manufactured stuffs of ancient Egypt, painted on the walls of its palaces and tombs, or substantially preserved amidst the envelopes of mummies, the designs are limited to four colors, which are in fact the four sacred ones of China, India, Egypt, and the Hebrew Tabernacle. Nevertheless, the Egyptian designs, identical with those of India, are many of them of exquisite beauty. The consummate skill of the silk and cotton manufacturers of ancient Egypt, 4000 years ago, the beauty and richness of their fabrics — the little alter- ation which has taken place in the economy or machinery of the factories, as well as in their product, has been recently dem- onstrated in the great work of Champollion. All the details of the silk and cotton factories of Egypt, under the Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty (which then monopolized the commerce of the world, and sent a colony of weavers, from the overbur- thened population of Lower Egypt, to found Athens, and the subsequent civilization of Europe), are laid open with vivid ac- curacy in that splendid work*, and brought with all their start- ling analogies before the eye of the modern reader by drawings from the temples, palaces, and tombs which it contains. It proves, indeed, that there is " nothing new tinder the sun? That the Egyptians excelled in science and art is evident from their monuments, paintings, and sculptures, whereon they are depicted. It is also proved by Scripture, which speaks of the " wisdom of Egypt" with reference to art ; and from the fact that Egypt was deemed by other nations the fountain of arts and sciences, and that their philosophers were wont to re- * See Plate II. 96 SILVER TEXTURES, ETC., OF THE ANCIENTS. sort thither to collect some of the u droppings of Egyptian wis- dom." According to Diodorus, all trades vied with each other in improving their own particular branch, no pains being spared to bring each to perfection. To promote the more effec- tually this object, it was enacted that no artisan should follow any trade or employment but that denned by law, and pursued by his ancestors. No tradesman was permitted to meddle with political affairs, or hold any civil office in the state, lest his thoughts should be distracted by the inconsistency of his pursuits, or the jealousy and displeasure of the master in whose service he was employed. They foresaw that without such a law constant interruptions would take place, in conse- quence of the necessity or desire of becoming conspicuous in a public station ; that their proper occupations would be neglected, and many w T ould be led by vanity and self-sufficiency to inter- fere in matters which were out of their sphere. They consid- ered, moreover, that to pursue more than one avocation would be detrimental to their own interests, and those of the commu- nity at large ; and that, when men, from a motive of avarice, engage in numerous branches of art, the general result is, that they are unable to excel in any. If any artisan interfered in political matters, or engaged in any employment other than the one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was immediately inflicted upon him. The eminent German hierologist, Dr. Lepsius, now employ- ed in Egypt by the Prussian government, after mentioning, in a recent letter, the many discoveries he had made of ancient ruins, tombs, &c., writes as follows : " With the exception of about twelve, which belong to a later period, all these tombs were erected contemporaneously with, or soon after, the building of the great pyramid, and consequently their dates throw an invaluable light on the study of human civilization in the most remote period of antiquity. — The sculp- tures in relief are surprisingly numerous, representing whole figures, some the size of life, and others of various dimensions. The paintings are on back grounds of the finest chalk. They are numerous and beautiful beyond conception — as fresh and perfect as if finished yesterday! The pictures and sculp- SILVER TEXTURES, ETC., OF THE ANCIENTS. 97 tures on the walls of the tombs, represent, for the most part, scenes in the lives of the deceased persons, whose wealth in cattle, fish-boats, servants, &c, is ostentatiously displayed before the eye of the spectator. All this gives an insight into the de- tails of private life among the ancient Egyptians. By the help of these inscriptions I think I could, without difficulty, make a " Court Calendar' of the reign of King Cheops*. In some in- stances I have traced the graves of father, son, grandson, and even great-grandson — all that now remains of the distinguished families, which five thousand years ago, formed the nobility of the land." * We do not find in these researches, that the ancients were acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving glass, or of giving it any required shade of color. This invention, therefore, must be considered as belonging to the nineteenth cen- tury, and the honor of the discovery is due to ML Dubus Bonnel, an ingenious Frenchman, a native of Lille, and for which he obtained patents in Great Brit- ain, and various countries of the European continent in 1837. " When we figure to ourselves an apartment decorated with cloth of glass, and resplendent with lights, we must be convinced that it will equal in brilliancy all that the imagination can conceive ; and realise, in a word, the wonders of the enchanted palaces mentioned in the Arabian tales. The lights flashing from the polished surface of the glass, to which any color or shade may be given, will make the room have the appearance of an apartment composed of pearls, mother- of-pearl, diamonds, garnets, sapphires, topazes, rubies, emeralds, or amethysts, &c, or, in short, of all those precious stones united and combined in a thousand ways, and formed into stars, rosettes, boquets, garlands, festoons, and graceful un- dulations, varied almost ad infinitum." — L'Echo du Monde Savant, &c. No. 58, Feb. 15, 1837. — Translated from the French. The warp is composed of silk, forming the body and groundwork on which the pattern in glass appears, as effected by the weft. The requisite flexibility of glass thread for manufacturing purposes is to be ascribed to its extreme fineness ; as not less than from fifty to sixty of the original threads (spun by steam engine power) are required to form one thread of the weft. The process is slow ; for no more than a yard of cloth can be produced in twelve hours. The work, however, is extremely beautiful and comparatively cheap, inasmuch as no similar stuff, where bullion is really introduced, can be purchased for anything like the price for which this is sold ; added to this, it is, as far as the glass is concerned, imper- ishable. Glass is more durable than either gold or silver, and, besides, the advantage of never tarnishing. 13 CHAPTER VII. DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM, &c. Preliminary observations — The silk-worm — Various changes of the silk-worm — Its superiority above other worms — Beautiful verses on the May-fly, illustra- tive of the shortness of human life — Transformations of the silk -worm — Its small desire of locomotion — First sickness of the worm — Manner of casting its Exuviae — Sometimes cannot be fully accomplished — Consequent death of the insect — Second, third, and fourth sickness of the worm — Its disgust for food — Material of which silk is formed — Mode of its secretion — Manner of unwinding the filaments — Floss-silk — Cocoon — Its imperviousness to moisture — Effect of the filaments breaking during the formation of the cocoon — Mr. Robinet's curi- ous calculation on the movements made by a silk-worm in the formation of a cocoon — Cowper's beautiful lines on the silk-worm — Periods in which its vari- ous progressions are effected in different climates — Effects of sudden transitions from heat to cold — The worm's appetite sharpened by increased temperature — Shortens its existence — Various experiments in artificial heating — Modes of ar- tificial heating — Singular estimate of Count Dandolo — Astonishing increase of the worm — Its brief existence in the moth state — Formation of silk — The silken filament formed in the worm before its expulsion — Erroneous opinions enter- tained by writers on this subject — The silk-worm's Will. It can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious for the acquisition of knowledge, that the commonest things by which we are surrounded are deserving of minute and careful attention. The most profound investigations of Philosophy are necessarily connected with the ordinary circumstances of our being, and of the world in which our every-day life is spent. With regard to our own existence, the pulsation of the heart, the act of respiration, the voluntary movement of our limbs, the condition of sleep, are among the most ordinary operations of our nature ; and yet how long were the wisest of men strug- gling with dark and bewildering speculations before they could offer anything like a satisfactory solution of these phenomena, and how far are we still from an accurate and complete know- ledge of them ! The science of Meteorology, which attempts to explain to us the philosophy of matters constantly before our eyes, as dew, mist, and rain, is dependent for its illustrations upon a knowledge of the most complicated facts, such as the DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 99 influence of heat and electricity upon the air ; and this know- ledge is at present so imperfect, that even these common occur- rences of the weather, which men have been observing and reasoniug upon for ages, are by no means satisfactorily explain- ed, or reduced to the precision that every science should aspire to. Yet, however difficult it may be entirely to comprehend the phenomena we daily witness, everything in nature is full of instruction. Thus the humblest flower of the field, although, to one whose curiosity has not been excited, and whose under- standing has, therefore, remained uninformed, it may appear worthless and contemptible, is valuable to the botanist, not only with regard to its place in the arrangement of this portion of the Creator's works, but as it leads his mind forward to the consideration of those beautiful provisions for the support of vegetable life, which it is the part of the physiologist to study and admire*. This train of reasoning is peculiarly applicable to the econo- my of insects. They constitute a very large and interesting part of the animal kingdom. They are everywhere about us. The spider weaves his curious web in our houses ; the cater- pillar constructs his silken cell in our gardens : the wasp that hovers over our food has a nest not far removed from us, which she has assisted to build with the nicest art ; the beetle that crawls across our path is also an ingenious and laborious me- chanic, and has some curious instincts to exhibit to those who will feel an interest in watching his movements ; and the moth that eats into our clothes has something to plead for our pity, for he came, like us, naked into the world, and he has destroyed our garments, not in malice or wantonness, but that he may clothe himself with the same wool which we have stripped from the sheep. An observation of the habits of these little crea- tures is full of valuable lessons, which the abundance of the examples has no tendency to diminish. The more such obser- vations are multiplied, the more we are led forward to the fresh- est and the most delightful parts of knowledge ; the more do * " Insect Architecture," vol. i. p. 9. London : Charles Knight & Co., Lud- gate St 1845. 100 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. we learn to estimate rightly the extraordinary provisions and most abundant resources of a creative Providence ; and the bet- ter do we appreciate our own relations with all the infinite va- rieties of Nature, and our dependence, in common with the ephemeron that flutters its little hour in the summer sun, upon that Being in whose scheme of existence the humblest as well as the highest creature has its destined purposes. "If you speak of a stone" says St. Basil, " if you speak of a fly, a gnat, or a bee, your conversation will be a sort of demonstra- tion of his power whose hand formed them, for the wisdom of the workman is commonly perceived in that which is of little size. He who has stretched out the Heavens, and dug up the bottom of the sea, is also He who has pierced a passage through the sting of the bee for the ejection of its poison." If it be granted that making discoveries is one of the most satisfactory of human pleasures, then we may without hesita- tion affirm, that the study of insects is one of the most delight- ful branches of natural history, for it affords peculiar facilities for its pursuit. These facilities are found in the almost inex- haustible variety which insects present to the curious observer. There is, perhaps, no situation in which the lover of nature and the observer of animal life may not find opportunities for increasing his store of facts. It is told of a state prisoner un- der a cruel and rigorous despotism, that when he was excluded from all commerce with mankind, and was shut out from books, he took an interest and found consolation in the visits of a spider ; and there is no improbability in the story. The op- erations of that persecuted creature are among the most ex- traordinary exhibitions of mechanical ingenuity ; and a daily watching of the workings of its instinct would beget admira- tion in a rightly constituted mind. The poor prisoner had abundant leisure for the speculations in which the spider's web would enchain his understanding. We have all of us, at one period or other of our lives, been struck with some singular evidence of contrivance in the economy of insects, which we have seen with our own eyes. Want of leisure, and probably want of knowledge, have prevented us from following up the curiosity which for a moment was excited. And yet some such DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 101 accident has made men Naturalists, in the highest meaning of the term. Bonnet, evidently speaking of himself, says, " I knew a naturalist, who, when he was seventeen years of age, having heard of the operations of the ant-lion, began by doubt- ing them. He had no rest till he had examined into them ; and he verified them, he admired them, he discovered new facts, and soon became the disciple and the friend of the Pliny of France*" (Reamur). It is not the happy fortune of many to be able to devote themselves exclusively to the study of nature, unquestionably the most fascinating of human employments ; but almost every one may acquire sufficient knowledge to be able to derive a high gratification from beholding the more com- mon operations of animal fife. His materials for contemplation are always before him. The silk-worm is a species of caterpillar which, like all other insects of the same class, undergoes a variety of changes during the short period of its life ; assuming, in each of three succes- sive transformations, a form wholly dissimilar to that vjith which it was previously invested. Among the great variety of caterpillars, the descriptions of which are to be found in the records of natural history, the silk-worm occupies a place far above the rest. Not only is our attention called to the examination of its various transforma- tions, by the desire of satisfying our curiosity as entomologists, but our artificial wants incite us likewise to the study of its na- ture and habits, that we may best and most profitably apply its instinctive industry to our own advantage. It has been well observed by Pullein, a writer on this subject, that " there is scarcely anything among the various wonders which the animal creation affords, more admirable than the variety of changes which the silk- worm undergoes ;" but the curious texture of that silken covering with which it surrounds itself when it arrives at the perfection of its animal life, vastly surpasses what is made by other animals of this class. All the caterpillar kind do, indeed, pass through changes like those of the silk-worm, and the beauty of many in their butterfly state * Contemplation de la Nature, part ii. ch. 42. 102 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. greatly exceeds it ; but the covering which they put on before this mutation is poor and mean, when compared to that golden tissue in which the silk-worm wraps itself. They, indeed, come forth in a variety of colors, their wings bedropped with gold and scarlet, yet are they but the beings of a summer's day ; both their life and beauty quickly vanish, and they leave no remembrance after them ; but the silk-worm leaves behind it such beautiful, such beneficial monuments, as at once to record both the wisdom of their Creator and his bounty to man." We may without impropriety, here introduce the following truly beautiful comparison of the shortness of human life, as well as in illustration of this part of our subject, as evidenced in the May-fly. " The angler's May -fly, the most short-lived in its perfect state of any of the insect race, emerges from the water, where it passes its aurelia state, about six in the evening, and dies about eleven at night." — White's Selborne. The sun of the eve was warm and bright When the May-fly burst his shell, And he wanton'd awhile in that fair light O'er the river's gentle swell ; And the deepening tints of the crimson sky Still gleam'd on the wing of the glad May -fly. The colors of sunset pass'd away, The crimson and yellow green, And the evening-star's first twinkling ray In the waveless stream was seen ; Till the deep repose of the stillest night Was hushing about his giddy flight. The noon of the night is nearly come — There's a crescent in the sky ; — The silence still hears the myriad hum Of the insect revelry. The hum has ceas'd — the quiet wave Is now the sportive Mayfly's grave. Oh ! thine was a blessed lot— to spring In thy lustihood to air, And sail about, on untiring wing, Through a world most rich and fair, To drop at once in thy watery bed, Like a leaf that the willow branch has shed. DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 103 And who shall say that his thread of years Is a life more blest than thine ! Has his feverish dream of doubts and fears Such joys as those which shine In the constant pleasures of thy way, Most happy child of the happy May ? For thou wert born when the earth was clad With her robe of buds and flowers, And didst float about with a soul as glad As a bird in the sunny showers ; And the hour of thy death had a sweet repose. Like a melody, sweetest at its close. Nor too brief the date of thy cheerful race — 'Tis its use that measures time — And the mighty Spirit that fills all space With His life and His will sublime, May see that the May-fly and the Man Each flutter out the same small span ; And the fly that is born with the sinking sun, To die ere the midnight hour, May have deeper joy, ere his course be run, Than man in his pride and power ; And the insect's minutes be spared the fears And the anxious doubts of our threescore years. The years and the minutes are as one — The fly drops in his twilight mirth, And the man, when his long day's work is done, Crawls to the self-same earth. Great Father of each ! may our mortal day Be the prelude to an endless May* ! * " See," exclaims Linnaeus, " the large, elegant painted wings of the butterfly, four in number, covered with delicate feathery scales ! With these it sustains itself in the air a whole day, rivalling the flight of birds and the brilliancy of the peacock. Consider this insect through the wonderful progress of its life, — how different is the first period of its being from the second, and both from the parent insect ! Its changes are an inexplicable enigma to us : we see a green caterpil- lar, furnished with sixteen feet, feeding upon the leaves of a plant ; this is changed into a chrysalis, smooth, of golden lustre, hanging suspended to a fixed point, without feet, and subsisting without food ; this insect again undergoes another transformation, acquires wings, and six feet, and becomes a gay butterfly, sport- ing in the air, and living by suction upon the honey of plants. What has Xature 104 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. Silk- worms proceed from eggs which are deposited during the summer by a grayish kind of moth, of the genus paleena. These eggs are about equal in size to a grain of mustard seed : their color when first laid is yellow ; but in three or four days after, they acquire a bluish cast. In temperate climates, and by using proper precautions, these eggs may be preserved du- ring the winter and spring, without risk of premature hatching. The period of their animation may be accelerated or retarded by artificial means, so as to agree with the time when the nat- ural food of the insect shall appear in ample abundance for its support. All the curious changes and labors which accompany and characterize the life of the silk-worm are performed within the space of a very few weeks. This period varies, indeed, accord- ing to the climate or temperature in which its life is passed ; all its vital functions being quickened, and their duration propor- tionally abridged, by warmth. With this sole variance, its pro- gressions are alike in all climates, and the same mutations ac- company its course. The three successive states of being put on by this insect are, that of the worm or caterpillar, of the chrysalis or aurelia, and moth. In addition to these more decided transformations, the progress of the silk-worm in its caterpillar state is marked by five distinct stages of being. When first hatched, it appears as a small black worm about produced more worthy of our admiration than such an animal coming upon the stage of the world, and playing its part there under so many different masks?" The ancients were so struck with the transformations of the butterfly, and its re- vival from a seeming temporary death, as to have considered it an emblem of the soul, the Greek word psyche signifying both the soul and a butterfly ; and it is for this reason that we find the butterfly introduced into their allegorical sculp- tures as an emblem of immortality. Trifling, therefore, and perhaps contempti- ble, as to the unthinking may seem the study of a butterfly, yet when we consid- er the art and mechanism displayed in so minute a structure, — the fluids circu- lating in vessels so small as almost to escape the sight — the beauty of the wings and covering — and the manner in which each part is adapted for its peculiar functions, — we cannot but be struck with wonder and admiration, and allow, with Paley, that " the production of beauty was as much in the Creator's mind in painting a butterfly as in giving symmetry to the human form.'* DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 105 a quarter of an inch in length. Its first indication of anima- tion is the desire which it evinces for obtaining food, in search of which, if not immediately supplied, it will exhibit more power of locomotion than characterizes it at any other period. So small is the desire of change on the part of these insects, that of tire generality it may be said, their own spontaneous will seldom leads them to travel over a greater space than three feet throughout the whole duration of their lives. Even when hungry, the worm still clings to the skeleton of the leaf from which its nourishment was last derived. If, by the continued cravings of its appetite, it should be at length incited to the ef- fort necessary for changing its position, it will sometimes wan- der as far as the edge of the tray wherein it is confined, and some few have been found sufficiently adventurous to cling to its rim ; but the smell of fresh leaves will instantly allure them back. It would add incalculably to the labors and cares of their attendants, if silk-worms were endowed with a more ram- bling disposition. So useful is this peculiarity of their nature, that one is irresistibly tempted to consider it the result of design, and a part of that beautiful system of the fitness of things, which the student of natural history has so many opportunities of contemplating with delight and admiration. In about eight days from its being hatched, its head becomes perceptibly larger, and the worm is attacked by its first sickness. This lasts for three days ; during which time it refuses food, and remains motionless as in a kind of lethargy. Some have thought this to be sleep, but the fatal termination which so frequently attends these sicknesses seems to afford a denial to this hypothesis. The silk-worm increases its size so considerably, and in so short a space of time, — its weight being multiplied many thousand fold in the course of one month, — that if only one skin had been assigned to it, which should serve for its whole caterpillar state, it would with difficulty have distended itself sufficiently to keep pace with the insect's growth. The economy of nature has therefore admirably provided the em- bryos of other skins, destined to be successively called into use ; and this sickness of the worm, and its disinclination for food, 14 106 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. may very probably be occasioned by the pressure of the skin, now become too small for the body which it encases. At the end of the third day from its first refusal of food, the animal appears, on that account, much wasted in its bodily frame ; a circumstance which materially assists in the painful operation of casting its skin : this it now proceeds to accomplish. To facilitate this moulting, a sort of humor is thrown ofT by the worm, which, spreading between its body and the skin about to be abandoned, lubricates their surfaces, and causes them to separate the more readily. The insect also emits from its body silken traces, which, adhering to the spot where it rests, serves to confine the skin to its then existing position. These prelim- inary steps seem to call for some considerable exertion, as after them the worm remains quiet for a short space of time, to re- cover from its fatigue. It then proceeds, by rubbing its head among the leafy fibres surrounding it, to disencumber itself of the scaly covering. Its next effort is to break through the skin nearest to the head, which, as it is there the smallest, calls for the greatest exertion ; and no sooner is this accomplished and the two front legs are disengaged, than the remainder of the body is quickly drawn forth, the skin being still fastened to the spot in the manner already described. This moulting is so complete, that not only is the tohole covering of the body cast off, but that of the feet, the entire skull, and even the jaws, including the teeth. These several parts may be discerned by the unassisted eye ; but become very apparent when viewed through a magnifying lens of moderate power. In two or three minutes from the beginning of its efforts the worm is wholly freed, and again puts on the appearance of health and vigor ; feeding with recruited appetite upon its leafy banquet. It sometimes happens that the outer skin refuses to detach itself wholly, but breaks and leaves an annular portion adhering to the extremity of its body, from which all the strug- gles of the insect cannot wholly disengage it. The pressure thus occasioned induces swelling and inflammation in other parts of the body ; and, after efforts of greater or less duration, death generally terminates its sufferings. DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 107 Worms newly freed from their exuviae are easily distinguished from others by the pale color and wrinkled appearance of their new skin. This latter quality, however, soon disappears, through the repletion and growth of the insect, which continues to feed during five days. At this time its length will be in- creased to half an inch ; when it is attacked by a second sick- ness, followed by a second moulting, the manner of performing which is exactly similar to the former. Its appetite then again returns, and is indulged during other five days, in the course of which time its length increases to three quarters of an inch : it then undergoes its third sickness and moulting. These being past in all respects like the former, and five more days of feed- ing having followed, it is seized by its fourth sickness, and casts its skin for the last time in the caterpillar state. The worm is now about one and a half or two inches long. This last change being finished, the worm devours its food most voraciously, and increases rapidly in size during ten days. The silk- worm has now attained to its full growth, and is a slender caterpillar from two and a half to three inches in length (See Figure 1. Plate III.). The peculiarities of its structure may be better examined now than in its earlier stages. It can readily be seen that the worm has twelve membranous rings round its body, parallel to each other ; and which, answering to the movements of the animal, mutually contract and elongate. It has sixteen legs, in pairs : six in front, which are covered with a sort of shell or scale, and are placed under the three first rings, and cannot be either sensibly lengthened, or their position altered. The other ten legs are called holders : these are mem- branous, flexible, and attached to the body under the rings, be- ing furnished with little hooks, which assist the insect in climbing. The skull is inclosed in a scaly substance, similar to the covering of the first six legs. The jaws are indented or serrated like the teeth of a saw, and their strength is great con- sidering the size of the insect. Its mouth is peculiar, having a vertical instead of an horizontal aperture ; and the worm is fur- nished with eighteen breathing holes, placed at equal distances down the body, nine on each side. Each of these holes is sup- posed to be the termination of a particular organ of respiration. 108 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OP SILK. On either side of the head, near to the mouth, seven small eyes may be discerned. The two broad appearances higher upon the head, which are frequently mistaken for eyes, are bones of the skull. The two apertures through which the worm draws its silken filament are placed just beneath the jaw, and close to each other ; these being exceedingly minute. At the period above-mentioned the desire of the worm for food begins to abate : the first symptom of this is the appear- ance of the leaves nibbled into small portions and wasted. It soon after entirely ceases even to touch the leaves ; appears restless and uneasy ; erects it head ; and moves about from side to side, with a circular motion, in quest of a place wherein it can commence its labor of spinning. Its color is now light green, with some mixture of a darker hue. In twenty-four hours from the time of its abstaining from food, the material for forming its silk will be digested in its reservoirs ; its green color will disappear ; its body will have acquired a degree of glossiness, and have become partially transparent towards its neck. Before the worm is quite prepared to spin, its body will have acquired greater firmness, and be in a trifling measure lessened in size. " The substance," says Mr. Porter, " of which the silk is composed, is secreted in the form of a fine yellow transparent gum in two separate vessels of slender dimensions, wound, as it were, on two spindles in the stomach ; and if unfolded, these vessels would be about ten inches in length*." This statement is proved to be erroneous, as the reader will perceive, at the conclusion of this chapter. When the worm has fixed upon some angle, or hollow place, whose dimensions agree with the size of its intended silken ball or cocoon, it begins its labor by throwing forth thin and ir- regular threads, see Figure 2. Plate III., which are intended to support its future dwelling. During the first day, the insect forms upon these a loose structure of an oval shape, which is called floss silk, and within which covering, in the three following days, it forms the firm * Porter's " Treatise on the Silk Manufacture," p. 111. DESCRIPTION OP THE SILK-WORM. 109 and consistent yellow ball ; the laborer, of course, always re- maining on the inside of the sphere which it is forming*. The silken filament, which when drawn out appears to be one thread, is composed of two fibres, unwound through the two orifices before described ; and these fibres are brought to- gether by means of two hooks, placed within the silk-worm's mouth for the purpose. The worm rests on its lower extremity throughout the unwinding operation, and employs its mouth and front legs in the task of directing and uniting the two fila- ments. The filament is not wound in regular concentric circles round the interior surface of the ball, but in spots, going back- wards and forwards with a sort of wavy motion. This appa- rently irregular manner of proceeding is plainly perceptible when the silk is being reeled off the ball ; which does not make more than one or two entire revolutions while ten or twelve yards of silk are being transferred to the reelt. At the end of the third or fourth day, the worm will have completed its task ; and we have then a silk cocoon (See Fig- ure 3. plate III.), with the worm imprisoned in its centre ; the * If at this time any of the threads intended for the support of the cocoon should be broken, the worm will find, in the progress of its work, that the ball, not being properly poised, becomes unsteady, so that the insect is unable properly to go forward with its labors. Under these circumstances the worm pierces and altogether quits the unfinished cocoon, and throws out its remaining threads at random wherever it passes ; by which means the silk is wholly lost, and the worm, finding no place wherein to prepare for its change, dies without having effected it. It may sometimes happen, but such a thing is of unfrequent occur- rence, that the preparatory threads before mentioned are broken by another worm working in the neighborhood, when the same unsatisfactory result will be experienced. — Obs. on the Culture of Silk, by A. Stephenson. t Mr. Robinet, of Paris, made the following curious calculation on the move- ments a silk-worm must make in forming a cocoon supposed to contain a thread of 1500 metres. It is known, says Mr. Robinet, that the silk-worm, in forming his cocoon, does not spin the silken filament in concentric circles round the inte- rior surface of the ball, but in a zigzag manner. This it effects by the motions of its head. Now if each one of these motions gives half a centimetre of the silken filament ; it follows that the worm must make 300,000 motions of its head to form it ; and if the labor requires 72 hours in the performance, the creature makes 100,000 motions every 24 hours, 4,166 per hour, 69 per minute, and a lit- tle more than one in a second ! 110 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. cocoon being from an inch to an inch and a half long, and of a yellow or orange color. When the insect has finished its labor of unwinding, it smears the entire internal surface of the cocoon with a pecu- liar kind of gum, very similar in its nature to the matter which forms the silk itself; and this is no doubt designed as a shield against rain or the humidity of the atmosphere,, for the chrysa- lis in its natural state ; when of course it would be subject to all varieties of weather. The silken filament of which the ball is made up, is likewise accompanied, throughout its entire length, by a portion of gum, which serves to give firmness and consistency to its texture ; and assists in rendering the dwell- ing of the chrysalis impervious to moisture. This office it per- forms so well, that when, for the purpose of reeling the silk with greater facility, the balls are thrown into basins of hot water, they swim on the top with all the buoyancy of blad- ders ; nor, unless the ball be imperfectly formed, does the water penetrate within until the silk is nearly all unwound. In fig- ure 4, plate III., the cocoons are drawn two-thirds of the usual size, and are shown with part of the outward floss silk re- moved. The continual emission of the silken material during the formation of its envelope, together with its natural evaporation, uncompensated by food, causes the worm gradually to contract in bulk ; it becomes wrinkled, and the rings of its body ap- proach nearer to each other and appear more decidedly marked. When the ball is finished, the insect rests awhile from its toil, and then throws off its caterpillar garb. If the cocoon be now opened, its inhabitant will appear in the form of a chrysalis or aurelia, in shape somewhat resembling a kidney-bean (See Fig- ure 5. plate III.), but pointed at one end, having a smooth brown skin. Its former covering, so dissimilar to the one now assumed, will be found lying beside it. The account which has been given of the progressions of the silk-worm shows, that, in its various modifications, the animal organization of the insect has been always tending towards its simplification. Count Dandolo, writing upon this subject, observes, " Thus the caterpillar is in the first instance composed DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. Ill of animal, silky, and excremental particles ; this forms the state of the growing caterpillar : in the next stage it is composed of animal and silky particles ; it is then the mature caterpil- lar : and lastly, it is reduced to the animal particles alone ; and is termed in this state the chrysalis. The poet Cowper, in the following lines, beautifully illustrates this subject : The beams of April, ere it goes, A worm, scarce visible, disclose ; All whiter long content to dwell The tenant of his native shell. The same prolific season gives The sustenance by which he lives, The mulberry leaf, a simple store, That serves him — till he needs no more ! For, his dimensions once complete, Thenceforth none ever sees him eat ; Though till his growing time be past Scarce ever is he seen to fast. That hour arrived, his work begins. He spins and weaves, and weaves and spins ; Till circle upon circle, wound Careless around him and around, Conceals him with a veil though slight, Impervious to the keenest sight. Thus self-inclosed, as in a cask, At length he finishes his task : And, though a worm when he was lost, Or caterpillar at the most, When next we see him, wings he wears, And in papilio pomp appears ; Becomes oviparous ; supplies With future worms and future flies The next ensuing year — and dies ! Well were it for the world if all Who creep about this earthly ball, Though shorter-lived than most he be, Were useful in then kind as he. It has been already noticed that the progressions of the in- sects are accelerated by an iucrease of temperature ; and some variation will equally be experienced where different modes of treatment are followed ; and, in particular, where different periods of the year are chosen in which to produce and rear the worm. Malpighius, in his " Anatomy of the Silk-worm." says, 112 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. that worms which he hatched in May were eleven days old ere they were attacked by their first sickness ; others hatched in July were ten days, and those brought forth in August nine days, before they refused their food, preparatory to their first moulting. Eight days appear to be the most usual term for their first at- tack ; and by his judicious treatment count Dandolo shortened even this term by two days. In Europe, except where recourse is had to artificial aid, the term of the caterpillar state is usually that which has been already mentioned. Sudden transitions from cold to heat, or vice versa, are highly injurious to the silk-worm ; but it can bear a very high degree of heat, if uniformly maintained, without sustaining injury. Count Dandolo observed, that " the greater the degree of heat in which it is reared, the more acute are its wants, the more rapid its pleasures, and the shorter its existence." Monsieur Boissier de Sauvagues made many experiments on this point. One year, when by the early appearance of the mulberry leaves, which were developed by the end of April, he was forced to hurry forward the operations of his filature, he raised the heat of the apartment in which the newly-hatched worms were placed to 100° ; gradually diminishing this during their first and second ages to 95°. In consequence of the animal ex- citement thus induced, there elapsed only nine days between the hatching and the second moulting inclusively. It was the general opinion of those cultivators who witnessed the exper- iment, that the insects would not be able to exist in so intensely heated an atmosphere. The walls of the apartment, and the wicker hurdles on which the worms were placed, could scarcely be touched from the great heat, and yet all the changes and progressions went forward perfectly well, and a most abundant crop of silk was the result. The same gentleman, on a subsequent occasion, exposed his brood to the temperature of 93° to 95° during their first age ; of 89° to 91° in the second age ; and remarked that the at- tendant circumstances were the same as in his former experi- ment, the changes of the worm being performed in the same space of time ; whence he came to the conclusion, that it is not practicable to accelerate their progress beyond a certain point DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 113 by any superadditions of heat. In both of these experiments the quantity of food consumed, was as great as is usually given during the longer period employed in the common manner of rearing. After the second moulting had taken place in the last experiment, the temperature was lowered to 82° ; and it is remarkable that the worms occupied only five days in comple- ting their third and fourth changes, although others which had been accustomed to this lower degree from their birth occupied seven or eight days for each of these moultings. It would there- fore seem that the constitution of the insects can be affected, and an impetus given to their functions at the period of their first animation, which accompanies them through their after stages. So far from this forcing system proving injurious to the health of silk-worms, M. de Sauvagues found that his broods were unusually healthy ; and that while the labors of cultiva- tion were abridged in their duration, much of the attendant anxiety was removed. Like other caterpillars, the silk-worm is not a warm-blooded animal, and its temperature is therefore always equal to that of the atmosphere in which it is placed. In the silk-producing countries, where modes of artificial heating have not been studied practically and scientifically, the difficulty and expense that must attend the prosecution of this heating system, form abundant reasons why it cannot be generally adopted. The great susceptibility of the insect to atmospheric influences would also in a great degree render unsuitable the more com- mon arrangements for the purpose. The plan of warming apartments by means of stoves, in its passage through which the air becomes highly heated before it mixes with and raises the general temperature of the air in the chamber, is liable to this inconvenience, — that the portion so introduced, having its vital property impaired by the burning heat through which it has passed, injures, proportionably, the respirable quality of the whole atmosphere ; an effect which is easily perceptible by those who inhale it. A better plan of heating has lately been suggested, and is rapidly coming into practice, viz., of warming buildings by a current of hot water (an American invention), which is, by a very simple process, kept constantly flowing in 15 114 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. close channels through the apartment, where it continually gives off its heat by radiation ; and the degree of this being far below the point which is injurious to the vital quality of air, the evil before alluded to is avoided. If the expense of fuel be not too great, as compared with that of the labor which would be saved by this invention, the adoption in silk countries of such a mode of raising and regulating the temperature might, probably, prove advantageous. The silk-worm remains in the form of a chrysalis for periods which, according to the climate or the temperature wherein it may be placed, vary from fifteen to thirty days. In India, the time is much shorter (See Chapter VIII.) ; in Spain and Italy, eighteen to twenty days. In France three weeks ; and in the climate of England, when unaccelerated by artificial means, thirty days will elapse from the time the insect begins to spin until it emerges in its last and perfect form. It then throws off the shroud which had confined it in seeming lifelessness, and appears as a large moth of a grayish-white color, furnished with four wings, two eyes, and two black horns or antlers which present a feathery appearance (See Figure 6. plate III.). If left until this period within the cocoon, the moth takes immediate measures for its extrication : ejecting from its mouth a liquor with which it moistens and lessens the adhesiveness of the gum wherewith it had lined the interior surface of its dwelling, and the insect is enabled, by frequent motions of its head, to loosen, without breaking, the texture of the ball ; then using its hooked feet, it pushes aside the filaments and makes a passage for itself into light and freedom. It is erroneously said that the moth recovers its liberty by gnawing the silken threads ; but it is found, on the contrary, that if carefully un- wound, their continuity is by this means rarely broken. One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with the natural history of silk-worms, is the degree in which their bulk and weight is increased, and the limited time wherein that increase is attained. Count Dandolo, who appears to have neglected nothing that could tend to the right under- standing of the subject, and to the consequent improvement of the processes employed, had patience enough to count and DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 115 weigh many hundred thousand eggs, as well as follow out to the ultimate result his inquiries respecting their produce. He found that on an average sixty-eight sound silk-worm's eggs weighed one grain. One ounce*, therefore, comprised, 39,168 eggs. But one twelfth part of this weight evaporates previous to hatching, and the shells are equal to one fifth more. If, therefore, from one ounce, composed of 576 grains, 48 grains be deducted for evaporation, and 115 for the shells, 413 grains will remain equal to the weight of 39,168 young worms ; and, at this rate, 54,526 of the insects when newly hatched, are required to make up the ounce. After the first casting of the skin, 3840 worms are found to have this weight, so that the bulk and weight of the insects have in a few days been multi- plied more than fourteen times. After the second change 610 worms weigh an ounce, their weight being increased in the in- termediate time six fold. In the week passed between the sec- ond and third ages, the number of insects required to make up the same weight, decreases from 610 to 144, their weight be- ing therefore more than quadrupled. During the fourth age, a similar rate of increase is maintained : thirty-five worms now weigh an ounce. The fifth age of the caterpillar comprises nearly a third part of its brief existence, and has been describ- ed, by an enthusiastic writer on the subject, as the happiest period of its life, during which it rapidly increases in size, pre- paring and secreting the material it is about to spin. When the silk-worms are fully grown, and have arrived at their period of finally rejecting food, six of them make up the weight of an ounce. They have, therefore, since their last change, again added to their weight sixfold. It is thus seen that, in a few short weeks, the insect has multiplied its weight more than nine thousandfold I From this period, and during the whole of its two succeeding states of being, the worm imbibes no nourishment, and gradually di- minishes in weight ; being supported by its own substance, and * This ounce contains 576 grains ; 8.5325 of these grains equal seven grains troy. One ounce avoirdupoise is therefore equal to about 533 grains, and between 11-12 and 11-13 ounce avoirdupoise equals one of the above ounces. 116 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. appearing to find sufficient occupation in forming its silken web, and providing successors for our service, without indulging that grosser appetite which forms the beginning and the end of their desires during their caterpillar existence. The moth enjoys its liberty for only a very brief space. Its first employment is to seek its mate ; after which the female deposits her eggs ; and both in the course of two or three days after, end their being. Formation of Silk. By M. H. Straus, of Durckheim. — " It is generally admitted by naturalists that the thread of the caterpillar is produced by a simple emission of liquid matter through the orifice of the spinner, and that it acquires solidity at once from the drying influence of the air. It was easy to entertain such an hypothesis, for nothing is more simple than the formation of a very fine thread by such a process. But a little reflection will soon show us, even a priori, that it is not possible ; for how can we comprehend that so fine a fibre, liquid at the instant of its issue from the aperture, should instantly acquire such a consistence as to bear the weight of the animal suspended by it, and at the same time that it is rapidly pro- duced ? Though the fluid, holding the silk in solution, should be quickly volatilised, it must still be a matter of conjecture, how the animal suspended by this thread could be able to ar- rest its issue, holding on only by the thread itself, for it cannot pinch the thread, seeing that it is only in a liquid state inside, and the thread cannot be glued to the edge of the opening, as its rapid adhesion would prevent its issue while the animal is spinning. A little examination would satisfy us that silk can- not be produced in this manner, but that it is secreted in the form of silk in the silk vessels, and that the spinning appara- tus only winds it. The thread is produced in the slender pos- terior part of the vessel, the inflated portion of which consists of the reservoir of ready formed silk, where it is found in the form of a skein ; each thread being rolled up so as to occupy in the silk-worm {Bombex mori) a space of only about a sixth part of the real length of the skein. The fact is shown by the following experiment I made for the purpose of ascertaining whether the silk is formed in the body of the caterpillars. DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 117 1 Take one of the animals when about to form its cocoon, clean it in common vinegar, in which it may remain from four to six hours, ojjcu it on the back and extract the silk vessels, there being one on each side of the alimentary canal. Take them up by the hinder end, just where they begin to swell (further back the silk is not solid enough), and draw them out. The membrane forming the vessel is easily torn open, and the contents expand to six or seven times its orig- inal length. The skein having attained its full length by the letting out of its gathers, we obtain a cord perfectly equal in size throughout, except at the end, where it is attenuated. This cord resembles a large horse-hair, and constitutes what fishermen call " Florence hair? I ought to add that in simply drawing out the silk vessel, the Florence hair is found envel- oped in a golden yellow gummy matter, forming the glutinous portion by which the worm fastens its thread. This must be got rid of by drawing the cord through the fold formed on the inside of the joint of the left fore finger, converted into a canal by applying to it the end of the thumb. The glutinous sub- stance and the membranes being thus separated, we have the naked hair. In this state, before the silk becomes dry and hard, not only will it be indefinitely divided longitudinally, which proves its fibrous structure, but in trying to split it by drawing it transversely, the little filaments of silk which form it are perfectly separated, making a bundle of extremely fine fibrils? We cannot better conclude this interesting portion of our subject, than by quoting the following beautiful lines by Miss H. F. Gould :— THE SILK-WORM'S WILL. On a plain rush hurdle a silk-worm lay, When a proud young princess came that way : The haughty child of a human king, Threw a sidelong glance at the humble thing, That took, with a silent gratitude, From the mulberry leaf, her simple food ; And shrunk, half scorn and half disgust, Away from her sister child of dust — 118 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. Declaring she never yet could see Why a reptile form like this should be, And that she was not made with nerves so firm, As calmly to stand by a " crawling worm !" With mute forbearance the silk-worm took The taunting words, and the spurning look : Alike a stranger to self and pride, She'd no disquiet from aught beside — And lived of a meekness and peace possessed, Which these debar from the human breast. She only wished, for the harsh abuse, To find some way to become of use To the haughty daughter of lordly man ; And thus did she lay a noble plan, To teach her wisdom, and make it plain, That the humble worm was not made in vain ; A plan so generous, deep and high, That, to carry it out, she must even die ! " No more," said she, " will I drink or eat ! I'll spin and weave me a winding-sheet, To wrap me up from the sun's clear light, And hide my form from her wounded sight. In secret then, till my end draws nigh, I'll toil for her ; and when I die, I'll leave behind, as a farewell boon, To the proud young princess, my whole cocoon, To be reeled and wove to a shining lace, And hung in a veil o'er her scornful face ! And when she can calmly draw her breath Through the very threads that have caused my death ; When she finds, at length, she has nerves so firm As to wear the shroud of a crawling worm, May she bear in mind, that she walks with pride In the winding-sheet where the silk-worm died !" Plateffl SDi Worm Cocoons < b folks, and CHAPTER VIII. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, &c. Great antiquity of the silk -manufacture in China — Time and mode of pruning the Mulberry-tree — Not allowed to exceed a certain height — Mode of planting — Situation of rearing-rooms, and their construction — Effect of noise on the silk- worm — Precautions observed in preserving cleanliness — Isan-mon, mother of the worms — Manner of feeding — Space allotted to the worms — Destruction of the Chrysalides — Great skill of the Chinese in weaving — American writers on the Mulberry-tree — Silk-worms sometimes reared on trees — (M. Marteloy's ex- periments in 1764, in rearing silk-worms on trees in France) — Produce inferior to that of worms reared in houses — Mode of delaying the hatching of the eggs — Method of hatching — Necessity for preventing damp — Number of meals — Mode of stimulating the appetite of the worms — Effect of this upon the quan- tity of silk produced — Darkness injurious to the silk-worm — Its effect on the Mulberry-leaves — Mode of preparing the cocoons for the reeling process — Wild silk-worms of India — Mode of hatching, &c. — (Observations on the cultivation of silk by Dr. Stebbins — Dr. Bowring's admirable illustration of the mutual de- pendence of the arts upon each other.) In China, the tradition of the silk culture is, as already shown, carried back into the mythological periods, and dates with the origin of agriculture itself. These two pursuits or avocations, namely, husbandry and the silk-manufacture, form the subject of one of the sixteen discourses to the people. It is there observed, that " from ancient times the Son of Heaven directed the plough : the Empress planted the mulberry-tree. Thus have these exalted personages, not above the practice of labor and exertion, set an example to all men, with a view to leading the millions of their subjects to attend to their essential interests." In the work published by Imperial authority, entitled " Illus- trations of Husbandry and Weaving*," there are numerous * The drawing, plate I. (Frontispiece) is a faithful copy of a loom represented in this curious work. For this representation of a Chinese weaving engine, as well as several translations, explanatory of the silk-manufacture, &c, we are in- 120 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. wood-cuts, accompanied by letter-press explanatory of the dif- ferent processes of farming and the silk-manufacture. The former head is confined to the production of rice, the staple ar- ticle of food, and proceeds from the ploughing of the land to the packing of the grain ; the latter details all the operations connected with planting the mulberry and gathering its leaves, up to the final weaving of the silk. The mulberry-tree is chiefly cultivated in Che-kiang, which province, together with the only three others that produce fine silk, namely, Kiang-nan, Woo-pe, and Sze-chuen, is crossed by the thirtieth parallel of latitude. Che-kiang is a country highly alluvial, intersected by numerous rivers and canals, with a climate that corresponds pretty nearly to the same latitude as that in the United States of America. The soil is manured with mud, dug from the rivers, assisted with ashes or dung; and the spaces between the trees are generally filled with mil- let, pulse, or other articles of food. The time for pruning the young trees, so as to produce fine leafy shoots, is at the com- mencement of the year. About four eyes are left on every shoot, and care is taken that the branches be properly thinned, with a view to giving plenty of light and air to the leaves. In gathering these, they make use of steps, as the young trees could not support a ladder, and would besides be injured in their branches by the use of one. The trees, with their foliage, are carefully watched, and the mischiefs of insects prevented by the use of various applications, among which are some essen- tial oils. The young trees of course suffer by being stripped of their leaves, which are the lungs of plants, and this is an additional reason for renewing them after a certain time. They endeav- or in part to counteract the evil effect, by pruning and lop- ping the tree, so as to diminish the wood when the leaves have debted to Walter Lowry, Esq., Sec. to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- sions in this city ; who kindly permitted us to copy it from the original plate, forming a part of the interesting work above referred to, which is composed of seventy-five volumes, and was, as we understand, presented to the Board by a New York merchant. Many of the illustrations are extremely beautiful, reflect- ing the highest credit upon the artisans of the " Celestial Empire." CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 121 been gathered. It is surprising, however, to observe how soon a tree in those climates will recover its leaves in the summer or autumn, after having been entirely stripped of them by a ty- phoon or hurricane. Fresh plants are procured by cuttings or layers, and sometimes from seed. When the trees grow too old for the production of the finest leaves, and show a greater tendency to fruiting, they are either removed or so cut and managed as to produce young branches. The principal object, in the cultivation of the mulberry, is to produce the greatest quantity of young and healthy leaves without fruit. For this reason the trees are not allowed to ex- ceed a certain age and height. They are planted on the plan of a quincunx*, and said to be in perfection in about three years. Mr. Barrow, who observed the management of the trees and silk-worms in Che-kiang, confirms the usual Chinese accounts, by saying that " the houses in which the worms are reared are placed generally in the centre of each plantation, in order that they may be removed as far as possible from every kind of noise ; experience having taught them that a sudden shout, or the bark of a dog, is destructive of the young worms. A whole brood has sometimes perished from the effects of a thun- der-storm." Some notion of the extent of the care required in the man- agement of the worms may be formed from the following ex- tract, taken from the Chinese work referred to at the beginning of this chapter. " The place where their habitation is built must be retired, free from noise, smells, and disturbances of every kind. The least fright, makes great impressions on these sensitive crea- tures ; even the barking of dogs, &c., is capable of throwing them into the utmost disorder. For the purpose of paying them every attention an affection- ate mother is provided, who is careful to supply their wants ; * In gardening, the quincunx order is a plantation of trees disposed in a square, consisting of five trees, one at each corner and a fifth in the centre, which order repeated indefinitely, forms a regular grove or wood, viewed by an angle of the square or parallelogram, presents equal or parallel alleys. 16 122 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. she is called Isan-mon, l mother of the worms.' She takes possession of the chamber, but not before she has washed her- self and put on clean clothes, which have not the least repul- sive smell ; she must not have eaten anything immediately be- fore, or handled any wild succory, the smell of which is very prejudicial. She must be clothed in a plain habit, without any lining, that she may be more sensible of the warmth of the place, and accordingly increase or lessen the fire. She must also carefully avoid making a smoke or raising a dust, which would also be offensive." Silk-worms require to be carefully humored before the time of casting their slough. Every day is to them a year, having in a manner, the four seasons ; the morning being the Spring ; the middle of the day : Summer ; the evening : Autumn ; and the night, Winter. The chambers are so contrived as to admit of the use of ar- tificial heat when necessary. Great care is taken of the sheets of paper on which the eggs have been laid ; and the hatching is either retarded or advanced, by the application of cold or heat according to circumstances, so as to time the simultaneous exit of the young worms exactly to the period when the tender spring-leaves of the mulberry are most fit for their nourishment. They proportion the food very exactly to the young worms by weighing the leaves, which in the first instance are cut, but as the insects become larger, are given to them whole. The greatest precautions being observed in regulating the tempera- ture of the apartments. The worms are fed upon a species of small hurdles of basket-work, strewed with leaves, which are constantly shifted for the sake of cleanliness, the insects readily moving off to a fresh hurdle with new leaves, as the scent at- tracts them. In proportion to their growth, room is afforded to them by increasing the number of these hurdles, the worms of one being shifted to three, then to six, and so on until they at- tain their greatest size. When they have cast their several skins, reached their greatest size, and assumed a transparent yellowish color, they are removed to places divided into compart- ments, preparatory to casting forth their silken filaments. In the course of a week after the commencement of this op- CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 123 eration, the cocoons are complete, and it now becomes neces- sary to take them in hand before the pupae turn into moths. which would immediately bore their way out, and spoil the co- coons. When a certain number, therefore, have been laid aside for the sake of future eggs, the chrysalides are killed by being placed in jars under layers of salt and leaves, with a complete exclusion of air. They are subsequently placed in moderately warm water, which dissolves the glutinous substance that binds the silk together, and the filament is wound off upon reels. This is put up in bundles of a certain size and weight, and either becomes an article of merchandise under the name of u raw silk," or is subjected to the loom, and manufactured into various stuffs, for home or foreign consumption. The Chinese notwithstanding the simplicity of their looms (see frontispiece), will imitate exactly the newest and most elegant patterns from France. They particularly excel in the production of damasks, figured-satins, and embroidery. Their crape has never yet been perfectly imitated ; and they make a species of washing silk, called at Canton " ponge," which, the longer it is used, the softer it becomes. The Chinese have from time immemorial been celebrated for the beauty of their embroideries ; indeed, it has been doubted whether the art was not originally introduced into Europe by them, through the Persians. From what has been said, it is evident that the raising of the mulberry -tree should first engage the attention of the cultiva- tor, since its leaves form the almost exclusive nourishment of the silk-worm. It is scarcely necessary that we should in a work of this description enter more fully into the cultivation of the mulberry-tree. This has already been so ably done by Jonathan Cobb, Esq. of Dedham, Mass., Dr. Pascalis of New York, Judge Comstock of Hartford, Conn., and E. P. Roberts, Esq. of Baltimore, as to leave no stone unturned, or any want upon the subject. In such parts of the Chinese empire where the climate is fa- vorable to the practice, and where alone, most probably, the silk-worm is indigenous, it remains at liberty, feeding on the leaves of its native mulberry-tree, and going through all its mil- 124 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. tations among the branches, uncontrolled by the hand and un- assisted by the cares of man. As soon, however, as the silken balls have been constructed, they are appropriated by the uni- versal usurper, who spares only the few required to reproduce their numbers, and thus furnish him with successive harvests*. This silk, the spontaneous offering of nature, is not, however, equal in fineness to that produced by worms under shelter, and whose progressions are influenced by careful management. Much attention is, therefore, bestowed by the Chinese in the artificial rearing of silk-worms. One of their principal cares, is to prevent the too early hatching of the eggs, to which the nature cf the climate so strongly disposes them. The mode of insuring the requisite delay, is, to cause the moth to deposit her eggs on large sheets of paper : these, immediately upon their production, are suspended from a beam in the room, while the windows are opened to expose them to the air. In a few days the papers are taken down and rolled loosely up with the eggs inside, in which form they are again hung during the remainder of the summer and autumn. Towards the end of the year they are immersed in cold water wherein a small por- tion of salt has been dissolved. In this state the eggs are left during two days ; and on being taken from the salt and water are first hung to dry, and then rolled up rather more tightly than before, each sheet of paper being thereafter inclosed in a * Mons. Marteloy of Montpelier, who made many experiments upon the rear- ing of silk-worms, presented a memorial upon the subject to the French minister, in compliance with whose recommendation, a few silk growers of Languedoc caused an experiment to be publicly made in the open air, in the garden belong- ing to the Jesuits' college at Montpelier. The whole was placed under the direc- tion of Mons. Marteloy, who had 1200 livres assigned to him to defray the neces- sary expenses. The experiment succeeded perfectly. This was in 1764. In the following year a second trial was made, and 1800 livres were set apart for the expenses. Owing, however, to the unfavorable nature of the season, this ex- periment failed entirely, the heavy and incessant rains making it impossible to keep the food of the worms in a sufficiently dry state. The rearing of silk-worms in the open air was not again attempted in that quarter ; but the partial success led to the adoption among cultivators of a better system of ventilation, and the production of silk was about this time very much extended throughout Langue- doc. — Obs. on the Culture of Silk, by A. Stephenson. CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 125 separate earthen vessel. Some persons, who are exceedingly particular in their processes, use a lye made of mulberry-tree ashes, and place the eggs likewise, during some minutes, on snow-water. These processes appear efficacious for checking the hatching, until the expanding leaves of the mulberry-tree give notice to the silk-worm-rearer that he may take measures for bringing forth his brood. For this purpose the rolls of paper are taken from the earthen vessels, and hung up towards the sun, the side to which the eggs adhere being turned from its rays, by being placed inside, and thus allowing the heat to be transmit- ted to them through the paper. In the evening the sheets are rolled closely up and placed in a warm situation. The same proceeding is repeated on the following day, when the eggs as- sume a grayish color. On the evening of the third day, after a similar exposure, they are found to be of a much darker color, nearly approaching to black ; and the following morning, on the paper being unrolled, they are covered with worms. In the higher latitudes the Chinese have recourse to the heat of stoves, in order to promote the simultaneous hatching of the eggs. The apartments in which the worms are kept stand in dry situations, in a pure atmosphere, and apart from all noise, which is thought to be annoying to the worms, especially when they are young. The rooms are made very close, but adequate means of ventilation provided : the doors being open to the south. Each chamber is provided with nine or ten rows of frames, placed one above the other. On these frames, rush hurdles are ranged ; upon which the worms are fed through their five ages. A uniform degree of heat is constantly pre- served, either by means of stoves placed in the corners of the apartments, or by chafing-dishes which from time to time are carried up and down the room. Flame and smoke being al- ways carefully avoided : cow-dung dried in the sun is preferred by the Chinese to all other kinds of fuel for this purpose. The most unremitting attention is paid to the wants of the worms, which are fed night and day. On their being hatched they are furnished with forty meals for the first day, thirty are given on the second day, and fewer on and after the third. 126 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. The Chinese believe that the growth of silk-worms is accel- erated, and their success promoted by the abundance of their food, and therefore, in cloudy and damp weather, when the insects are injuriously affected by the state of the atmosphere, their appetites are stimulated by a wisp of very dry straw being lighted and held over them, thus causing the cold and damp air to be dissipated. The Chinese calculate that the same number of insects which would, if they had attained the full size in twenty-three or twenty-four days, produce twenty-five ounces of silk, would give only twenty ounces if their growth occupied twenty-eight days, and only ten ounces if forty days. In order, therefore, to accelerate their growth, they supply them with fresh food every half-hour during the first day of their existence, and then grad- ually reduce the number of meals as the worms grow older. It deserves to be remarked as a fact unnoticed in Natural The- ology, that the substance on which this valuable caterpillar feeds, is the leaf of the mulberry-tree ; and Providence, as if to ensure the continuance of this useful species, has so ordained it that no other insect will partake of the same food ; thus en- suring a certain supply for the little spinster. Many persons believe that light is injurious to silk- worms; but, so far from this opinion being correct, the opposite belief would probably be nearer to the truth. In its native state, the insect is of course exposed to light, and suffers no inconvenience on that account ; and it has been observed by one who gave much attention to the subject (Count Dandolo), that in his establishment, " on the side on which the sun shone directly on the hurdles, the silk-worms were stronger and more numer- ous than in those places where the edge of the wicker hurdle formed a shade." The obscurity wherein the apartments are usually kept has a very pernicious influence on the air : the food of the worms emits in light oxygen, or vital air, while in darkness it exhales carbonic acid gas, unfit for respiration. This well-known fact occurs alike with all leaves similarly circumstanced*. To the bad effects thus arising from the ex- * " There is in the order of nature a certain and very surprising fact ; when CHTNESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 127 elusion of the sun's rays, another evil is added by the nature of the artificial lights employed, being such as still further to vitiate the air. An almost incredible quantity of fluid is constantly disen- gaged by evaporation from the bodies of the insects ; and if means be not taken to disperse this as it is produced, another cause of unvvholesomeness in the air arises. Noticing this, Count Dandolo observes, u This series of causes of the deterio- ration of the air which the worms must inhale, may be termed a continual conspiracy against their health and life ; and their resisting it, and living throughout shows them to have great strength of constitution." In seven days from the commencement of the cocoons they are collected in heaps ; those which are designed to continue the leaves of vegetables are struck by the sun's rays, they exhale an immense quantity of vital air necessary to the life of animals, and which they consume by respiration. " These same leaves in the shade as well as in darkness exhale an immense quantity of mephitic or fixed air, which cannot be inhaled without destruction of life. " This influence of the sun does not cease even when the leaf has been recently gathered ; on the contrary, in darkness, gathered leaves will exhale a still greater quantity of mephitic air. " Place one ounce of fresh mulberry leaves in a wide-necked bottle of the sizo of a Paris pint, containing two pounds of liquid ; expose this bottle to the sun ; about an hour afterwards, according to the intensity of the sun, reverse the bottle and introduce a lighted taper in it ; this done, the light will become brighter, whiter, and larger, which proves that the vital air contained in the bottle has in- creased by that which has disengaged itself from the leaves: to demonstrate this phenomenon more clearly, a taper may be put in a similar bottle, that only con- tains the air which has entered into it by its being uncorked. Shortly after the first experiment, water will be found in the bottle which contained the mulberry leaves ; this water, evaporating from the leaves by means of the heat, hangs on the sides, and runs to the bottom when cooling ; the leaves appear more or less withered and dry according to the liquid they have lost. In another similar bot- tle place an ounce of leaves, and cork it exactly like the former ; place it in ob- scurity, either in a box, or wrap it in cloths, in short, so as totally to exclude light ; about two hours after, open the bottle, and put either a lighted taper or a small bird into it ; the candle will go out, and the bird will perish, as if they had been plunged into water, which demonstrates that in darkness the leaves have exhaled mephitic air, while in the sun they exhaled vital air." — Count Dando- lo's Treatise on the Art of Rearing Silk-worms, p. 144. 128 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. the breed being first selected and set apart on hurdles, in a dry and airy situation. The next care, is to destroy the vital- ity of the chrysalides in those balls which are to be reeled. The most approved method of performing this, is to fill large earthen vessels with cocoons, in layers, throwing in one-fortieth part of their weight of salt upon each layer, covering the whole with large dry leaves resembling those of the water-lilly, and then closely stopping the mouths of the vessels. In reeling their silk the Chinese separate the thick and dark from the long and glittering white cocoons, as the produce of the former is inferior. We are indebted to Dr. Ure for the two following articles {extracted from the Journal of the Asiatic Society, for Jan- uary, 1837), on wild silk- worms. The first article is from the pen of Thomas Hugon, a resident of Nowgong, and relates to wild silk-worms of Assam. "The Assamese select for breeding, such cocoons only as have been begun to be formed in the largest number on the same day, usually the second or third after the commencement ; those which contain males being distinguishable by a more pointed end. They are put in a closed basket suspended from the roof ; the moths, as they come forth, having room to move about, at the expiration of a day, the females (known only by their large body) are taken out, and tied to small wisps of thatching-straw, selected always from over the hearth, its dark- ened color being thought more acceptable to the insect. If out of a batch, there should be but few males ; the wisps with the females tied to them are exposed outside at night ; and the males thrown away in the neighborhood, find their way to them. These wisps are hung upon a string tied across the roof, to keep them from vermin. The eggs laid after the first three days, are said to produce weak worms. The wisps are taken out morning and evening, and exposed to the sun, and in ten days after being laid, a few of them are hatched. The wisps being then hung up to the tree, the young worms find their way to the leaves. The ant, whose bite is fatal to the worm in its early stages, is destroyed by rubbing the trunk of the tree with molasses, and tying dead fish and toads to it. to CHINESE MODE OF RAISING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 129 attract these rapacious insects in large numbers, when they are destroyed with fire ; a process which needs to be repeated seve- ral times. The ground under the trees is also well cleared, to render it easy to pick up and replace the worms which fall down. They are prevented from coming to the ground, by tying fresh plantain-leaves round the trunk, over whose slip- pery surface they cannot crawl ; and then transferred from exhausted trees to fresh ones, on bamboo platters tied to long poles. The worms require to be constantly watched and pro- tected from the depredations of both day and night birds, as well as rats and other vermin. During their moultings, they remain on the branches : but when about beginning to spin, they come down the trunk, and being stopped by the plantain- leaves, are there collected in baskets, which are afterwards put under bunches of dry leaves, suspended from the roof, into which the worms crawl, and form their cocoons — several being clustered together : this accident, owing to the practice of crowd- ing the worms, which is most injudicious, rendering it impos- sible to wind off their silk in continuous threads, as in the fila- tures of Italy, France, and even Bengal. The silk is, therefore, spun like flax, instead of being unwound in single filaments. After four days the proper cocoons are selected for the next breed, and the rest are reeled. The total duration of a breed varies from sixty to seventy days : divided into the following periods : — Four moultings, with one day's illness attending each, 20 From fourth moulting to beginning of cocoon, 10 In the cocoon 20, as a moth 6, hatching of eggs 10, - - - 36 6G " On being tapped with the finger, the body renders a hollow sound ; the quality of which shows whether they have come down for want of leaves on the tree, or from their having ceas- ed feeding. " As the chrysalis is not soon killed by exposure to the sun, the cocoons are put on stages, covered with leaves, and exposed to the hot air from grass burned under them ; they are next boiled for about an hour in a solution of the potash, made from 17 130 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. icinerated rice-stalks ; then taken out and put on a cloth folded over them to keep them warm. The floss being removed by- hand, they are then thrown into a basin of hot water to be un wound ; which is done in a very rude and wasteful way. " The plantations for the mooga silk-worm in Lower Assam, amount to 5000 acres, besides what the forests contain ; and yield 1500 maunds of 84 lbs. each per annum. Upper Assam is more productive. " The cocoon of the Koutkuri mooga is of the size of a fowl's egg. It is a wild species, and affords filaments much valued for fishing-lines. * The Arrindy, or Eria worm, and moth, is reared over a great part of Hindostan, but entirely within doors. It is fed principally on the Hera, or Palma chrlsti leaves, and gives sometimes 12 broods of spun silk in the course of a year. It affords a fibre which looks rough at first ; but when woven, becomes soft and silky, after repeated washings. The poorest people are clothed with stuff made of it, which is so durable as to descend from mother to daughter. The cocoons are put in a close basket, and hung up in the house, out of reach of rats and insects. When the moths come forth, they are allowed to move about in the basket for twenty-four hours ; after which the females are tied to long reeds or canes, twenty or twenty- five to each, and then hung up in the house. Of the eggs that are laid the first three days, about 200, only are kept ; then tied up for seed. When a few of the worms are hatched, the cloths are put on small bamboo platters hung up in the house, in which they are fed with tender leaves. After the second moulting, they are removed to bunches of leaves sus- pended above the ground, beneath which a mat is laid to re- ceive them when they fall. When they cease to feed, they are thrown into basketsfull of dry leaves, among which they form their cocoons, two or three being often discovered joined to- gether. " The Saturnia trifenestrata has a yellow cocoon of a re- markably silky lustre. It lives on the soom-tree in Assam, but seems not to be much used." The second article is from the pen of Dr. Heifer, upon those CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 131 wild silk- worms which are indigenous to India. Besides the Bombyx ?nori, the Doctor enumerates the following seven spe- cies, formerly unknown : — 1. " The wild silk- worm of the cen- tral provinces, a moth not larger than the Bombyx moriP 2. u The Joree silk-worm of Assam, Bombyx religiosce, which spins a cocoon of a fine filament, with much lustre. It fives upon the pipul tree (Ficus religiosa), which abounds in India, and ought therefore to be turned to account in breeding this valuable moth/' 3. " Saturnia silhetica, which inhabits the cassia mountains in Silhet and Dacca, where its large cocoons are spun into silk." 4. " A still larger Saturnia, one of the greatest moths in existence, measuring ten inches from the one end of the wing to the other* ; observed by Mr. Grant, in Chirra punjee" 5. " Saturnia paphia, or the Tusseh silk- worm, is the most common of the native species, and furnishes the cloth usually worn by Europeans in India. It has not hitherto been domesticated, but millions of its cocoons are an- nually collected in the jungles, and brought to the silk factories near Calcutta and Bhagelpur. It feeds most commonly on the hair-tree (Zizyplius jujuba), but it prefers the Terminalia al- ata. or Assam tree, and the Bombax heptaphyllum. It is call- ed Koutkuri mooga, in Assam." 6. u Another Saturnia. from the neighborhood of Comercolly." 7. " Saturnia assamensis, with a cocoon of a yellow-brown color, different from all others, called ??woga, in Assam ; which, although it can be reared in houses, thrives best in the open air upon trees, of which seven different kinds afford it food. The Mazankoory mooga, which feeds on the Adakoory tree, produces a fine silk, which is nearly white, and fetches 50 per cent, more than the fawn colored. The trees of the first year's growth produce by far the most valuable cocoons. The mooga which inhabits the soom-tree, is found principally in the forests of the plains, and in the vil- lages. The tree grows to a large size, and yields three crops of leaves in the year. The silk is of a light fawn color, and ranks next in value to the Mazankoory. There are generally five breeds of mooga worms in the year; 1. In January and * See p. 40 Also p. 54. (note *) 132 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. February ; 2. In May and June ; 3. In June and July ; 4. In August and September ; 5. In October and November ; the first and last being the most valuable.'' Dr. Anderson informs us, that in Madras the silk-worm goes through all its evolutions in the short space of twenty-two days. It appears, however, that the saving of time, and consequently labor, is the only economy resulting from the acceleration ; as the insects consume as much food during their shorter period of life, as is assigned to the longer-lived silk-worms of Europe. We extract the following paper, with slight emendations, from Ellsworth's Report of the Patent Office for the year 1844, being a communication from Dr. Stebbins of Northampton, Mass*., to the Editor of the American Agriculturalist, as having some bearing upon the present subject. " As requested, I forward you a sketch of Mr. Gill's cra- dle for feeding silk-worms, (It is not necessary for us to give a drawing of it in a work like the present, which is chiefly intended for the general reader, and besides, this machine is already sufficiently known to silk culturists.) I have five patches of mulberry, (in all, ten or twelve acres,) two parcels of which you have seen. The one adjoining my garden, by estimation, may furnish foliage sufficient for a million and a half of worms. The mulberries consist of the white, black, alpine, broosa, moretta, alata, multicaulis, Asiatic, and large- leaf Canton. The two latter I prefer for my own use — the Canton for early feeding with foliage, and the Asiastic for branch feeding. The Canton is highly approved of for produ- cing heavy and firm cocoons, which, by competent testimony and experiments, have been found in favor of the Canton feed as five to eight, and is the true species used by the Chinese, as testified by a resident Missionary, the Rev. E. C. Bridg- man, and more recently by Dr. Parker, while on his late visit to the United States. I consider the peanut variety of worms the best for producing the most silk of a good quality. " From an elevated plat near my cocoonery, you had a view of our extensive meadows spread out at the foot of Mount Ho- * Seo Chapter XIII. p. 211. CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 133 lyoke. My cocoonery you have examined, with its fixtures for feeding silk-worms — the mode of open feeding, ventilator, and ventilating cradles. Since you left, the whole has been com- pleted, with hammocks suspended over the cradles, easily put in motion, and so constructed that no offal can drop into the cradles beneath, nor interfere with the rocking motion or winding ; the arrangement is much admired, and estimated to accommodate half a million of worms, or more, to be fed simultaneously. About half of the cocoonery has hurdles of lattice work, cover- ed in part with gauze netting four feet wide and the same number of tiers in height. The cocoonery is supposed to be sufficiently open on the sides, ends, and roof, to admit a free circulation of pure air. The flooring is the natural earth. u The past winter has been uncommonly severe on grape-vines and fruit ; forest and mulberry trees ; the Asiatic I found the most hardy of any other, and the Canton the earliest in foliage. On the 21st and 22d of May there were severe frosts, destroy- ing garden vegetables, and injuring some early mulberry foliage; added to this, ice was formed in many places. The accounts from Vermont and New Hampshire are so disastrous as to delay early feeding ; while in Northampton, June 14, at one of my plantations, you saw silk-worms in the act of winding, and others in a good state of forwardness. On the day of your de- parture, I received a letter from a distant silk grower, a staunch promoter of the one early and open crop system, that, on ac- count of the unpropitious season and condition of his trees, he would delay fetching out his worms until the last of June, and then make his great effort upon one crop. " To provide against premature hatching of silk- worms, or the disaster of an early frost, it is advisable to have foliage gathered and dried the year preceding; which, being pulverized and moistened with water, may be given to the worms until new foliage appears ; and they will eat it freely. ' : To obtain the most and best foliage of the mulberry, it will be necessary every Spring to cut or head them down within three or four inches of the ground, and preserve the stalks for bark-silk. I have a quantity of them saved with bark peeled from the large Asiatics to be used for making bark-silk, in ad- 134 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. dition to a quantity of mulberry-leaves preserved for making paper. The whole process, although not carried out, as yet, in this country, with either, has been successfully accomplished in France, from proof shown by M. Frassinet. I am endeavor- ing to have it tested here, by subjecting both stalk and peeled bark to the operation of steaming with soap and water, to facil- itate the separation of the bark from the wood, and the outside cuticle from the fibrous substance of the bark, before trying the operation of the brake for dressing, carding, spinning, &c. Should it prove successful, it will be made public (See Mr. Zinke's process, Chapter XL). Hopes are entertained that what has been done may be done again ; that Yankee ingenu- ity and perseverance may prove a match for foreign cheap la- bor^). " The present time has been called the age of invention and improvement. But if " there is nothing new under the sun " (a pretty fair illustration of this assertion of the wise man — Vide Ecclesiastes i. 9, 10. — will be found in this work.) ; and if what is, has been and may be again, then may we hope to be benefitted by the reproduction of astonishing results in all coming time ; and even now, while there has been anxious in- quiry for some easy mode to separate the bark of the mulberry from the wood, an historical fact has been recently communi- cated(?) ; by which, some two hundred and forty years ago, in the year 1600, an accident occurred, which resulted in the manufacture of a handsome fabric from the fibrous bark of the mulberry, with the inference that the bark had been previously used for the manufacture of cordage, on account of the supe- rior strength of the fibrous bark over that of other materials used for cordage*. " Under date of June 6, 1844, I have been favored with a let- ter from the president of one of the most eminent literary insti- tutions of our country, who expresses his opinion of the prog- ress of silk culture as follows : * We have abundant testimony that the most beautiful fabrics, comprising mantles, &c, as well as cordage, was produced from the bark of trees, as early as the year 412 B. C. So that Mr. Stebbins's " historical fact " is anticipated by 2012 5 ears ! (See Chapters XII. and XIII. of this Part.) CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 135 - I am gratified to find a renewed and more general interest excited at the present time. If this awaking up to a scien- tific and practical consideration of the subject is not soon crown- ed with signal success, I am satisfied it will not be for want of enterprize or skill in our countrymen, but merely from the high price of labor, compared with the scanty wages given in other silk-growing countries. Even this consideration (though it may retard for a while the complete success of this department of productive industry), will not prevent its ultimate triumph.' " The above is the opinion of one of the most scientific men of the age, who, in early life, was himself a silk grower. His opinion accords with that of man)* others of high consideration in the United States. ' : "While viewing the flourishing condition of one of my mul- berry patches, you asked with what it had been manured ? and received for answer, ashes, and the deciduous foliage. The foliage, you thought, could be gathered for making paper, and answered, that there would be sufficient defective foliage left to manure the land ; the foliage is richer than any stable manure, and stable manure should never be applied to the mulberry. I have not had occasion the last five or six years to use even ashes as a manure, but keep the land in good tilth by frequent hoeing. If you found these mulberries more flourishing than others you had seen, it may be attributed, in a great measure, to frequent hoeing, and dressing with the decayed mulberry foliage. u The soil is a light sandy loam ; and, previous to its being stocked with mulberry, would not yield the value of $10 in any crop : and now, my feeder says, if his worms do well, he hopes to get 8800 for the crop ! A part of this lot being stocked with alpine, broosa, and Asiatic mulberry, of 6 to 10 feet in height, in rows 3 feet apart ; and having grown so vigorously as to shade each other, and liable to have spotted leaves. I have, in order to avoid this, and procure more, larger, and better foliage, cut away or headed down every other row, within three or four inches of the ground ; and from the stumps have sprung up a multitude of thrifty sprouts, now fit for use, and the leaves three times larger than those on the standard trees, are so fresh and 136 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. tender, that in some measure it is hoped, they may answer the purpose of seedling foliage, so highly recommended by M. Fras- sinet, who has the following encomium on seedling foliage : 1 that 100 pounds of such foliage is worth near 200 pounds of old leaves to make the same quantity of cocoons ; or in fact, equivalent in value to nearly double the stock of other foliage.' I have caused considerable bark to be stripped from the Asiatic trees cut away for manufacturing purposes ; and M. Rouviere, of Lyons, has proved that the bark of young shoots, submitted to the same process as hemp, yields abundant silk-fibre to make beautiful tissues (noticed at the close of Chapter XL). I should advise silk growers to preserve the shoots, have them barked in the best way, and the silky fibre rotted, carded, spun, and wove. M. Rouviere asserts that it will be not only fine and strong, but take the most beautiful colors. Of the bark, ropes and nets are made in the Morea, and may be applied to great advantage in the manufacture of paper, together with the foliage. " The Canton and Asiatic seed sown this year are in a flour- ishing condition for plantation use, exclusive of several mulber- ry plantations which will be for rent, or growing silk on shares, next spring. Up to the first of July, worms have been uncom- monly healthy — the probable effect of more open ventilation than in former years. " Mr. Dabney, consul at Fayal, (now in Boston) has two mil- lions of worms at present on feed. S. Whitmarsh, at Jamaica, has 360 of what he calls creolized native eggs, in constant feed, which go through the whole course to the cocoon in 24 days. The eggs hatch in 10 days after being laid. He has received the silk report, and made such improvement as to save, in all, nine-tenths of the usual labor. The silk cause at Jamaica occasions great interest in England for its prosperity and success." D. Stebbins. Northampton, Mass., July, 1844. We will now conclude this Chapter with Dr. Bowring's ad- mirable illustration, of the mutual dependence of the arts upon each other : — CHINESE MODE OF REARING SILK-WORMS, ETC. 137 " Let us fancy that some thousand years ago, a mortal, wandering through an oriental wood, saw a worm falling from a fruit-bearing tree — that he found this little creature had reached the end of one of its stages of existence, and was labo- riously engaged in shrouding itself in an unknown substance, like a fine thread of gold, out of which it constructed its tomb ; that, attracted by the circumstance, he found this shroud to consist of a thread hundreds of yards long, which a very little attention enabled him to detach ; he found he could strengthen the threads by uniting them together, and they could be applied to various purposes of useful- ness ; he thought of winding off the thread ; the reel lends him the first assistance, but he could not make the reel without the co-operation of a knife, or some such instrument with a sharp edge. Thus the aid of art — of the produce of art — is already called in. With this rude instrument he makes a machine which enables him to reel off the thread coffin of the curious animal. In process of time, he finds that this fine filament can be applied to the making of garments — garments alike useful and ornamental. Now trace the progress of things by which, from the narrow sphere of his observation and experiment, his success spreads tlirough the districts he inhabits, and from them to other lands, and becomes an object of importance to communicate with the whole family of man. By and by the co- coon, or its produce, finds its way to foreign countries, probably more enlightened than his own, again to be operated on by a higher intelligence and more practised skill. This associates the thread of the silk-worm with a ship, with ship -building, and all its marvellous combinations. — Some wandering merchant probably con- veyed the raw material to Persia ; some adventurous mariner to Greece or Italy, or other regions where it gave a new impulse to science and to thought. But consider for a moment, before the ship was launched upon the water, how many elements were necessary for its production ; think of how multitudinous and va- rious the materials which that ship required for its construction, before the prod- ucts of that remote country are brought to their ultimate markets for manufac- ture. I refer to this particular topic, because it is associated with the prosperity of the districts in which we are, aud I wished to carry back your thoughts to the germ whence that prosperity sprung." — Bowiuxg's Lecture at the Poplar Insti- tution. 18 CHAPTER IX, THE SPIDER. ATTEMPTS TO PROCURE SILKEN FILAMENTS FROM SPIDERS. Structures of spiders — Spiders not properly insects, and why — Apparatus for spin- ning — Extraordinary number of spinnerules — Great number of filaments com- posing one thread — Reaumur and Leeuwenhoeck's laughable estimates — At- tachment of the thread against a wall or stick — Shooting of the lines of spiders — 1. Opinions of Redi, Swammerdam, and Kirby — 2. Lister, Kirby, and White — 3. La Pluche and Bingley — 4. D'Isjonval, Murray, and Bowman — 5. Ex- periments of Mr. Blackwall — His account of the ascent of gossamer — 6. Ex- periments by Rennie — Thread supposed to go off double — Subsequent experi- ments — Nests, Webs, and Nets of Spiders — Elastic satin nest of a spider — Eve- lyn's account of hunting spiders — Labyrinthic spider's nest — Erroneous account of the House Spider — Geometric Spiders — attempts to procure silken filaments from Spiders' bags — Experiments of M. Bon — Silken material — Manner of its preparations — M. Bon's enthusiasm — His spider establishment — Spider-silk not poisonous — Its usefulness in healing wounds — Investigation of M. Bon's estab- lishment by M. Reaumur — His objections — Swift's satire against speculators and projectors — Ewbank's interesting observations on the ingenuity of spiders — Mason-spiders — Ingenious door with a hinge — Nest from the West Indies with spring hinge — Raft-building Spider — Diving Water-Spider — Rev. Mr. Kirby's beautiful description of it — Observations of M. Clerck — Cleanliness of Spiders — Structure of their claws — Fanciful account of them patting their webs — Pro- ceedings of a spider in a steamboat — Addison — His suggestions on the compila- tion of a " History of Insects." Of spiders there are many species ; most of them extend their labors no further than merely to make a web to ensnare and detain their food. But others are known to go beyond this, and spin a bag in the form of a cocoon, for the protection of their eggs, nearly similar to that of the silk-worm.* Modern naturalists do not rank spiders among insects, be- cause they have no antennae, and no division between the head * Don Luis Nee observed on certain trees growing in Chilpancingo, Tixtala in South America, ovate nests of caterpillars, eight inches long, which the inhabi tants manufacture into stockings and handkerchiefs. — Annals of Botany, 2d, p 104. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 139 and shoulders. They breathe by leaf- shaped gills, situated un- der the belly, instead of spiracles in the sides ; and have a heart connected with these. But as spiders are popularly considered insects, it will sufficiently suit our purpose to introduce them here as such. Spiders are usually classed according to their difference of color, whether black, brown, yellow, &c, or sometimes by the number and arrangement of their eyes : of these organs some possess no fewer than ten, others eight, and others again six*. Some species of spiders are known to possess the power of not merely forming a web, but also of spinning, for the protection of their eggs, a bag somewhat similar in form and substance to the cocoon of the silk-worm. The apparatus by which they construct their ingenious fabrics, is much more complicated than that which is common to the various species of caterpil- lars. Caterpillars have only two reservoirs for the materials of their silk ; but the spider spins minute fibres from fine papil- lae, or small nipples placed in the hinder part of its body. These papillae serve the office of so many wire-drawing machines, from which the silken threadlets are ejected. Spiders, according to the dissections of M. Treviranus, have four principal vessels, two larger and two smaller, with a number of minute ones at their base. Several small tubes branch towards the reservoirs, for carrying to them, no doubt, a supply of the secreted mate- rial. Swammerdam describes them as twisted into many coils of an agate colorf. We do not find them coiled, but nearly straight, and of a deep yellow color. From these, when bro- ken, threads can be drawn out like those spun by the spider, though we cannot draw them so fine by many degrees. From these little flasks or bags of gum, situated near the apex of the abdomen, and not at the mouth as in caterpillars, a tube originates, and terminates in the external spinnerets, which may be seen by the naked eye in the form of five little teats surrounded by a small circle, as represented in Fig. 8. * Porter's " Treatise on the Silk Manufacture," p. 168. t Hill's Swammerdam, part i. p. 23. 140 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. Plate IV. ; this figure shows the garden spider (Epeira dia- dema) suspended by a thread proceeding from its spinneret. We have seen that the thread of the silk-worm is composed of two filaments united, but the spider's thread would appear, from the first view of its five spinnerets, to be quintuple, and in some species which have six teats, so many times more. It is not safe, however, in our interpretations of nature to proceed upon conjecture, however plausible, nor to take anything for granted which we have not actually seen ; since our inferences in such cases are almost certain to be erroneous. If Aristotle, for exam- ple, had ever looked narrowly at a spider when spinning, he could not have fancied, as he does, that the materials which it uses are nothing but wool stripped from its body. On looking, then, with a strong magnifying glass, at the teat-shaped spin- nerets of a spider, we perceive them studded with regular rows of minute bristle-like points, about a thousand to each teat, making in all from five to six thousand. These are minute tubes which we may appropriately term spinnerules, as each is connected with the internal reservoirs, and emits a thread of inconceivable fineness. Fig. 9. represents this wonderful apparatus as it appears in the microscope. We do not recollect that naturalists have ventured to assign any cause for this very remarkable multiplicity of the spinner- ules of spiders, so different from the simple spinneret of cater- pillars. To us it appears an admirable provision for their mode of life. Caterpillars neither require such strong materials, nor that their thread should diy as quickly. It is well known in our manufactures, particularly in rope-spinning, that in cords of equal thickness, those which are composed of many smaller ones united are stronger than those spun at once. In the in- stance of the spider's thread, this principle must hold still more strikingly, inasmuch as it is composed of fluid materials that require to be dried rapidly, and this drying must be greatly facilitated by exposing so many to the air separately before their union, which is effected at about the tenth of an inch from the spinnerets. In Fig. 10. Plate IV. each of the threads shown is represented to contain one hundred minute threads, the whole forming only one of the spider's common threads. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 141 In the figure the threads are, of course, greatly magnified, so that, for the small space represented, the lines are shown as parallel. The threadlets, or filaments as they come from the papillae, are too fine to be counted with any degree of accuracy, but it is evident that very many are sent forth from each of the larger papillae. This fact tends to explain the power possessed by the spider of producing threads having different degrees of tenuity. By applying more or less of these papillae against the place whence it begins its web, the spider joins into one thread the almost imperceptible individual filaments which it draws from its body ; the size of this thread being dependent on the number of nipples employed, and regulated by that instinct which teaches the creature to make choice of the degree of exility most appropriate to the work wherein it is about to engage. Reaumur relates that he has often counted as many as seventy or eighty fibres through a microscope, and perceived that there were yet infinitely more than he could reckon ; so that he be- lieved himself to be far within the limit of truth in computing that the tip of each of the five papillae furnished 1000 separate fibres : thus supposing that one slender filament of a spider's web is made up of 5000 fibres ! Leeuwenhoeck, in one of his extraordinary microscopical ob- servations on a young spider, not bigger than a grain of sand, upon enumerating the threadlets in one of its threads, calcula- ted that it would require four 7iiillions of them to be as thick as a hair of his head ! Another important advantage derived by the spider from the multiplicity of its threadlets is, that the thread affords a much more secure attachment to a wall, a branch of a tree, or any other object, than if it were simple : for, upon pressing the spinneret against the object, as spiders always do when they fix a thread, the spinnerules are extended over an area of some diameter, from every hair's breadth of which a strand, as rope- makers term it, is extended to compound the main cord. Fig. 11. Plate IV. exhibits, magnified, this ingenious contrivance. Those who may be curious to examine it, will see it best when 142 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. the line is attached to any black object, for the threads, being whitish, are, in otherwise, not so easily perceived. Shooting of the lines. — It has long been considered a curious though difficult investigation, to determine in what manner spiders, seeing that they are destitute of wings, trans- port themselves from tree to tree, across brooks, and frequently through the air itself, without any apparant starting point. On looking into the authors who have treated upon this subject, it is surprising how little there is to be met with that is new, even in the most recent. Their conclusions, or rather their conjectural opinions, are, however, worthy of notice ; for by unlearning error, we the more firmly establish truth. 1. One of the earliest notions upon this subject is that of Blancanus, the commentator on Aristotle, which is partly adopted by Redi, by Henricus Regius of Utrecht, by Swammer- dam*, by Lehmann, as well as by Kirby and Spencef. " The spider's thread," says Swammerdam, " is generally made up of two or more parts, and after descending by such a thread, it as- cends by one only, and is thus enabled to waft itself from one height or tree to another, even across running waters ; the thread it leaves loose behind it being driven about by the wind, and so fixed to some other body." " I placed," says Kirby, " the large garden spider (Epeira diadema) upon a stick about a foot long, set upright in a vessel containing water It let itself drop, not by a single thread, but by two, each distant from the other about the twelfth of an inch, guided, as usual, by one of its hind feet, and that one apparently smaller than the other. When it had suffered itself to descend nearly to the surface of the water, it stopped short, and by some means, which I could not distinctly see, broke off, close to the spinners, the smallest thread, which still adhering by the other end to the top of the stick, floated in the air, and was so light as to be carried about by the slightest breath. On approaching a pencil to the loose end of this line, it did not adhere from mere con- tact. I, therefore, twisted it once or twice round the pencil, and then drew it tight. The spider, which had previously climbed * Swammerdam, part i. p. 24. t Intr. vol. i. p. 415. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 143 to the top of the stick, immediately pulled at it with one of its feet, and finding it sufficiently tense, crept along it, strengthen- ing it as it proceeded by another thread, and thus reached the pencil." 1. " We have repeatedly witnessed this occurrence," says Mr. Rennie, " in the fields, and when spiders were placed for experi- ment, as Kirby has described ; but we very much doubt that the thread broken is ever intended as a bridge cable, or that it would have been so used in that instance, had it not been arti- ficially fixed and again accidentally found by the spider. Ac- cording to our observations, a spider never for an instant, aban- dons, the thread which she dispatches in quest of an attach- ment, but uniformly keeps trying it with her feet, in order to ascertain its success. We are, therefore, persuaded, that when a thread is broken in the manner above described, it is because it has been spun too weak, and spiders may often be seen break- ing such threads in the process of netting their webs." The plan, besides, as explained by these distinguished writers, would more frequently prove abortive than successful, from the cut thread not being sufficiently long. They admit, indeed, that spiders' lines are often found " a yard or two long, fastened to twigs of grass not a foot in height Here, there- fore, some other process must have been used*." 2. The celebrated English naturalist, Dr. Lister, whose treatise upon the native spiders of that country, has been the basis of every subsequent work on the subject, maintains that " some spiders shoot out their threads in the same manner that porcupines do their quillst ; that whereas the quills of the lat- ter are entirely separated from their bodies, when thus shot out, the threads of the former remain fixed to their anus, as the sun's rays to its bodyt" A French periodical writer goes a lit- tle farther, and says, that spiders have the power of shooting out threads, and directing them at pleasure towards a deter- mined j)oint, judging of the distance and position of the ob- * Kirby and Spence, vol. i. Intr. p. 416. t Porcupines do not shoot out their quills, as was once generally believed. t Lister, Hist. Animalia Angliae, 4to. p. 7.- 144 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. ject by some sense of which we are ignorant*. Kirby also says, that he once observed a small garden spider (Aranea re- ticulata) " standing midway on a long perpendicular fixed thread, and an appearance caught" his " eye, of what seemed to be the emission of threads." " I," therefore, he adds, " moved my arm in the direction in which they apparently proceeded, and, as I had suspected, a floating thread attached itself to my coat, along which the spider crept. As this was connected with the spinners of the spider, it could not have been formed" by breaking a " secondary threadf." Again, in speaking of the gossamer-spider, he says, " it first extends its thigh, shank, and foot, into a right line, and then, elevating its abdomen till it be- comes vertical, shoots its thread into the air, and flies off from its stationt." Another distinguished naturalist, Mr. White of Selborne, in speaking of the gossamer-spider, says, "Every day in fine weather in autumn do I see these spiders shooting out their webs, and mounting aloft : they will go off from the finger, if you take them into your hand. Last summer, one alighted on my book as I was reading in the parlor ; ran to the top of the page, and shooting out a web, took its departure from thence. But what I most wondered at, was, that it went off with consid- erable velocity in a place where no air was stirring ; and I am sure 1 did not assist it with my breath§." " Having so often witnessed," says Mr. Rennie, " the thread set afloat in the air by spiders, we can readily conceive the way in which those eminent naturalists were led to suppose it to be ejected by some animal force acting like a syringe ; but as the statement can be completely disproved by experiment, we shall only at present ask, in the words of Swammerdam — 'how can it be possible that a thread so fine and slender should be shot out with force enough to divide and pass through the air? — is it not rather probable that the air would stop its progress, and so entangle it and fit it to perplex the spider's operations!! V " * Phil. Mag. ii. p. 275. t Vol. i. Intr. p. 417. X Ibid. ii. p. 339. § Nat. Hist, of Selborne, vol. i. p. 327. || Book of Nature, part i. p. 25. SILKEX MATERIAL OF THE SFIDER. 145 The opinion, indeed, is equally improbable with another sug- gested by Dr. Lister, that the spider can retract her thread within the abdomen, after it has been emitted*. De Geert very justly joins Swammerdam in rejecting both of these fancies, which, in our own earlier observations upon spiders, certainly struck us as plausible and true. There can be no doubt, indeed, that the animal has a voluntary power of permitting the ma- terial to escape, or stopping it at pleasure, but this is not pro- jectile. 3. •'•' There are many people," says the Abbe de la Pluche. '-'• who believe that the spider flies when they see her pass from branch to branch, and even from one high tree to another ; but she transports herself in this manner : and places herself upon the end of a branch, or some projecting body, and there fastens her thread ; after which, with her two hind feet, she squeezes her dugs (spinnerets), and presses out one or more threads of two or three ells in length, which she leaves to float in the air till it be fixed to some particular placet. " Without pretending to have observed this, Swammerdam says, - ; I can easily com- prehend how spiders, without giving themselves any motion, may. by only compressing their spinnerets, force out a thread, which being driven by the wind, may serve to waft them from place to place?." Others, proceeding upon a similar notion, give a rather different account of the matter. " The spider," says Bingley, " fixes one end of a thread to the place where she stands, and then with her hind paws draws out several other threads from the nipple.-, which, being lengthened out and driven by the wind to some neighboring tree or other ob- ject, are by their natural clamminess fixed to it I." Observation gives some plausibility to the latter opinion, as the spider always actively uses her legs, though not to draw out the thread, but ascertain whether it has caught upon any object. The notion of her pressing the spinneret with her feet * Hist. Anim. Anglae, 4to. t Memoires, vol. vii. p. 189 t Spectacle de la Nature, vol. i. § Book of Nature, pt. i. p. 25. |] Animal Biography, vol. iii. p. 475, 3d edition. 19 146 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. must be a mere fancy ; at least it is not countenanced by any- thing which we have observed. 4. An opinion much more recondite is mentioned, if it was not started, by M. D'Isjonval, that the floating of the spider's thread is electrical. " Frogs, cats, and other animals," he says, '• are affected by natural electricity, and feel the change of wea- ther ; but no other animal more than myself and spiders." In wet and windy weather he accordingly found that they spun very short lines, " but when a spider spins a long thread, there is a certainty of fine weather for at least ten or twelve days afterwards*" A periodical writer, who signs himself Carolant, fancies that in darting out her thread the spider emits a stream of air, or some subtle electric fluid, by which she guides it as if by magic. A living writer (Mr. John Murray) whose learning and skill in conducting experiments give no little weight to his opinions, has carried these views considerably farther. " The aeronautic spider," he says, " can propel its thread both horizontally and vertically, and at all relative angles, in motionless air and in an atmosphere agitated by ivinds ; nay more, the aerial trav- eller can even dart its thread, to use a nautical phrase, in the 1 wind's eye.' My opinion and observations are based on many hundred experiments The entire phenomena are electrical. When a thread is propelled in a vertical plane, it remains perpendicular to the horizontal plane always upright, and when others are projected at angles more or less inclined, their direction is invariably preserved ; the threads never inter- mingle, and when a pencil of threads is propelled, it ever pre- sents the appearance of a divergent brush. These are elec- trical phenomena, and cannot be explained but on electrical principles." " In clear, fine weather, the air is invariably positive ; and it is precisely in such weather that the aeronautic spider makes its ascent most easily and rapidly, whether it be in summer or winter." ■ " When the air is weakly positive, the ascent of the * Brez, Flore des Insectophiles. Notes, Supp. p. 134. t Thomson's Ann. of Philosophy, vol. iii. p. 306. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 147 spider will be difficult, and its altitude extremely limited, and the threads propelled will be but little elevated above the hori- zontal plane. When negative electricity prevails, as in cloudy weather, or on the approach of rain, and the index of De Saussure's hygrometer rapidly advancing towards humidity, the spider is unable to ascend*." Mr. Murray tells us, that " when a stick of excited sealing- wax is brought near the thread of suspension, it is evidently repelled : consequently, the electricity of the thread is of a negative character,"' while " an excited glass tube brought near, seemed to attract the thread, and with it the aeronautic spiderf." His friend, Mr. Bowman, further describes the aerial spider as " shooting out four or five, often six or eight, extreme- ly fine webs several }'ards long, which waved in the breeze, di- verging from each other like a pencil of rays/' One of them •• had two distinct and widely diverging fasciculi of webs," and * a line uniting them would have been at right angles to the direction of the breeze*." " Such is the chief evidence in support of the electrical the- ory," says Mr. Rennie ; " but though we have tried these ex- periments, we have not succeeded in verifying any one of them. The following statements of Mr. Blackwall come nearer our own observations. 5. < Having procured a small branched twig,' says Mr. Blackwall, < I fixed it upright in an earthen vessel containing water, its base being immersed in the liquid, and upon it I placed several of the spiders which produce gossamer. When- ever the insects thus circumstanced were exposed to a current of air, either naturally or artificially produced, they directly turned the thorax towards the quarter whence it came, even when it was so slight as scarcely to be perceptible, and eleva- ting the abdomen, they emitted from their spinners a small por- tion of glutinous matter, which was instantly carried out in a line, consisting of four finer ones, with a velocity equal, or nearly * Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 322. t Experim. Researches in Nat. Hist., p. 136 t Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 324. 148 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. so, to that with which the air moved, as was apparent from observations made on the motion of detached lines similarly exposed. The spiders, in the next place, carefully ascertained whether their lines had become firmly attached to any object or not, by pulling at them with the front pair of legs ; and if the result was satisfactory, after tightening them sufficiently, they made them pass to the twig ; then discharging from their spinners, which they applied to the spot where they stood, a little more of their liquid gum, and committing themselves to these bridges of their own constructing, they passed over them in safety, drawing a second line after them, as a security in case the first gave way, and so effected their escape. ' Such was invariably the result when spiders were placed where the air was liable to be sensibly agitated : I resolved, there- fore, to put a bell-glass over them ; and in this situation they re- mained seventeen days, evidently unable to produce a single line by which they could quit the branch they occupied, with- out encountering the water at its base ; though, ou the removal of the glass, they regained their liberty with as much celerity as in the instances already recorded. 1 This experiment, which, from want of due precaution, has misled so many distinguished naturalists, I have tried with sev- eral geometric spiders, and always with the same success*.' " Mr. Blackwall, from subsequent experiments, says he is " confident in affirming, that in motionless air, spiders have not the power of darting their threads even through the space of half an incht." The following details are given in confirma- tion of this opinion. Mr. Blackwall observed, the 1st of Oct., 1826, a little before noon, with the sun shining brightly, no wind stirring, and the thermometer in the shade ranging from 55°. 5 to 64°, a profusion of shining lines crossing each other at every angle, forming a confused net-work, coverino" the fields and hedges, and thickly coating his feet and ankles, as he walked across a pasture. He was more struck with the pheno- menon because on the previous day a strong gale of wind had blown- from the south, and as gossamer is only seen in calm * Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 456. t Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 397. SILKEX MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 149 weather, it must have been all produced within a very short time. " What more particularly arrested my attention/' says Mr. Blackwall, " was the ascent of an amazing quantity of icebs of an irregular, complicated structure, resembling ravelled silk of the finest quality, and clearest white ; they were of various shapes and dimensions, some of the largest measur- ing upwards of a yard in length, and several inches in breadth in the widest part ; while others were almost as broad as long, presenting an area of a few square inches only. u These webs, it was quickly perceived, were not formed in the air, as is generally believed, but at the earth's surface. The lines of which they were composed, being brought into contact by the mechanical action of gentle airs, adhered to- gether, till, by continual additions, they were accumulated into flakes or masses of considerable magnitude, on which the as- cending current, occasioned by the rarefaction of the air con- tiguous to the heated ground, acted with so much force as to separate them from the objects to which they were attached, raising them in the atmosphere to a perpendicular height of at least several hundred feet. I collected a number of these webs about mid-day, as they rose ; and again in the afternoon, when the upward current had ceased, and they were falling ; but scarcely one in twenty contained a spider : though, on minute inspection, I found small winged insects, chiefly aphides, en- tangled in most of them. ' ; From contemplating this unusual display of gossamer, my thoughts were naturally directed to the animals which pro- duced it, and the countless myriads in which they swarmed al- most created as much surprise as the singular occupation that engrossed them. Apparently actuated by the same impulse, all were intent upon traversing the regions of air ; accordingly, after gaining the summits of various objects, as blades of grass, stubble, rails, gates, fyc, by the slow and laborious process of climbing, they raised themselves still higher by strengthening their limbs ; and elevating the abdomen, by bringing it from the usual horizontal jiosition into one at- 150 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. most perpendicular, they emitted from their spinning appa ratus a small quantity of the glutinous secretion ivith which they construct their webs. This viscous substance being drawn out by the ascending current of rarefied air into fine lines several feet in length, was carried upward, until the spi- ders, feeling themselves acted upon with sufficient force in that direction, quitted their hold of the objects on which they stood, and commenced their journey by mounting aloft. " Whenever the lines became inadequate to the purpose for which they were intended, by adhering to any fixed body, they were immediately detached from the spinners and so converted into terrestrial gossamer, by means of the last pair o€ legs, and the proceedings just described Avere repeated; which plainly proves that these operations result from a strong desire felt by the insects to effect an ascent*." Mr. Blackwall has recently read a paper (still unpublished) in the Linnsean Society, confir- matory of his opinions. 6. " Without going into the particulars," says Mr. Rennie, " of what agrees or disagrees in the above experiments with our own observations, we shall give a brief account of what we have actually seen in our researches. So far as we have determined, then, all the various species of spiders, how differ- ent soever the form of their webs may be, proceed in the circum- stance of shooting their lines precisely alike ; but those which we have found the most manageable in experimenting, are the small gossamer spider (Aranea obtextrix, Bechstein), known by its shining blackish-brown body and reddish-brown semi- transparent legs ; but particularly the long-bodied spider ( Te- tragnatha extensa, Latr.), which varies in color from green to brownish or grey — but has always a black line along the belly, with a silvery white or yellowish one on each side. The latter is chiefly recommended by being a very industrious and persevering spinner, while its movements are easily seen, from the long cylindrical form of its body and the length of its legs. " We placed the above two species with five or six others, in- cluding the garden, the domestic, and the labyrinthic spiders, * Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 453. SILKEX MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 151 in empty wine-glasses, set in tea-saucers filled with water, to prevent their escape. When they discovered, by repeated de- scents from the brims of the glasses, that they were thus sur- rounded by a wet ditch, they all set themselves to the task of throwing their silken bridges across. For this purpose they first endeavored to ascertain in what direction the wind blew, or rather (as the experiment was made in our study) which way any current of air set, — by elevating their arms as we have seen sailors do in a dead calm. But, as it may prove more interesting to keep to one individual, we shall first watch the proceedings of the gossamer spider. u Finding no current of air on any quarter of the brim of the glass, it seemed to give up all hopes of constructing its bridge of escape, and placed itself in the attitude of repose; but no sooner did we produce a stream of air. by blowing gently towards its position, than, fixing a thread to the glass, and laying hold of it with one of its feet, by way of security, it placed its body in a vertical position, with its spinnerets ex- tended outwards ; and immediately we had the pleasure of seeing a thread streaming out from them several feet in length, on which the little aeronaut sprung up into the air. We were convinced, from what we thus observed, that it was the double or bend of the thread which was blown into the air ; and we assigned as a reason for her previously attaching and drawing out a thread from the glass, the wish to give the wind a point oVappui — something upon which it might have a purchase, as a mechanic would say of a lever. The bend of the thread, then, on this view of the matter, would be car- ried out by the wind, — would form the point of impulsion, — and, of course, the escape bridge would be an ordinary hue doubled/' Such is the opinion of Mr. Rennie, which is strongly corrobo- rated by what has been said by ML Latreille — than whom no higher authority could be given. - ; When the animal," says he. :; desires to cross a brook, she fixes to a tree or some other object one of the ends of her first threads, in order that the wind or a current of air may carry the other beyond the obstacle* ;'' * " L ! un des bouts de ces premiers fils, afin que le vent ou uu courant 152 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. and as one end is always attached to the spinnerets, he must mean that the double of the thread flies off. In his previous publications, however, Latreille had contented himself with copying the' statement of Dr. Lister. " In order to ascertain the fact," says Mr. Rennie, " and put an end to all doubts, we watched, with great care and minuteness, the proceedings of the long-bodied spider above mentioned, by producing a stream of air in the same manner, as it perambulated the brim of the glass. It immediately, as the other had done, attached a thread and raised its body perpendicularly, like a tumbler standing on his hands with his head downwards ; but we looked in vain for this thread bending, as we had at first supposed, and going off double. Instead of this it remained tight, Avhile another thread, or what appeared to be so, streamed off from the spinners, simi- lar to smoke issuing through a pin-hole, sometimes in a line, and sometimes at a considerable angle, with the first, according to the current of the air, — the first thread, extended from the glass to the spinnerets, remaining all the while tight drawn in a right line. It further appeared to us, that the first thread proceeded from the pair of spinnerets nearest the head, while the floating thread came from the outer pair, — though it is possible in such minute objects we may have been deceived. That the first was continuous with the second, without any perceptible joining, we ascertained in numerous instances, by catching the floating line and pulling it tight, in which case the spider glides along without attaching another line to the glass ; but if she have to coil up the floating line to lighten it, as usually happens, she gathers it into a packet and glues the two ends tight together. Her body, while {he floating line streamed out, remained quite motionless, but we distinctly saw the spinnerets not only projected, as is always done when a spider spins, but moved in the same way as an infant moves its lips when sucking. We cannot doubt, therefore, that this motion is intended to emit (if eject or project be deemed words too strong), the liquid material of the thread ; at the same time, d'air pousse l'autre extremitd de l'un d'eux au de la de Fobstacle." — Diet. Clas- sique d'Hist. Nat., vol. i. p. 510. SILKEX MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 153 we are quite certain that it cannot throw out a single inch of thread without the aid of a current of air. A long-bodied spider will thus throw out in succession as many threads as we please, by simply blowing towards it ; but not one where there is no current, as under a bell-glass, where it may be kept till it die, without being able to construct a bridge over water of an inch long. We never observed more than one floating thread produced at the same time; though other observers mention several. " The probable commencement, we think, of the floating line, is by the emission of little globules of the glutinous material to the points of the spinnerules — perhaps it may be dropped from them, if not ejected, and the globules being carried off by the current of air, drawn out into a thread. But we give this as only a conjecture, for we could not bring a glass of sufficient power to bear upon the spinnerules at the commencement of the floating line. ' : In subsequent experiments we found, that it was not indis- pensable for the spider to rest upon a solid body when producing a line, as she can do so while she is suspended in the air by another line. "When the current of air also is strong, she will sometimes commit herself to it by swinging from the end of the line. We have even remarked this when there was scarcely a breath of air. "We tried another experiment. We pressed pretty firmly upon the base of the spinnerets, so as not to injure the spider, blowing obliquely over them ; but no floating line appeared. We then touched them with a pencil and drew out several lines an inch or two in length, upon which we blew in order to extend them, but in this also we were unsuccessful, as they did not lengthen more than a quarter of an inch. We next traced out the reservoirs of a garden-spider (Epeira diadema). and immediately taking a drop of the matter from one of them on the point of a fine needle, we directed upon it a strong current of air, and succeeded in blowing out a thick yellow line, as we might have done with gum-water, of about an inch and a half long. " When we observed our long-bodied spider eager to throw a 20 154 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. line by raising up its body, we brought within three inches of its spinnerets an excited stick of sealing-wax, of which it took no notice, nor did any thread extend to it, not even when brought almost to touch the spinnerets. We experienced the same want of success with an excited glass rod ; and indeed had not anticipated any other result, as we have never observed that either these attract or repel the floating threads, as Mr. Murray has seen them do ; nor have we ever noticed the end of a floating thread separated into its component threadlets and diverging like a brush, as he and Mr. Bowman describe (See Fig. 11.). It may be proper to mention that Mr. Murray, in conformity with his theory, explains the shooting of lines in a current of air by the electric state produced by motion in con- sequence of the mutual friction of the gaseous particles. But this view of the matter does not seem to affect our state- ments." Nests, Webs, and Nets of Spiders. — " The neatest," says Mr. Rennie, " though the smallest spider's nest which we have seen, was constructed in the chink of a garden- post, which we had cut out the previous summer in getting at the cells of a carpenter-bee. The architect was one of the larger hunting-spiders, erroneously said by some naturalists to be incapable of spinning. The nest in question was about two inches high, composed of a very close satin-like texture. There were tAvo parallel chambers placed perpendicularly, in which position also the inhabitant reposed there during the day, going, as we presume, only abroad to prey during the night. But the most remarkable circumstance was, that the openings (two above and two below) were so elastic, that they shut close- ly together. We observed this spider for several months, but at last it disappeared, and we took the nest out under the no- tion that it might contain eggs ; but found none, and therefore concluded that it was only used as a day retreat." The ac- count which Evelyn has given of these hunting spiders is so interesting that we must transcribe it. " Of all sorts of insects," says he, " none have afforded me more divertisement than the venatores (hunters), which are a sort of lupi (wolves) that have their dens in rugged SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 155 walls and crevices of our houses : a small brown and delicately- spotted kind of spiders, whose hinder legs are longer than the rest. Such I did frequently observe at Rome, which, espying a fly at three or four yards distance, upon the balcony where I stood, would not make directly to her, but crawl under the rail, till being arrived to the antipodes, it would steal up, seldom missing its aim; but if it chanced to want anything of being perfectly opposite, would, at first peep, immediate- ly slide down again, — till taking better notice, it would come the next time exactly upon the fly's back : but if this happened not to be within a competent leap, then would this insect move so softly, as the very shadow of the gnomon seemed not to be more imperceptible, unless the fly moved : and then would the spider move also in the same proportion, keeping that just time with her motion, as if the same soul had animated both these little bodies : and whether it were forwards, backwards, or to either side, without at cdl turn- ing her body, like a well-managed horse : but if the capri- cious fly took wing and pitched upon another place behind our huntress, then would the spider whirl its body so nimbly about, as nothing could be imagined more swift : by which means she always kept the head towards her prey, though, to appearance, as immoveable as if it had been a nail driven into the wood, till by that indiscernible progress (being ar- rived within the sphere of her reach) she made a fatal leap, swift as lightning, upon the fly, catching him in the pole, where she never quitted hold till her belly w as full, and then carried the remainder home:' One feels a little sceptical, however, when he adds, u I have beheld them instructing their young ones how to hunt, which they would sometimes discipline for not well observing; but when any of the old ones did (as sometimes) miss a leap, they would run out of the field and hide themselves in their cran- nies, as ashamed, and haply not to be seen abroad for four or five hours after ; for so long have I watched the nature of this strange insect, the contemplation of whose so wonderful sagacity and address has amazed me ; nor do I find in any chase whatsoever more cunning and stratagem observed. I 156 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. have found some of these spiders in my garden, when the weather, towards spring, was very hot, but they are not so eager in hunting as in Italy*." We have only to add to this lively narrative, that the hunt- ing-spider, when he leaps, takes good care to provide against accidental falls by always swinging himself from a good strong cable of silk, as Swammerdam correctly statest, and which any- body may recognise, as one of the small hunters (Salticus scenicus), known by its back striped with black and white like a zebra. Mr. Weston, the editor of " Bloomfield's Remains," falls into a very singular mistake about hunting-spiders, imagining them to be web-weaving ones which have exhausted their materials, and are therefore compelled to hunt. In proof of this he gives an instance which came under his own observation £ ! " As a contrast," says Mr. Rennie, " to the little elastic satin nest of the hunter, we may mention the largest with which we are acquainted, — that of the labyrinthic spider (Agelena laby- rinthica, Walckenaer). Our readers must often have seen this nest spread out like a broad sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, and sometimes on the ground. The middle of this sheet, which is of a close texture, is swung like a sail- ors hammock, by silken ropes extended all around to the higher branches; but the whole curves upwards and back- wards, sloping down to a long funnel-shaped gallery which is nearly horizontal at the entrance, but soon winds obliquely till it becomes quite perpendicular. This curved gallery is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is much more closely woven than the sheet part of the web, and sometimes descends into a hole in the ground, though oftener into a group of crowded twigs, or a tuft of grass. Here the spider dwells secure, fre- quently resting with her legs extended from the entrance of the gallery, ready to spring out upon whatever insect may fall into her sheet net. She herself can only be caught by getting behind her and forcing her out into the web ; but though we * Evelyn's Travels in Italy. t Book of Nature, part i. p. 24. t Bloomfield's Remains, vol. ii. p. 64, note. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 157 have often endeavored to make her construct a nest under our eye. we have been as unsuccesful as in similar experiments with the common house spider (Aranea domestica). " The house spider's proceedings were long ago described by Homberg. and the account has been copied, as usual; by almost every subsequent writer. Goldsmith has, indeed, given some strange mis-statements from his own observations, and Bingley has added the original remark, that, after fixing its first thread, creeping along the wall, and joining it as it proceeds, it l darts itself to the opposite side, where the other end is to be fasten- ed* !' Homberg's spider took the more circuitous route of trav- elling to the opposite wall, carrying in one of its claws the end of the thread previously fixed, lest it should stick in the wrong place. This we believe to be the correct statement, for as the web is always horizontal, it would seldom answer to commit a floating thread to the wind, as is done by other species. Hom- berg ; s spider, after stretching as many fines by way of warp as it deemed sufficient between the two walls of the corner which it had chosen, proceeded to cross this in the way our weavers do in adding the woof, with this difference, that the spider's threads were only laid on, and not interlaced!. The domestic spiders, however, in these modern days, must have forgot this mode of weaving, for none of their webs will be found thus regularly constructed !*' The geometric, or net- working spiders (See Fig. 12. Plate IY.) are as well known as any of the preceding ; almost every bush and tree in our gardens and hedge-rows having one or more of their nests stretched out in a vertical position between adjacent branches. The common garden spider (Epeira dia- de?na). and the long-bodied spider [Tetragnatha extensa), are the best known of this order. ' : The chief care of a spider of this sort," says Mr. Rennie, " is, to form a cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she means to hang upon it ; and after throwing out a floating line as above described, when it catches properly, she doubles and * Animal Biography, iii. 470, 471. t Alem. de l'Acad. des Sciences, pour 1707, p. 339. 158 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. redoubles it with additional threads. On trying its strength she is not contented with the test of pulling it with her legs, but drops herself down several feet from various points of it, as we have often seen, swinging and bobbing with the whole weight of her body. She proceeds in a similar manner with the rest of the frame of her wheel-shaped net ; and it may be remarked that some of the ends of these lines are not simple, but in form of a Y, giving her the additional security of two attachments instead of one." In constructing the body of the nest, the most remarkable circumstance is the using of her limbs as a measure, to regu- late the distances of her radii or wheel-spokes (See Fig. 12. Plate IV., which represents the geometric net of the " Epeira diadema"), and the circular meshes interwoven into them. These are consequently always proportional to the size of the spider. She often takes up her station in the centre, but not always, though it is so said by inaccurate writers ; but she as frequently lurks in a little chamber constructed under a leaf or other shelter at the corner of her web, ready to dart down upon whatever prey may be entangled in her net. The centre of the net is said also to be composed of more viscid materials than its suspensory lines, — a circumstance alleged to be proved by the former appearing under the micoscrope studded with glo- bules of gum*. " We have not been able," says Mr. Rennie, " to verify this distinction, having seen the suspensory lines as often studded in this manner as those in the centre." At the commencement of the last century a method was discovered in France by Monsieur Bon, of procuring silk from spiders' bags, and its use was attempted in the manufacture of several articles. Mr. Bon has, however, noticed only tico kinds of silk-making spiders, and these he has distinguished from each other as having either long or short legs, the last variety producing the finest quality of raw silk. According to this in- genious observer, the silk formed by these insects is equally beautiful, strong, and glossy with that formed by the silk-worm. When first formed, the color of these spiders' bags is gray, but, * Kirby and Spence, Intr. i. 419. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 159 by exposure to the air, they soon acquire a blackish hue. Other spider bags might probably be found of different colors, and af- fording silk of better quality, but their scarcity would render any experiment with them difficult of accomplishment : for which reason M. Bon confined his attention to the bags of the common sort of the short-legged kind. These always form their bags in some place sheltered from the wind and rain, such as the hollow trunks of trees, the cor- ners of windows or vaults, or under the eaves of houses. A quantity of the bags was collected from which a new kind of silk was made, said to be in no respect inferior to the produce of the silk-worm. It took readily all kinds of dyes, and might have been wrought into any description of silken fabric. Air. Bon had stockings and gloves made from it, some of which he presented to the Royal Academy of Paris, and others he trans- mitted to the Royal Society of London. This silk was prepared in the following manner : — Twelve or thirteen ounces of the bags were beaten with a stick, until they became entirely freed from dust. They were next washed in warm water, which was continually changed, until it no longer became clouded or discolored by the bags under process. After this they were steeped in a large quantity of water wherein soap, saltpetre, and gum-arabic had been dissolved. The whole was then gently boiled during three hours, after which the bags were rinsed in clear warm water to discbarge the soap. They were finally set out to dry, previous to the opera- tion of carding, which was then performed with cards differ- ing from those usually employed with silk, being much finer. By these means silk of a peculiar ash color was obtained, which was spun without difficulty. Mr. Bon affirmed that the thread was both stronger and finer than common silk, and that therefore fabrics similar to those made with the latter ma- terial might be manufactured from this, there being no reason for doubting that it would stand any trials of the loom, after having undergone those of the stocking frame. The only obstacle, therefore, which appeared to prevent the establishing of any considerable manufacture from these spider bags was the difficulty of obtaining them in sufficient abund- 160 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. ance. Mr. Bon fancied that this objection could soon be over- come, and that the art of domesticating and rearing spiders, as practised with silk-worms, was to be attained. Carried away by the enthusiasm of one who, having made a discovery, pur- sues it with ardor undismayed by difficulties, he met every ob- jection by comparisons, which perhaps were not wholly and strictly founded on fact. Contrasted with the spider, and to favor his arguments, the silk-worm in his hands made a very despicable figure. He affirmed that the female spider produces 600 or 700 eggs ; while of the 100, to which number he limit- ed the silk-worm, not more than one-half were reared to pro- duce balls. That the spiders hatched spontaneously, without any care, in the months of August and September ; that the old spiders dying soon after they have laid their eggs, the young ones live for ten or twelve months without food, and continue in their bags without growing, until the hot weather, by put- ting their viscid juices in motion, induces them to come forth, spin, and run about in search of food. Mr. Bon's spider establishment, was managed in the follow- ing manner : — having ordered all the short-legged spiders which could be collected by persons employed for the purpose, to be brought to him, he inclosed them in paper coffins and pots ; these were covered with papers, which, as well as the coffins, were pricked over their surface with pin-holes to admit air to the prisoners. The insects were duly fed with flies, and after some time it was found on inspection that the greater part of them had formed their bags. This advocate for the rearing of spiders contended that spiders' bags afforded much more silk in proportion to their weight than those of the silk- worm ; in proof of which he observed, that thirteen ounces yield nearly four ounces of pure silk, two ounces of which were sufficient to make a pair of stockings ; whereas stockings made of common silk were said by him to weigh seven or eight ounces. It was objected by some of Mr. Bon's contemporaries, that spiders were venomous ; and this is so far true that a bite from some of the species is very painful, producing as much swelling as the smart sting of a nettle. Mr. Bon, however, asserted that SILKEX MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 161 he was several times bitten, without experiencing any inconve- nience ; if so, he was more fortunate or less sensitive than any of the spider-tamers with whom we have been acquainted. It was further asserted, that this venom extended itself to the silk which the spider produced ; but this assertion was utterly ab- surd, as any one who has ever applied a cobweb to stop the bleeding from a cut ought to have known. Mr. Bon declared with perfect truth, that the silk, so far from being pernicious, was useful in staunching and healing wounds, its natural glu- ten acting as a kind of balsam. The honest enthusiasm of the projector, and the singularity of a regular establishment being formed for rearing and work- ing spiders, excited a considerable share of public attention. It was. indeed, an age of strange speculations, for nearly at the same time a German gentleman broached a scheme for turn- ing tame squirrels and mice to account in spinning ; and com- panies were formed in England, with large nominal capitals to carry out schemes still more preposterous. So important did Mr. Bon's project appear to the French Academy, that they deputed the eminent naturalist, 31. Reaumur, to investigate the merits of this new silk-filament. After a long and patient examination ML Reaumur stated the following objections to Mr. Bon's plan for raising spider-silk, which have ever since been regarded as insurmountable. 1. The natural fierceness of spiders renders them unfit to be bred together. On distributing four or five thousand of these insects into cells or companies of from fifty to one or two hun- dred, it was found that the larger spiders quickly killed and ate the smaller, so that in a short space of time the cells were depopulated, scarcely more than one or two being found in each cell. 2. The silk of the spider is inferior to that of the silk-worm both in lustre and strength ; and produces less material in pro- portion, than can be made available for the purposes of the manufacture. The filament of the spider's-bag can support a weight of only thirty-six grains, while that of the silk-worm will sustain a weight of one hundred and fifty grains. Thus four or five threads of the spider must be brought together to 21 163 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. equal one thread of the silk-worm, and as it is impossible that these should be applied so accurately over each other as not to leave little vacant spaces between them, the light is not equally reflected, and the lustre of the material is consequently inferior to that in which a solid thread is used. 3. A great disadvantage of the spider's silk is, that it cannot be wound off the ball like that of the silk-worm, but must ne- cessarily be carded. By this latter process, its evenness, which contributes so materially to its lustre, is destroyed. The ferociousness and pugnacity of the spiders are not ex- aggerated ; they fight like furies. Their voracity, too, is al- most incredible, and it is very questionable whether the mere collection of flies sufficient to feed a large number of the spi- ders would not involve an amount of expense fatal to the proj- ect as a lucrative undertaking. The strength of the spiders' filament is, if anything, overstated by Reaumur. Deficiency of lustre arising from the carding of the filaments is common to the spider-fabric and to spun silk ; this objection would, per- haps, not be of very great weight but for the decisive calcula- tion by which Reaumur showed the comparative amount of production between the spider and the silk- worm. The largest cocoons weigh four, and the smaller three grains each ; spider-bags do not weigh above one grain each ; and, after being cleared of their dust, have lost two-thirds of this weight ; therefore the work of twelve spiders equals that of only one silk-worm ; and a pound of spider-silk would require for its production 27,648 insects. But as the bags are wholly the work of the females, who spin them as a deposit for their eggs, it follows that 55,296 spiders must be reared to yield one pound of silk: yet this will be obtained only from the best spiders ; those large ones ordinarily seen in gardens, &c., yield- ing not more than a twelfth part of the silk of the others. The work of 280 of these would therefore not yield more silk than the produce of one industrious silk-worm, and 663,552 of them would furnish only one pound of silk ! Although Reaumur's report completely extinguished Mr. Bon's project in France, it was revived in England two or three times in the early part of the last century. Swift has SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER 163 not neglected to make it a portion of his unrivalled satire against speculators and projectors, in his account of Gulliver's visit to the Academy of Lagado : 11 1 went into another room, says he, where the walls and ceilings were all hung round with cobvvebs, exept a narrow passage for the artist to go in and out. At ray entrance he called out to me not to disturb his webs. He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silk-worms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects, who infinitely excelled the former, because they under- stood how to weave as well as spin. And he proposed further, that, by employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silk should be wholly saved ; whereof I was fully convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully colored, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us that the webs would take a tincture from them, and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to suit ever} 7 body's fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter to give a strength and consistency to the threads." The Ingenuity of Spiders. — Mr. Thomas Ewbank of New York, in a letter to the Editor of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, bearing date September 20th 1842, gives us the following interesting description of the ingenuity of the Spider. " The resources of the lower animals have often excited admi- ration, and though no comprehensive and systematic series of observations have yet been made upon them(?), the time is, I believe, not distant when the task will be undertaken — perhaps within the next century. But whenever and by whomsoever accomplished, the mechanism of animals will then form the subject of one of the most interesting and useful volumes in the archives of man. "Among insects, spiders have repeatedly been observed to modify and change their contrivances for ensnaring their prep. Those that live in fields and gardens often fabricate their nets or webs vertically. This sometimes occurs in loca- tions where there is no object sufficiently near to which the lower edge or extremity of the web can properly be braced ; and unless this be done, light puffs or breezes of wind are apt to blow it into an entangled mass. Instead of being spread out, like the sail of a ship, to the wind, it would become clewed over the upper line, or edge, like a sail when furled up. Now how would a human engineer act under similar circumstances ? But 164 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. ere the reader begins to reflect(!), he should bear in mind that it would not do to brace the web by running rigging from it to some fixed or immovable object below — by no means ; — for were this done, it could not yield to impulses of w T ind ; the rigging would be snapped by the first blast, and the whole structure probably destroyed. " Whatever contrivances human sagacity might suggest, they could hardly excel those w T hich these despised engineers some- times adopt. Having formed a web, under circumstances simi- lar to those to which w 7 e have referred, a spider has been known to descend from it to the ground by means of a thread spun for the purpose, and after selecting a minute pebble, or piece of stone, has coiled the end of the thread round it. Having done this, the ingenious artist ascended, and fixing himself on the low T er part of the web, hoisted up the pebble until it swung sev- eral inches clear of the ground. The cord to which the weight was suspended was then secured by additional ones, running from it to different parts of the web, which thus acquired the requisite tension, and w^as allowed, at the same time, to yield to sudden puffs of wind without danger of being rent asunder. " A similar instance came under my notice a few days ago. A large spider had constructed his web, in nearly a vertical po- sition, about six feet from the ground, in a corner of my yard. The upper edge was formed by a strong thread, secured at one end to a vine leaf, and the other to a clothes line. One pan of the lower edge was attached to a Penyan sun-flower, and an- other to a trellis fence, four or five feet distant. Between these there was no object nearer than the ground, to which an addi- tional brace line could be carried ; but two threads, a foot asun- der, descended from this part of the web, and, eight or ten inches below it, were united at a point. From this point, a single line, four or five inches long, was suspended, and to its lower extrem- ity was the weight, a living one, viz. a worm, three inches long, and one-eighth of an inch thick. The cord was fasten- ed around the middle of the victim's body, and as no object was within reach, all its writhings and efforts to escape were fruit- less. Its weight answered the same purpose as a piece of in- animate matter, while its sufferings seemed not in the least to SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 165 disturb the unconcerned murderer, who lay waiting for his prey above. ' : Whether the owner of the web found it a more easy task to capture this unlucky worm and raise it, than to elevate a stone of the same weight, may be a question(?). Perhaps in seeking for the latter, the former fell in his way, and was seized as the first suitable object that came to hand — like the human tyrant, (Domitian) who, to show his skill in archery, planted his arrows in the heads of men or cattle, in the absence of other targets. It may be, however, that a piece of stone, earth, or wood, of a suitable weight, was not in the vicinity of the web. " To observe the effect of this weight, I separated, with a pair of scissors, the thread by which it was suspended, and in- stantly the web sunk to half its previous dimensions — the lower part became loose, and with the slightest current kept shaking like a sail shivering in the wind. A fresh weight was not sup- plied by the next morning ; but instead of it two long brace lines extended from the lower part of the web to two vine ten- drils, a considerable distance off. These I cut away to see what device would be next adopted, but on going to examine it the following day, I found the clothes line removed, and with it all relics of the insect's labors had disappeared." Mason-Spiders. — A no less wonderful structure is com- posed by a sort of spiders, natives of the tropics and the south of Europe, which have been justly called mason-spiders by M. Latreille. One of these (Mt/gale nididans, Walckn.), found in the West Indies, " digs a hole in the earth obliquely down- wards, about three inches in length, and one in diameter. This cavity she lines with a tough thick web, which, when taken out, resembles a leathern purse ; but what is most curi- ous, this house has a door with hinges, like the operculum of some sea-shells, and herself and family, who tenant this nest, open and shut the door whenever they pass and repass. This history was told me/' says Darwin, " and the nest, with its door, shown me by the late Dr. Butt, of Bath, who was some years physician in Jamaica*." * Darwin's Zoonomia. i. 253, Svo. ed. 166 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. " The nest of a mason-spider, similar to this/' says Mr. Ren- nie, " has been obligingly put into our hands by Mr. Riddle of Blackheath. It came from the West Indies, and is probably that of Latreille's clay-kneader (My gale cratiens), and one of the smallest of the genus. We have since seen a pair of these spiders in possession of Mr. William Mello, of Blackheath. The nest is composed of very hard argillaceous clay, deeply tinged with brown oxide of iron. It is in form of a tube, about one inch in diameter, between six and seven inches long, and slightly bent towards the lower extremity — appearing to have been mined* into the clay rather than built. The interior of the tube is lined with a uniform, tapestry of silken web, of an orange-white color, with a texture intermediate between India paper and very fine glove leather. But the most won- derful part of this nest is its entrance, which we look upon as the perfection of insect architecture. A circular door, about the size of a crown piece, slightly concave on the outside and convex within, is formed of more than a dozen layers of the same web which lines the interior, closely laid upon one an- other, and shaped so that the inner layers are the broadest, the outer being gradually less in diameter, except towards the hinge, which is about an inch long ; and in consequence of all the layers being united there, and prolonged into the tube, it becomes the thickest and strongest part of the structure. The elasticity of the materials, also, gives to this hinge the remark- able peculiarity of acting like a spring, and shutting the door of the nest spontaneously. It is, besides, made to fit so accu- ■■ rately to the aperture, which is composed of similar concentric layers of web, that it is almost impossible to distinguish the joining by the most careful inspection. To gratify curiosity, the door has been opened and shut hundreds of times, without in the least destroying the power of the spring. When the door is shut, it resembles some of the lichens (Lecidea), or the leathery fungi, such as Polypoms versicolor (Micheli), or, nearer still, the upper valve of a young oyster-shell. The door of the nest, the only part seen above ground, being of a black- ish-brown color, it must be very difficult to discover." Another mason-spider (Mygale coemeataria, Latr.), found SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 167 in the south of France, usually selects for her nest a place bare of grass, sloping in such a manner as to carry off the water, and of a firm soil, without rocks or small stones. She digs a gallery a foot or two in depth, and of a diameter (equal throughout) sufficient to admit of her easily passing. She lines this with a tapestry of silk glued to the walls. The door, winch is circular, is constructed of many layers of earth kneaded, and bound together with silk. Externally, it is flat and rough, corresponding to the earth around the entrance, for the purpose, no doubt, of concealment : on the inside it is con- vex, and tapestried thickly with a web of fine silk. The threads of this door- tapestry are prolonged, and strongly attach- ed to the upper side of the entrance, forming an excellent hinge, which, when pushed open by the spider, shuts again by its own weight, without the aid of spring hinges. When the spider is at home, and her door forcibly opened by an intruder, she pulls it strongly inwards, and even where half-opened often snatches it out of the hand ; but when she is foiled in this, she retreats to the bottom of her den, as her last resource*. The nest of this spider (the mason spider) is represented in Plate IV. Fig. 14., and shows the nest shut. Fig. 15., represents it open. Fig. 16. the spider [My gale coementaria). Fig. 17. the eyes magnified. Figures IS and 19 parts of the foot and claw magnified. Rossi ascertained that the female of an allied species (JSIygale sauvagesii, Latr.), found in Corsica, lived hi one of these nests, with a numerous posterity. He destroyed one of the doors to observe whether a new one would be made, which it was ; but it was fixed immoveably, without a hinge ; the spider, no doubt, fortifying herself in this manner till she thought she might re-open it without danger!. <: The Rev. Revett Shepherd has often noticed, in the fen ditches of Norfolk, a very large spider (the species not yet de- termined) which actually forms a raft for the purpose of ob- taining its prey with more facility. Keeping its station upon a * Mem. Soc. cTHist. Nat. de Paris, An. vii. t Mem. Soc. d'Hist. Xat. de Paris, An. vii. p. 125. and Latreille, Hist. Nat Gener. viii. p. 163. 168 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. ball of weeds about three inches in diameter, probably held to- gether by slight silken cords, it is wafted along the surface of the water upon this floating island, which it quits the moment it sees a drowning insect. The booty thus seized it devours at leisure upon its raft, under which it retires when alarmed by any danger*." In the spring of 1830, Mr. Rennie found a spi- der on some reeds in the Croydon Canal, which agreed in ap- pearance with Mr. Shepherd's. Among our native spiders there are several, which, not con- tented with a web like the rest of their congeners, take advan- tage of other materials to construct cells where, " hashed in grim repose" they " expect their insect prey." The most simple of those spider cells is constructed by a longish-bodied spider (Aranea holosericea, Linn.), which is a little larger than the common hunting spider. It rolls up a leaf of the lilac or poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done by the leaf- rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it sometimes seizes to save itself trouble, having first expelled, or perhaps devoured, the rightful owner. The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapestry of the caterpillar, but always weaves a fresh set of her own, more close and substantial. Another spider, common in woods and copses {Epeira quad- rata ?) weaves together a great number of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and in front of it she spreads her toils for entrapping the unwary insects which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, are dragged into her den, and stored up for a time of scarcity. Here also her eggs are deposited and hatched in safety. When the cold weather approaches, and the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it for the more secure shel- ter of a hollow tree, where she soon dies ; but the continuation of the species depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before winter, and remaining to be hatched with the warmth of the ensuing summer. The spider's den of united leaves, however, which has just been described, is not always useless when withered and de- serted ; for the dormouse usually selects it as a ready-made * Kirby and Spence, Iutr. i. 425. SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 169 roof for its nest of dried grass. That those old spiders' dens are not accidentally chosen by the mouse, appears from the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of this sort found during winter in a copse between Lewisham and Bromley, Kent (England), every second or third one was furnished with such a roof. The Water Spider. — We extract the following exqui- sitely beautiful and interesting fact in nature, connected with diving operations, from the Rev. Mr. Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise : — "The Water Spider is one of the most remarkable upon whom that office (diving) is developed by her Creator. To this end, her instinct instructs her to fabricate a kind of diving- bell in the bosom of that element. She usually selects still waters for this purpose. Her house is an oval cocoon, filled with air, and lined with silk, from which threads issue in every direction, and are fastened to the surrounding plants ; in this cocoon, which is open below, she watches for her prey, and even appears to pass the winter, when she closes the opening. It is most commonly, yet not always, entirely under water ; but its inhabitant has filled it with air for her respiration, which ena- bles her to live in it. She conveys the air to it in the following manner : she usually swims upon her back, when her abdomen is enveloped in a bubble of air, and appears like a globe of quicksilver* ; with this she enters her cocoon, and displacing an * Her singular economy was first, we believe, described by Clerck (Aranei Suecici, Stockholm, 1757.), L. M. de Lignac (Mem. des Araign. Aquat., 12mo. Paris, 1799.), and De Geer. " The shining appearance," says Clerck, '•' proceeds either from an inflated globule surrounding the abdomen, or from the space between the body and the water. The spider, when wishing to inhale the air, rises to the surface, with its body still submersed, and only the part containing the spinneret rising just to the surface, when it briskly opens and moves its four teats. A thick coat of hair keeps the water from approaching or wetting the abdomen. It comes up for air about four times an hour or oftener, though I have good reason to suppose it can continue without it for several days together. " I found in the middle of May one male and ten females, which I put into a glass filled with water, where they lived together very quietly for eight days. I put some duck-weed {Lcmna) into the glass to afford them shelter, and the fe- 22 170 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. equal mass of water, again ascends for a second lading, till she has sufficiently filled her house with it, so as to expel all the water. " The males construct similar habitations by the same ma- noeuvres. How these little animals can envelope their abdo- men with an air-bubble, and retain it till they enter their cells, is still one of Nature's mysteries that have not been explained. " We, however, cannot help admiring, and adoring, the wis- dom, power, and goodness manifested in this singular provision, enabling an animal that breathes the atmospheric air, to fill her house with it under water, and which has instructed her in a secret art, by which she can clothe part of her body with air as a garment, and which she can put off when it answers her purpose. " This is a kind of attraction and repulsion which mocks all our inquiries." Thus it appears, that by the successive descents of the little water-spider under the impulsion of its instinct, produce effects males began to stretch diagonal threads in a confused manner from it to the sides of the glass about half way down. Each of the females afterwards fixed a close bag to the edge of the glass, from which the water was expelled by the air from the spinneret, and thus a cell was formed capable of containing the whole animal. Here they remained quietly, with their abdomens in their cells, and their bodies still plunged in the water ; and in a short time brimstone-colored bags of eggs ap- peared in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On the 7th of July several young ones swam out from one of the bags. All tin's time th e old ones had no- thing to eat, and yet they never attached one another, as other spiders would have been apt to do (Clerck, Aranei Suecici, cap. viii.)." " These spiders," says De Geer, " spin in the water a cell of strong, closely wo- ven, white silk in the form of half the shell of a pigeon's egg, or like a diving bell. This is sometimes left partly above water, but at others is entirely submersed, and is always attached to the objects near it by a great number of irregular threads. It is closed all round, but has a large opening below, which, however, I found closed on the 15th of December, and the spider living quietly within, with her head downwards. I made a rent in this cell, and expelled the air, upon which the spider came out ; yet though she appeared to have been laid up for three months in her winter quarters, she greedily seized upon an insect and sucked it. I also found that the male as well as the female constructs a similar subaqueous cell, and during summer no less than in winter (De Geer, Mem. des Insectes, vii. 312.)." "We have recently kept one of these spiders," says Mr. Rennie, "for several months in a glass ol water, where it built a cell half under water, in which it laid its eggs." SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 171 in its subaqueous pavilion equivalent to those produced in the diving-bell, or diving helmet, by the successive strokes of the condensing air-pump of scientific man ! In the language of the book of Psalms, this insect " LAY- ETH THE BEAMS OF" her "CHAMBERS IN THE WATERS," and there secures her subaqueous chambers in the manner described. Cleanliness of Spiders. — "When we look at the viscid material/' says Mr. Rennie, "with which spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the rough, hairy covering (with a few exceptions) of their bodies, we might conclude, that they would be always stuck over with fragments of the minute fibres which they produce. This, indeed, must often happen, did they not take careful precautions to avoid it ; for we have ob- served that they seldom, if ever, leave a thread to float at ran- dom, except when they wish to form a bridge. When a spider drops along a line, for instance, in order to ascertain the strength of her web, or the nature of the place below her, she invari- ably, when she re-ascends, coils it up into a little ball, and throws it away. Her claws are admirably adapted for this pur- pose, as well as for walking along the fines, as may be readily seen by a magnifying glass. Fig. 13. Plate IV. shows the tri- ple-clawed foot of a spider, magnified, the others being toothed like a comb, for gliding along the lines. This structure, how- ever, unfits it to walk, as flies can do, upon any upright polish- ed surface like glass ; although the contrary* is erroneously as- serted by the Abbe de la Pluche. Before she can do so, she is obliged to construct a ladder of ropes, as Mr. Blackwall re- markst, by elevating her spinneret as high as she can, and lay- ing down a step upon, which she stands to form a second ; and so on, as any one may try by placing a spider at the bottom of a very clean wine glass. " The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching bits of web and particles of dust ; but these are not suffered to remain long. Most people may have remarked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushing its feet upon one another to rub off the * Spectacle de la Nature, i. 58. t Linn. Trans, vol. xv. 172 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. dust, though we have not seen it remarked in authors that spi- ders are equally assiduous in keeping themselves clean. They have, besides, a very efficient instrument in their mandibles or jaws, which, like their claws, are furnished with teeth ; and a spider which appears to a careless observer as resting idly, in nine cases out of ten will be found slowly combing her legs with her mandibles, beginning as high as possible on the thigh, and jpassing doivn to the claws. The flue which she thus combs off is regularly tossed away. " With respect to the house-spider (A. domestica), we are told in books, that ' she from time to time clears away the dust from her web, and sweeps the whole by giving it a shake with her paw, so nicely proportioning the force of her blow, that she never breaks any thing*.' That spiders may be seen shaking their webs in this manner, we readily admit ; though it is not, we imagine, to clear them of dust, but to ascertain whether they are sufficiently sound and strong. " We recently witnessed a more laborious process of cleaning a web than merely shaking it. On coming down the Maine by the steam-boat from Frankfort, in August 1829, Ave observed the geometric-net of a conic spider [Epeira conica, Walck.) on the framework of the deck, and as it was covered with flakes of soot from the smoke of the engine, we were surprised to see a spider at work on it ; for, in order to be useful, this sort of net must be clean. Upon observing it a little closely, how- ever, we perceived that she was not constructing a net, but dressing up an old one ; though not, we must think, to save trouble, so much as an expenditure of material. Some of the lines she dexterously stripped of the flakes of soot adhering to them ; but in the greater number, finding that she could not get them sufficiently clean, she broke them quite off, bundled them up, and tossed them over. We counted five of these packets of rubbish which she thus threw away, though there must have been many more, as it was some time before we dis- covered the manoeuvre, the packets being so small as not to be readily perceived, except when placed between the eye and the * Spectacle de la Nature, i. p. 61. FlatelT : SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 173 light. When she had cleared off all the sooted lines, she began to replace them in the usual way ; but the arrival of the boat at Mentz put an end to our observations." Bloomfield, the poet, having observed the disappearance of these bits of ravelled web, says that he observed a garden spider moisten the pellets before swallowing them ! Dr. Lister, as we have already seen, thought the spider retracted the threads within the abdomen. " I could wish," says Addison, in ' The Spectator,' " cur Royal Society would compile a body of natural history, the best that could be gathered together from books and observations. If the several writers among them took each his partic- ular species, and gave us a distinct account of its original, birth, and education; its policies, hostilities, and alliances ; with the frame and texture of its inward and outward parts, — and particularly those which distinguish it from all other animals, — with their aptitudes for the state of being in which Providence has placed them ; it would be one of the best services their studies could do mankind, and not a little redound to the glory of the All-wise Creator." — ' Spectator,' No. iii. Although we do not consider Addison as a naturalist, in any of the usual mean- ings of the term, yet it would be no easy task, even for those who have devoted their undivided attention to the subject, to improve upon the admirable plan of study here laid down. It is, moreover, so especially applicable to the investigation of insects, that it may be more or less put in practice by any person who chooses, in whatever station or circumstances he happens to be placed. Nay, we will go farther ; for since it agrees with experience and many recorded instances that individuals have been enabled to investigate and elucidate particular facts, who were quite unacquaint- ed with systematic natural history, we hold it to be undeniable, that any person of moderate penetration, though altogether unacquainted with what is called "Natu- ral History," who will take the trouble to observe particular facts and endeavor to trace them to their causes, has every chance to be successful in adding to his own knowledge, and frequently in making discoveries of what was previously unknown. It is related of JM. Pelissan, while a prisoner in the Bastille, that he tamed a spi- der by means of music. This in conjunction with Evelyn's observations on hunt- ing-spiders is strong proof of our position, and show that though books are often of high value to guide, us in our observations, they are by no means indispensable to the study of nature, inasmuch as the varied scene of creation itself forms an inexhaustible book, which " even he who runneth may read." " It will be of the utmost importance, in the study here recommended, to bear in mind that an insect can never be found in any situation, nor make any move- ment, without some motive, originating in the instinct imparted to it by Provi- dence. This principle alone, when it is made the basis of inquiry into such mo- tives or instincts, will be found productive of many interesting discoveries, which, without it, might never be made. With this, indeed, exclusively in view, during an excursion, and with a little attention and perseverance, every walk — nay, every step — may lead to delightful and interesting knowledge." — " Insect Archi- tecture," p. 219. CHAPTER X FIBRES OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. The Pinna — Description of — Delicacy of its threads — Reaumur's observations — Mode of forming the filament or thread — Power of continually producing new threads — Experiments to ascertain this fact — The Pinna and its Cancer Friend — Nature of their alliance — Beautiful phenomenon — Aristotle and Pliny's account — The Greek poet Oppianus's lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer friend — Manner of procuring the Pinna — Poli's description — Specimens of the Pinna in the British Museum — Pearls found in the Pinna — Pliny and Athenceus's ac- count — Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna for weaving — Scarceness of this material — No proof that the ancients were acquainted with the art of knitting — Tertullian the first ancient writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres of the Pinna — Procopius mentions a chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of gold — Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors — Golden fleece of the Pinna — St. Basil's account — Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India — Diving for the Pinna at Col- chi — Arrian's account. In the preceding chapter we have confined our remarks, principally, to the various attempts made to obtain a silken or filamentous material from the spider, and although those efforts have not been crowned with that degree of success which would render a speculation of the kind worthy of our attention in a pecuniary point of view, yet, it must be conceded, that the sub- ject is scarcely the less interesting ; and Mr. Bon, the gentle- man who first undertook the training of spiders, has at least given us matter for further interesting speculation. It is now about 104 years since Mr. Bon commenced his experiments. In this chapter, we shall proceed to describe the Pinna of the ancients, and upon which human ingenuity has been more successfully exercised in seeking, many feet below the surface of the Ocean, for the slender filaments, the produce of an ani- mal in almost a vegetative state of existence. FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. 175 The Pinna is a bivalve* shell-fish, which, when full grown, is 18 inches long, and 6 wide at its broad end. It is found near the shores of South Italy, Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia ; also in the Bay of Smyrna, and in the Indian Ocean. It does not fasten itself to rocks in the same position as the muscle, but sticks its sharp end into the mud or sand, while the rest of the shell is at liberty to open in the water. In common with the muscle, it has the power of spinning a viscid matter from its body, conformably with that of the spider and caterpillar. Al- though the pinna is vastly larger than the muscle, its shell be- ing sometimes found two feet long, the threads which it produ- ces are more delicate and slender than those of the muscle, be- ing in fineness and beauty scarcely inferior to the single filament of the comparatively minute silk-worm. Threads so delicately thin, as may readily be imagined, do not singly possess much strength ; but the little power of each is made up by the aggre- gate of the almost infinite number which each fish puts forth to secure itself in a fixed situation, and preserve it against the rolling of the waves. The threads are, however, similar in their nature to those of the muscle, differing only in their supe- rior fineness and greater length. These fish have, therefore, been distinguished by some naturalists, the one as the silk- worm, the other as caterpillar of the sea. It has been from a very remote period well known, that mus- cles have the power of affixing themselves either to rocks or the shells of one another, in a very firm manner ; yet their method of effecting this Avas not understood until explained by the accu- rate observations of M. Reaumur, the first naturalist who as- certained that if, by any accident, the animals were torn from their hold, they possessed the power of substituting other threads for those which had been broken or injured. It was found by him, that if muscles, detached from each other, were placed in any kind of vessel and then plunged into the sea, they con- trived in a very short time to fasten themselves both to the vessel's side and one another's shells : in this process, the ex- * An animal having two valves, or a shell consisting of two parts which open and shut. 176 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. tremity of each thread seemed to perform the office of a hand in seizing upon the body to which it would attach itself. The threads issue from the shell at that part where it natu- rally opens, and in affixing themselves to any substance, form numerous minute cables, by which the fish steadies itself in the water. Each animal is provided with an organ, which it is difficult to designate by any name, since it performs the office of so many members, and is the only indicator of the existence of vital powers in the creature. It is by turns a tongue, an arm, and sometimes a leg. Its shape resembles that of a tongue, and is, therefore, most frequently called by that name. Whenever the fish requires to change its place, this member serves to drag its body forward, together with its cumbrous hab- itation : in performing a journey, the extremity of this organ, which may then be styled a leg, is fixed to some solid body, and being then contracted in length, the whole fish is necessa- rily drawn towards the spot where it intends to station itself ; and by a repetition of these movements, the animal arrives at its destination. It is not often that the organ is put to this use, as the pinna is but little addicted to locomotion : some natural- ists indeed affirm that it is always stable. The purpose to which the tongue is most frequently applied, is that of spinning the threads. Although this body is flat, and in form similar to a tongue through the greater part of its length, it becomes cy- lindrical about the base or root, where it is much smaller than in any other part : at this lower end are several ligatures of a muscular nature, which keep the tongue firmly fixed against the middle of the shell ; four of these cords are very apparent, and serve to move the tongue in any direction according to the wants of the fish. Through the entire length of this member there runs a slit, which pierces so deeply into its surface, as al- most to divide it into two longitudinal sections : this performs the office of a canal for the liquor of which the threads are formed, and serves to mould them into their proper form : the canal ap- pears externally like a small crack, being almost covered by the flesh from either side, but internally it is much wider, and sur- rounded by circular fibres. The channel thus formed extends regularly from the tip to the base of the tongue, where it par- FIBRES, 177 takes of the form of the member and becomes cylindric, pro- ducing there a tube or pipe in which the canal terminates. The viscid substance is moulded in this tube into the shape of a cord, similar to the threads produced from it, though much thicker, and from which all the minute fibres issue and disperse. The internal surface of the tube, wherein the large cord is formed, is furnished with glands for the secretion of the peculiar substance employed in its production, and which is always in great abun- dance in this animal as well as in muscles. Reaumur observed, " that although the workmanship of the land and sea animals when completed is alike, the manner of its production is very different. Spiders, caterpillars, &c, form threads of any required length, by making the viscous liquor of which the filament is formed pass through fine perforations in the organ appointed for spinning. But the way in which muscles form their thread is widely opposite ; as the former re- sembles the work of the wire-drawer*, so does the latter that of the founder who casts metals in a mould." The canal of the organ destined for the muscle's spinning is the mould in which its thread is cast, and gives to it its determinate length. Reaumur learned the manner of the muscle performing the operation of swimming by actually placing some of these fish under his constant inspection. He kept them in his apartment in a vessel filled with sea water, and distinctly saw them open their shells and put forth their tongues. They extended and contracted this organ several times, obtruding it in every direc- tion, as if seeking the fittest place whereon to fix their threads. After repeated trials of this kind, the tongue of one was ob- served to remain for some time on the spot chosen, and being then drawn back with great quickness, a thread was very * This remark of M. Reaumur confirms the observations of M. H. Straus, quoted in Chapter VII. that the thread of the silk-worm is not produced by a simple emis- sion of liquid matter through the orifices of the spinner, or that it acquires solidity at once from the drying influence of the air. Indeed, silk cannot be produced in this manner, but is secreted in the form of silk in silk vessels, and the spinning apparatus, so called, only unwinds it. Mr. Straus's observations on this head ad- mit of no argument. The discovery reduces all that has been heretofore written upon the subject to the character of old lumber. 23 178 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. easily discerned, fastened to the place : this operation was again resumed, until all the threads were in sufficient number : one fibre being produced at each movement of the tongue. The old threads were found to differ materially from those newly spun, the latter being whiter, more glossy, and transpa- rent than the former, and it was thence discovered that it was not the office of the tongue to transfer the old threads one by one to the new spots where they were fixed, which course M. Reaumur had thought was pursued. The old threads once severed from the spot to which they had been originally fixed were seen to be useless, and that every fibre employed by the fish to secure itself in a new position was produced at the time required ; and, in short, that nature had endowed some fish, as well as land insects, with the power of spinning threads, as their natural wants and instincts demanded. This fact was in- controvertibly established by cutting away, as close to the body as they could with safety be separated, the old threads, which were always replaced by others in a space of time as short as was employed by other muscles not so deprived. " The pinna and its cancer friend" have on more than one occasion been made subjects for poetry. There is doubtless some foundation for the fact of the mutual alliance between these aquatic friends which has been thus celebrated ; yet some slight coloring may have been borrowed from the regions of fancy wherewith to adorn the verse, and even the prose history of their attachment may be exposed to a similar objection. The scuttle-fish, a native of the same seas with the pinna, is its deadly foe, and would quickly destroy it, were it not for its faithful ally. In common with all the same species, the pinna is destitute of the organs of sight, and could not, therefore, unas- sisted, be aware of the vicinity of its dangerous enemy. A small animal of the crab kind, itself deprived of a covering, but extremely quick-sighted, takes refuge in the shell of the pinna, whose strong calcareous valves affords a shelter to her guest, while he makes a return for this protection by going forth in search of prey. At these intervals the pinna opens her valves to afford him egress and ingress : if the watchful scuttle-fish now approach, the crab returns instanter with notice of the FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. 179 danger to her hostess ; who, timely warned, shuts her door and keeps out the enemy. When the crab has, unmolested, suc- ceeded in loading itself with provisions, it gives a signal by a gentle noise at the opening of the shell, and when admitted, the two friends feast together on the fruit of its industry. It would appear an arduous, nay, a task almost impossible for the defenceless and diminutive crab, not merely to elude its enemies and return home, but likewise obtain a supply of provender sufficient to satisfy the wants of its larger companion. The following different account of the nature of this alliance is more credible : — Whenever the pinna ventures to open its shell, it is immedi- ately exposed to the attacks of various of the smaller kinds of fish, which, meeting with no resistance to their first assaults, acquire boldness and venture in. The vigilant guard, by a gentle bite, gives notice of this to his companion, who, upon such a hint, closes her shell, and having thus shut them in makes a prey of those who had come to prey upon her : when thus supplied with food, she never fails to share her booty with so useful an ally. We are told that the sagacious observer, Dr. Hasselquist, in his voyage, (about the middle of the last century,) to Palestine, which he imdertook for objects connected with the study of nat- ural history, beheld this curious phenomenon, which, although well known to the ancients, had escaped the attention of the moderns. It is related by Aristotle* that the pinna keeps a guard to watch for her, which grows to her mouth, and serves as her caterer : this he calls pinnophylax, and describes as a little fish with claws like a crab. Pliny observes"!", that the smallest spe- cies of crab is called the pinnotores, and being from its diminu- tive size liable to injury, has the prudence to conceal itself in the shells of oysters. In another place he describes the pinna as of the genus of shell-fish, with the further particulars that it is found in muddy waters, always erect, and never without a companion, called by some pinnatores, by others pinnophylax ; * Hist. lib. v. c. 15. t Lib. ix. 51. 66. 180 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. this being sometimes a small squill, and at others a crab, which remains with the pinna for the sake of food. The description of the pinna by the Greek poet Oppianus, who nourished in the second century, has been thus given in English verse : — The pinna and the crab together dwell, For mutual succor in one common shell ; They both to gain a livelihood combine, That takes the prey, when this has given the sign ; From hence this crab, above his fellows famed, By ancient Greeks was Pinnotores named. It is said that the pinna fastens itself so strongly to the rocks, that the men employed in fishing for it are obliged to use con- siderable force to break the tuft of threads by which it is secu- red fifteen, twenty, and sometimes even thirty feet below the surface of the sea. It is fished up in the Gulf of Tarentum by the Pernonico, which consists of two semicircular bars of iron fastened together at the ends, at one of which is a wooden pole, at the other a ring and cord. The fishermen conduct their boat over the place, where the pinna is seen through the clear water, let down the Pernonico, and, having loosened the pinna by em- bracing it with the iron bars and twisting it round, draw it up to the boat. The pinna is also obtained by diving. Poli, in his splendid work on the Sicilian Testacea (Parma, 1795, folio,) gives beautiful representations of the several species and especially of the Pinna Nobilis*. The following description of submarine scenery and operations, is so vivid and pleasing that we quote it at length. Pinnis hujusmodi abundant prae caeteris litus Trinacriae, sinus Tarentinus, oraque maritima Crateris Neapolitani, potissimum ultra Promontorium Pausilypi. Equidem persumma adficimur animi jucunditate, quoties illarum piscationis recor- damur, quam vere jam inchoato inibi facere iterum iterumque consuevimus. Est ad Insulam Nisitae, qua ilia ad septentrionem vergit, respicitque contra Pausilypi Promontorium, amoenissimi maris plaga, quoddam maris ocium. Ibi inter in- gentes, pulcherrimosque marinarum stirpium saltus, quibus plaga ilia undique virescit, oculosque animumque recreat, Pinnarum greges sponte gignuntur ; quee * The figure (Fig. 7.) of the Pinna Nobilis, Plate III., is reduced from Plate XXXIV. in vol. ii. FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. 1S1 mari tranquillo, umbrisque ab insular summitate cadentibus, ab iis qui cymbis in- sistunt, ad triginta ferme pedum altitudinem, subrecta?, inque fimdo arenoso defixas perspicue cerni possunt. Urinatores igitur, sese mari submergentes, illis arripien- dis destinantur. Quoniam vero, ne reiteratis quidem ictibus, ab arena, ubi coil- s' sunt, educi queunt ; arena etenim, et pondere suo et altissima aquarum mole sibi incumbente fortiter stipata, urinatorum conatibus valide resistit ; hi maris fun- dum nacti, ibique veluti in solo sedentes, arenam Pinnae circumjectam manibus averrunt, Pinnamque deiuceps ambabus manibus comprehensam divellere conan- tur. Et si diutius, quam par est, spiritum cohibere nequeunt, ad summa aequorum ascendunt, suberibusque aqu33 innatantibus inibi de industria positis innituntur, donee tandem aeris haustu recreati, maris fundum iterum petant, operamque pe- nitus absolvant. v. ii. p. 230, 231. This species of Pinna is especially abundant on the shores of Sicily, in the Gulf of Taranto, and in the Bay of Naples, particularly beyond the Cape of Po- silipo. It always fills my mind with the greatest delight to recollect the manner of fishing for it, in which I have often taken a part at that spot in the com- mencement of spring. On the northern shore of the Isle of Nisida opposite Po- silipo, is a most agreeable expanse of water, where the sea appears to be ever at rest. Here, amidst those vast and most beauteous submarine forests, with which the coast is decorated in every direction so as at once to charm the mind and re- fresh the eye, the Pinna grows spontaneously in large groups, and in calm water, when the shadows fall from the summit of the island, is clearly seen by persons in boats growing nearly upright and fixed in the sandy bottom at the depth of about thirty feet. There are divers, whose business it is to bring it up. But, since it cannot be loosened even by repeated blows, (for the sand firmly resists the attempts of the diver, being supported by its own weight and by the super- incumbent water,) in these circumstances he sits down at the bottom of the sea, brushes away with his fingers the earth which encompasses the shell, and then endeavors to pull it up by seizing it with both hands. If he is thus likely to be detained at the bottom for a longer time than he can hold his breath, he ascends to the surface, supports himself upon corks, which aro in readiness for him, and, when he has sufficiently recovered himself by breathing, he again dives to the bottom to complete his task. The specimens of Pinna in the British Museum show not only the tuft, but also the pearls and the mother of pearl. Poli found in one specimen of the Pinna Nobilis no less than twen- ty pearls, of which he has given figures in his splendid work. Pliny (1. ix. c. 35.) mentions the practice of diving for the Pin- na in the Mediterranean Sea in order to obtain pearls from it : and Athenaeus (1. iii. p. 93 Casaub.) has preserved extracts from two historical writers, one of whom accompanied Alexander on his Indian expedition, and who informs us, that the Pinna was procured in the Indian seas, by diving and for the sake of the pearls. 182 CULTIVATION AXD MANUFACTURE OP SILK. The Italians call the fibres Lana Pesce or Lana Pennoj i. e. Fish Wool, or Pinna Wool. It is not equally good in all places. When the bottom of the sea is sandy, the shell with its bunch of fibres may be easily extracted, and they are silky and of a fine color. But in rushy and muddy bottoms so fast do they stick as to be generally broken in drawing up, and are of a blackish color without gloss. The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water, and again in tepid water, then spread on a ta- ble to dry : while yet moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and then through a nar- row one. That which is destined for very fine works is also drawn through iron combs, called scarde {cards). It is then spun with a distaff and spindle. As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality, the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings and gloves, are expensive. They are es- teemed excellent preservatives against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly carried on at Taranto, the ancient Tarentum* '. The Lana Penna, having been spun, is now almost uni- versally knit. But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this process prior to the second century : whatever garments they made of this material must have been woven. The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Ter tullian, who lived in the second century [De Pallio, iii. p. 115, Rigaltii). Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says, Nee fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosae lanusitatis plautiores conchse comant. Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was ne- * Riedesel's Travels through Sicily and Graecia Magna, translated by J. R Forster, London, 1773, p. 178-180. De Salis, Travels in the Kingdom of Na- pies. Keppel Craven, Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, p. 185. D'Argenville, Lithol. et Conchologie, p. 183, and Plate 25. FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA. 1S3 cessary also to fish for one's dress. For fleeces are obtained from the sea. where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts .of mossy hair*. (See Fig. 7, Plate II.) Procopius informs us (De Edif. lib. iii. c. 1.). that Armenia was governed by five hereditary satraps, who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor. Among these was a Chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna. (XAa^s h U ipiwv 7TC7oiTjuci'T] } ovx ola rwv -popariojv itrrtyvxev, riXA' sk QaKauam crvveiXeynivuiv' Trivvovi rd ££a Koktiv vsvoftiKavi, iv oi<; 17 rSm iptuv CKtpwris yivcrat.) I hlS ClllamyS Was fastened with a fibula of gold, in which a precious stone was set, and three hyacinths were suspended from it by golden chains (x9 vaa ~ i s Tt KaX x aXa P a ~ L s flfcwO The chlamys was accom- panied by a silken tunic, adorned with sprigs or "feathers" of gold. It is thus described : Xirajv Ik perd^s, EyKaAAorrttr/iao'i %pvccTs -avTa.%6dev wpafcucfoj, a e>) vevojiiKaci rXovfifiii KaXelv. With the chlamys and tunic were worn boots of red leather, such as only the emperors of Rome and Persia were allowed to wear. St. Basil mentions with admiration u the golden fleece *' of the Pinna, which no artificial dye could imitate. Hodev to xp™°t» eptov al -ivvat rpityovcriv, o~ep oiccls rwv dvdnfiaQuiv ijiiur\aaTO. — Hczaem. viL Whether the tuft of the Pinna was used for weaving before the time of the authors, who have now been cited, seems doubtful. As the Pinna is frequently mentioned by earlier writers, both Greek and Latint, but without any reference to the use of its tuft, it may be regarded as probable, that this kind of cloth was not invented before the time of TertuUian. It is a no less curious question. Whence did the ancients ob- tain the fibres of the Pinna, and where was the manufacture of them carried on ? * In this passage piscari is rather fancifully opposed to pangere and serere. The former of these two terms (pangere) refers to tunics of wool, which was pac- ta or pexa; the latter to tunics of cotton and flax, which were sata. The epithet jplautiores, (etymologically allied to latiores, and to jrAari-j,) well describes the large size and expanded form of the Pinna. + The passages are collected in Stephani Thesaurus L. Graecoe. ed. Valpy, p 7579. 184 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. It lias been commonly said at Tarentum, but apparently for no other reason than that the Pinna is obtained and the manufacture principally carried on at Tar ant o in modern times. By referring to the authorities above quoted, it will be seen that none of them makes any allusion to Tarentum. Consequently we have no direct evidence, that this was the seat of the ancient manufacture. On the contrary, we have testimony, that fine cloths of this substance were made in India, and thence imported into Greece and other countries. The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, a docu- ment of an age at least as late as the time of TertuHian, states that the business of diving for the wool of the Pinna was pros- ecuted near the city called Colchi in the south of India. Dif- ferent species of Pinna with tufts of fine silk are now no less abundant in the Indian than the Mediterranean Sea. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea presents a sufficient proof, that this beautiful substance was spun and woven by the Indians, whereas we can only suppose from analogy that the manufac- ture was carried on in ancient times by the Tarentines. CHAPTER XI FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE-APPLE. Fibres of the Pine Apple — Facility of dyeing — Manner of preparing the fibres for weaving — Easy cultivation of the plant — Thrives where no other plant will live — Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke's patent process of manufacturing cloth from the fibres of this plant — Its comparative want of strength — Silken material pro- cured from the Papyfera — Spun and woven into cloth — Cloth of this description manufactured generally by the Otaheiteans, and other inhabitants of the South Sea Islands — Great strength (supposed) of ropes made from the fibres of the aloe — Exaggerated statements. This plant, which has hitherto been valued solely as min- istering to the luxuries of the table, has lately had a new in- terest attached to it from the discovery of a fibre contained in its leaves, possessing such valuable properties, that it will, in all probability, soon form a new and important article of com- merce. The fibres of the pine-apple plant are disposed in fasciculi, each apparent fibre being an assemblage of fibres adhering to- gether, of such exceeding delicacy, as only to measure from -—-jth to 77r — th part of an inch in diameter ; viewed under the microscope, they bear considerable resemblance to silk, from their glossy, even, and smooth texture. They appear altogether destitute of joints, or other irregularities, and are remarkably transparent, particularly when viewed in water : they are very elastic, of considerable strength, and readily receive the most delicate dyes. This last fact appears singular, when we bear in mind the resistance, if we may be allowed the expression, which flax offers to dyes. With much trouble, and by long processes, flax will receive a few dark dingy colors : all light and brilliant ones it wholly resists ; they do not enter the fibre, but merely dry upon it externally, and afterwards easily peel, or rub off, — in short, it may be said to be painted, and not dyed. The preparation of the pine-fibre is exceedingly simple. If 24 186 FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE APPLE. a leaf of this plant be examined, it will be found to consist of an assemblage of fibres running parallel from one extremity of the leaf to the other, embedded in the soft pabulum. All the process necessary is to pass the leaf under a " tilt hammer," the rapid action of which, in a few seconds, completely crushes it, without in the slightest degree injuring the fibre, which re- mains in a large skein, and then requires to be rinsed out in soft water, to cleanse it from impurities, and be afterwards dried in the shade. So simple and rapid is the process, that a leaf, in a quarter of an hour after being cut from the plant, may be in a state fit for the purposes of the manufacturer, as a glossy, white fibre, with its strength unimpaired by any process of ma- ceration, which, by inducing partial putrefaction, not only ma- terially injures the strength of flax, but also renders it of a dingy color. The pine-plant abounds both in the East and West Indies, and may be easily propagated from the crown ; offsetts from round the base of the fruit, which often amount to upwards of twenty in number ; and from the young plants which spring from the parent stem ; its cultivation requires but little care or expense, and is of such hardy growth, as to be almost indepen- dent of those casualties of weather, which often prove so detri- mental to more delicate crops — it is one of those plants which Nature has scattered so profusely through tropical regions, whose leaves are thick and fleshy, to contain a large supply of nourishment, and covered by a thick, glazed cuticle ; admitting of so little evaporation, that many of them will thrive upon a barren rock, where no other plant would live. Also from the large portion of oxalic acid which the leaves contain, no animal will touch them, and are, therefore, exempt from the trespasses of cattle, &c. Indeed no greater proof of the hardiness of the plant can be given, than the fact, that in many places where lands have been under tillage, — afterwards abandoned, and al- lowed to return to a state of nature, the pine-apple plant ex- hibits the only trace of former cultivation ; every other cultiva- ted plant has died away before the encroachments of the sur- rounding wood, while they alone remained increasing from year to year, and spread into large beds. FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE APPLE. 187 Mr. Frederick Burt Zincke obtained a patent in England, bearing date December 9, 1836, for the following mode of pre- paring the filaments of this plant, the " Bromelia ananas" We give the patentee's own description (with slight emenda- tions), as received from the patent office, London, and which is as follows. " I (the said Frederick Burt Zincke) do hereby declare that the nature of my said invention consists — Firstly, in preparing or manufacturing the leaf of the plant, commonly called the pine-apple, by bruising, beating, washing, and drying the same, in such manner as to separate the long fibrous parts from the cuticle pabulum, and other matter comprising the said leaf. Secondly, in the application of the fibrous substance, so prepa- red to various manufactures and purposes, for which silk, flax, cotton, hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials are now used. And further, I describe the manner in which my said invention is to be performed by the following statement : For the purpose of preparing the fibre, I cut the leaves from the pine-apple plant, at any period from the time of their obtaining their full growth, till the ripening of the fruit, for I find that if the leaves are taken before they are full grown, the fibre is less strong, and if suffered to remain on the plant, after the ripening of the fruit, the fibre becomes harsh, and is more difficult to divest of the extraneous matter. The small thorns having been trimmed from the edge of the leaves, with a sharp knife, the leaves should be crushed, so as to disengage the fibre from the other matter composing the leaf, for which purpose the employment of a mallet upon a block of wood, will fully answer the intend- ed purpose. This process of crushing is to be continued until the fibre appears in an assemblage of long silky filaments, with more or less of the pulpy and other matter of the leaf ad- hering to them ; to cleanse them from which they are to be well rinsed in soft water, immediately after having been crushed or beaten, and then the water should forthwith be squeezed out of them, by drawing them between the edges of two pieces of wood, placed parallel to each other, so as to admit of the fibres being drawn out rather lightly between them, for if the green matter is allowed to dry on the fibre, it of course 188 FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE APPLj.. becomes more difficult to cleanse. The washing must be care- fully performed, so as to prevent the fibre from becoming tangled or knotted. The operation of washing or rinsing must be re- peated until the fibre be thoroughly cleansed. If it be found difficult to clean the fibre from the extraneous matter, in conse- quence of not collecting the leaves from the plant sufficiently early, or from any other cause, the operation will be facilitated by boiling the fibre, after it has been beaten, and partially pu- rified in a solution of soap in soft water. For this purpose the fibre must be regularly disposed in any suitable vessel, so as to prevent its becoming tangled, with sufficient water to cover it, in which soap has been dissolved, in the proportion of about 5 lbs. to 50 lbs. of fibre, a light weight being then placed upon it, to keep the fibre beneath the surface of the liquor ; the whole is then to be boiled for the space of three or four hours, and af- ter boiling, to be well rinsed out in soft water, and squeezed as before directed. The fibre having been cleansed by these pro- cesses, is to be gradually dried in the shade, and occasionally shaken out, so as to prevent the too close adhesion of the fila- ment in drying, which would otherwise take place. The fibre may be obtained free from the extraneous matter of the leaf by other modes ; but I prefer that which I have above described. As to the second part of my said invention, it is only necessary to observe that from the superiority of this fibre in several re- spects over those now in common use (?), it is adapted to a vast number of purposes, in which fibrous materials are now employed ; it is of a glossy white color, it receives dyes with fa- cility, it possesses great strength, and is divisible to an exceed- ing degree of fineness, for upon examination each filament that appears a single fibre, is, in fact, a bundle of very delicate fibres, adhering more or less strongly together. These qualities render it applicable to the manufacture of shawls, drills, dam- ask-linens, plushes, carpets, rugs, lace, bonnets, paper ; as a material for rope, twine, or thread, and a variety of other pur- poses to which silk, cotton, flax hemp, wool, and other fibrous materials are now applied. As a material for spinning in the ordinary method in which flax is now spun through hot water, this fibre requires to undergo the process generally in use for FIBRES, OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINE APPLE. 189 bleaching flax. I find the period at which the bleaching can be most conveniently performed, is when the fibre is in the state called technically " a roving ;" for the coarser yarns the first stages of the bleaching process will be sufficient, but this operation must be carried further, in proportion to the fineness of the yarn intended to be spun. The effect of the bleaching upon the fibre is, to disengage part of the adhesive matter, which connects the fine filaments together, and render the yarn susceptible of longation, between the receiving and de- livering rollers in spinning, after it has passed through the hot water ; I therefore claim as my invention, the preparing and manufacturing into the fibres hereinbefore particularly described ; the leaf of the plant commonly called the pine-apple, by any mode or modes of preparation, and also the application of the said fibres, when prepared and manufactured, to the several purposes hereinbefore also particularly specified, the same being to the best of my knowledge (information, remembrance, and belief), now and not heretofore practised." M. de la Rouverie affirms, that he procured a beautiful veg- etable silk from the Papyfera or paper mulberry ; cutting the bark while the tree was in sap, beating it with mallets, and steeping it in water ; he obtained a thread from the fibres, al- most equal to silk in quality ; and this was woven into a cloth the texture of which appeared as if formed of that material. The finest sort of cloth among the inhabitants of Otaheite, and other of the South Sea Islands, is made of the bark of this tree. According to M. Chevremont, Engineer of Mines, "ropes made of aloes have/owr times the resistance of those of hemp of the same diameter, and made by the same process(?). The fibres of the aloe contain a resinous substance which protects the ropes from the action of moisture : even at sea, and renders the tarring of them unnecessary. They are lighter than hemp- en ropes, and lose nothing of their strength by being wet(?). When plunged into water, they are shortened only two per cent., so that they become less rigid than ropes made of hemp(?)." There appears to be a good deal of exaggeration in regard 190 FIBRES, to the great superiority of the fibres of these plants over cotton, flax, fipr)' *CiOia ra jSaiXritria KaXAurra yap ruiv ttjvtcov, Kay toci tvv Kopa^ucwv tyioovra. 6evrepeia*. * Jo. Tzetzes, Chiliad, x. 348-350, in Lectii Corp. Poetarum Graecorum. 230 SHEEP BREEDING AND " Anciently Miletus was famed for carpets : for of all fleeces the Milesian were the most beautiful, although the Coraxic bore the second prize." TLepi riov MLiXrjaiuv svas, 6p%ri(TTa Ppofiiais 6ira6l vvfKpais, yeXaeeias, a> Hay, In' l^ais EVtppoavvais, docoa'is Ke^np^jiivos^. O Pan, Arcadia's sovereign lord, Dancing and singing with the nymphs ; Smile, Pan, responsive to my joys, O shout, delighted with my songs. On a vase of Greek marble in the Royal Museum at Naples (This vase was first described in Bayardi, Catalogo degliantichi monumenti dissottarretti da Ercolano. Napoli, 1754, p. 290. No. 914.), we see Pan dancing with the nymphs exactly as he is represented in the preceding song. The sculpture is in that very ancient style, which is called Etruscan. Pan is here ex- hibited with goats' feet and horns (Horn. Hymn, in Pana, 1. 2.). He wears the skin of an animal, and employs his right hand in drawing it up towards his left shoulder. In his left hand he holds the crook or pastoral staff, which is one of his usual em- blems. Pan and the three females, with whom he is dancing, form a distinct group by themselves. They are moving round a large stone, and the artist probably imagined them to be moving first in one direction, and then in the opposite, as if performing the Strophe and Antistrophe around an altar. We learn from Mr. Dodwell, that the modern Greeks in their circu- lar dances hold each other with a handkerchief, and not by the handt. That the Romans considered Pan and Faun to be the same, using the two names indiscriminately, the one as the Greek, the other as the Latin form, is evident from such passages as the following : Pan from Arcadia's hills descends To visit oft my Sabine seat, * Athenams, 1. xv. 50. 1547. ed. Dindorf. Pindari Op. a Bockh. ii. 2 p. 592. Brunck, Analecta, vol. i. p. 156 ; and vol. iii. Lect. et. Emend, p. 27. t Dodwell's Tour, vol. ii. p. 21, 22. PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 245 And here my tender goats defends From rainy winds and summer's heat. For when the vales, wide-spreading round, The sloping hills, and polish'd rocks, With his harmonious pipe resound, In fearless safety graze my flocks. Hor. Od. 1. i. c. 17. v. 1-12. The names Pan and Faun, scarcely differ except in this, that the one begins with P, the lenis, and the other with F, which is its aspirate : in the second place, both were conceiv- ed to have not only the same form and appearance, but the same habits, dispositions, and employments : thirdly, the goat was sacrificed to Pan in Greece* and to Faunus in Italyt, be- cause the Arcadian and Roman deity was conceived to be the guardian of goats as well as sheep, but this animal was not sacrificed to the Egyptian Mendes, because In safety through the woody brake The latent shrubs and thyme explore, Nor longer dread the speckled snake, And tremble at the wolf no more. Francis's Translation, abridged. in Egypt the goat itself was supposed to be Mendes, an incar- nation of the god ; and lastly, it is recorded as an historical fact, that the worship of Faunus was brought to Rome from Arcadia, whereas the supposition of the introduction of the same wor- ship into Arcadia from Egypt, though found in the pages of an historian, is not given by him as a matter of history, but only as a matter of opinion. The account of the origin of the worship of Faunus at Rome, is as follows : Evander, the Ar- cadian, introduced a colony of his countrymen into Italy, and established there the rights of Mercury and of the Ly- cean Pan on the lull, which was afterwards called the Pal- atine Mount and became fart of the city of Rome. A cave * Longi Pastor. 1. ii. c. 17. In an epigram by Leonidas of Tarentum (No. xxx. Brunckii Analecta, torn. i. p. 228.) Bito, an aged Arcadian, dedicates offer- ings to Pan, to Bacchus, and to the Nymphs. To Pan he devotes a kid. t Ovid. Fasti, ii. See also Hor. Od. 1. i. 4. v. ii. 246 SHEEP BREEDING AND at the base of the hill was dedicated to Pan, as we have seen was the case some centuries afterwards at Athens*. In the preceding observations we have endeavored to give a correct representation of the real sentiments and practices of the Arcadians in regard to the proper divinity of their country ; and from this account we are naturally led to inquire what in- fluence this peculiar belief and worship had upon their manners and their social life. Whilst the elegant simplicity and inno- cence of the Arcadian shepherds, their graceful chorusses, their dance and song, their love for their fleecy charge, which they delighted and soothed with the melody of the pipe, have been the theme and ornament of poetry and romance from the ear- liest times, the question is highly important and interesting, whether these ideal visions are realised by historical testimony? whether the shepherds of the ancient Arcadia were so entirely and so favorably distinguished from men of the same class and employment in almost all other times and countries? One modern writer denies this fact. He says, "The refined and almost spiritualized state of innocence, which we call the pas- toral life of Arcadia, was entirely unknown to the ancients :" and he quotes in support of this assertion several expressions, used by Philostratus and other writers, and denoting contempt for the Arcadians as a rude, ignorant, stupid race of peoplef . Polybius, who was an Arcadian, confidently asserts, that they had throughout Greece a high and honorable reputation, not only on account of their hospitality to strangers and their benev- olence towards all men, but especially on account of their pie- ty towards the divine being ! It is true they make no figure in Grecian history, because they were too wise to take part in the irrational contests, which continually embroiled the sur- rounding states. Their division into small independent com- munities, each presenting a purely democratic constitution, rendered it impossible for them to acquire celebrity in legis- * Dionys. Halicarn. Hist. Rom. 1. i. p. 20, 21, ed. R. Steph. Paris 1546. Strabon 1. v. cap. iii. § 3. Aur. Victor, Origo Gentis Romanae. Livii 1. i. c. 5. Pausanias, viii. 43. 2. Virg. iEn. viii. 51-54. 342-344. Heyne's Excursus ad loc. Ovidii Fasti, ii. 268-452. v. 88, &c. t J. H. Voss, Virgil's Landliche Gedichte, torn. ii. p. 353* PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 247 lation ; and yet we are informed of some of the citizens of Ar- cadia, who were reputed excellent lawgivers for the sphere* in which they acted*. It appears to be no inconsiderable evidence of their progress in the art of government upon republican prin- ciples, that in the choice of magistrates at Mantinea they proceeded upon the plan of a double elect ionj. "We have the most decisive proofs of their public spirit in the splendid cities, which they erected, and which were adorned with thea- tres, temples, and numerous other edifices. We are informed by Pausaniast, that of all the temples in Peloponnesus the most beautiful and admirable were those of Minerva at Tegea and of Apollo at Phigalia ; and these were both cities of Arcadia. Now it should be observed, that the taste and splendor of their public edifices are the more decisive proofs of their national en- thusiasm, when it is considered, that among them property was exceedingly subdivided : that they had no overpower- ing aristocracy, no princes or great landed gentry, who might seek for renown or court popularity by bestowing their wealth upon public institutions ; but that the noble temples, the sculp- tures, and other works of art, which ornamented their cities and were subservient to purposes of common interest, could have been produced only by the united deliberations and con- tributions of the mass of the inhabitants. They seem there- fore to prove the universal prevalence both of a liberal patri- otic feeling, and of a cultivated taste for the beautiful and the sublime. Virgil bears his testimony to their superior skill in vocal and instrumental music. Arcadian swains, Ye best artificers of soothing strains. Bucol. x. 32. — Warton's Translation. This must of course be understood as referring only to music and poetry of the pastoral kind. To the composition of the higher species of poetry, by which the Greeks of other coun- tries laid a foundation for the instruction and delight of all suc- * Wachsmuth, Hellen. Alterthumskunde, i. 1. p. ISO ; i. 2. p. 305. t Axistot. Polit. L vi. 2. 2. J L. via. c. 41. 5. p. 429, ed. Siebel. 248 SHEEP BREEDING AND ceeding ages, the Arcadians never aspired. At the same time there can be no doubt that they bestowed great care upon the exhibition of dramatic compositions, though they did not at- tempt to write them : of this fact we have sufficient proof in the remains of the theatres found upon the sites of their prin- cipal cities, and especially of the theatre of Megalopolis, which was the greatest in all Greece*. But with respect to their cultivation of music and its influ- ence on their national character, we have upon record the full and explicit testimony of one of their most distinguished cit- izens, the historian Polybius, whose remarks wall appear espe- cially deserving of the reader's attention, when it is considered, that he must himself have gone through the whole course of discipline and instruction which he describes. Having had oc- casion to mention the turbulent character as well as the cruel and perfidious conduct of the Cynsetheans, who occupied a city and district in the north of Arcadia, he proposes to inquire why it was that, although they were indeed Arcadians, they had acted in a manner so entirely at variance with the usual habits and manners of the Greeks, and he then proceeds with earnest- ness and solemnity to explain upon the following principles the cause of this extraordinary contrast. It was, as he states, that the Cynsetheans were the only inhabitants of Arcadia who had neglected to exercise themselves in music ; and he then gives the following account of the established practice of the rest of the Arcadians in devoting themselves to the study of real music, by which he means the united arts of music, poetry, and dancing, of all those elegant and graceful performances, over which the Muses were supposed to preside. He informs us that the Arcadians, whose general habits were very severe, were required by law to go on improving themselves in music, so understood, until their thirtieth year. "In childhood," says he, " they are taught to sing in tune hymns and paeans in honor of the domestic heroes and divinities. They afterwards learn the music of Philoxenus and Timotheus. They dance to the pipe in the theatres at the annual festival of Bacchus ; and * Pausanias, 1. viii. 32. 1. Leake's Travels in the Morea, vol. ii. p. 32. 39, 40. PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 249 they do this with great emulation, the boys performing mock- fights adapted to their age, and the young men the so-called manly fights. In like manner throughout the whole of life their pleasure at feasts and entertainments consists, not in lis- tening to singers hired for the purpose, but in singing them- selves in their turns when called upon. For, although a man may decline any other performance on the ground of inability and may thereby bring no imputation on himself, no one can refuse to sing, because all have been obliged to learn it, and to refuse to take a part, when able, is deemed disgraceful. The young men also unite together to perform in order all the mil- itary steps and motions to the sound of the pipe, and at the public expense they exhibit them every year before their fellow- citizens. Besides these ballets, marches, and mock-fights, the men and women unite in great public assemblies and in nume- rous sacrifices, to which are to be added the circular or choral dances by the boys and virgins/' Polybius adds, that these musical exercises had been ordained as the means of communi- cating softness and refinement to the otherwise rough and la- borious life of the Arcadians, and he warns them by the exam- ple of the half-savages of Cynaethae never to abandon such wholesome institutions*. With how great benefit to our own social character might we adopt this counsel ! How greatly might we contribute both to the innocent enjoyment and to the more improved and elevated tastes of our rustics and artisans, if well-regulated plans were devised, by which graceful recrea- tions, prodding at the same time exercise for the body, amuse- ment for the imagination, and employment for the finer and more amiable feelings, were made to relieve the degrading and benumbing monotony of their protracted labors, whether in the factory or in the field ! It will be readily perceived, that the education here described, and the tastes and habits which it produced, were immediately associated with the popular religion, and especially with the notions and rites entertained towards the peculiar god of the shepherds. Other deities indeed, such as Apollo, Diana, and * Polyb. L iv. c. 20, 21. 250 SHEEP BREEDING AND Minerva, who were also worshipped in Arcadia, may have con- tributed to the same effect ; and especially this may have been the case with Mercury, perhaps the only one of the higher Greek divinities, who was conceived to have a benevolent character, who was the father of Pan, and was himself reported to have been born in a cave of the same mountain in Arcadia, on which he was worshipped. He was a lover of instrumental music, having invented the lyre, and he was frequently represented on coins and gems, riding upon a ram, or with his emblems so connected with the figures of sheep, and more rarely of goats and of dogs, as to prove that in his character as the god of gain the shepherds looked up to him together with his offspring to bless the flocks and to increase their produce*. Hence Homer, in order to convey the idea that Phorbas was remarkably suc- cessful in the breeding of sheep, says that he was beloved by Mercury above all the other Trojansf. The inhabitants of one territory even in Arcadia, viz. the city of Phineos, honored Mercury more than all the other gods, and expressed this sen- timent by procuring a statue of him made by a celebrated * Buonaroti (Osservazioni sopra alcuni Medaglioni Antichi, p. 41.) has exhibit- ed brass coins, in one of which Mercury is riding on a sheep ; in a second the sheep is seen with Mercury's bag of money on its back ; and in a third the ca- duceus is over the sheep, and two spikes of corn, emblems of agricultural pros- perity, spring out of the ground before it. Among the gems of the Baron de Stosch, now belonging to the Royal Cabinet at Berlin, No. 381. Class II. repre- sents Mercury sitting upon a rock with a dog by his side : Winckelmann ob- serves, that " the dog is the symbol of Mercury as the protector of shepherds." Nos. 392, 393, 396-402, in the same collection, represent him with sheep, and one of them (399.) exhibits him standing erect in a chariot drawn by four rams, and holding the bag or purse in his right hand and the caduceus in his left. Some of the coins of Sicily appear to refer in like manner to the character of Mercury as the promoter of the trade in wool. The Honorable Keppel Craven (Excursions in the Abruzzi, London, 1838, vol. i. ch. 4. p. 109.) mentions a temple at Arpinum, a city of Latium, which was dedicated, as appears from an inscription found on its site, toMERCURIUS LA- NARIUS. This title evidently represented Mercury as presiding over the growth of wool and the trado in it. Perhaps the very ancient idea of Mercury making the fleece of Phryxus golden by his touch may have originated in the same view. See Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 11. 1144, and Scholion ad locum. t II. xiv. 490. See also Horn. Hymn to Mercury, 569. Hesiod, Theog. 444. PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 251 sculptor in iEgina, in which he was represented carrying a ram under his arm, and which they placed in the great temple of Jupiter at Olympia*. At Corinth there was a brazen statue of Mercury in a sitting posture with a ram standing beside him. According to Pausanias (ii. 3, 4.) the reason of this representa- tion was, that of all the gods Mercury was thought most to take care of flocks and to promote their increase. But, as the Corinthians had little or nothing to do with the tending of sheep and were devoted to commerce, we may ask what inter- est had they in this attribute of Mercury ? It is very evident that it could only be an interest arising from the part which Cor- inth took in the wool-trade. That the Arcadians did not themselves consume their wool is manifest. How could they have built cities, which were so large, numerous, and handsome in proportion to the extent of their country, and have lived even in that degree of elegance and luxury, to which they at- tained, unless they had been able to dispose of the chief prod- uce of their soil in a profitable manner ? It is probable therefore, that the representation of Mercury or of his emblems in conjunction with the figure of the sheep on the coins of Cor- inth and Patras may be regarded as an intimation, that the Arcadians disposed of their wool in those cities for exportation to foreign countries. But, notwithstanding the important share, which Mercury had in the religious sentiments and observances of the Arca- dians, the proper god of the shepherds of Arcadia was Pan, and we have already had abundant evidence to suggest the convic- tion, that their songs and dances were performed principally in honor of him, and were supposed to be taught, guided, and animated by him. Arcadia has for many centuries exhibited a most melancholy contrast to that condition of hardy and yet peaceful independ- ence, of rustic simplicity united with tasteful elegance, of so- cial kindness and domestic enjoyment undisturbed by the proj- ects of ambition, which has supplied many of the most beauti- ful pictures to the writers of poetry and romance. The great * Paus. 1. v. 27. 5. and 1. viii. 14. 7. 252 SHEEP BREEDING AND natural features of the country are unalterable. The pine-for- ests of Lycaeus, its deep glens continually refreshed with spark- ling streams and cataracts, its savage precipices where scarce even a goat can climb, remain in their original beauty and grandeur. This region also affords pasture to flocks of sheep more numerous than those which feed in any other part of Greece*. But whatever depends on the moral nature of man is changed. The valleys, once richly cultivated and tenanted by an overflowing population, are scarcely kept in tillage. The noble cities are traced only by their scattered ruins. The few descendants of the ancient Arcades have crouched beneath a degrading tyranny. The thick forests and awful caverns but a few years ago served to shelter fierce banditti ; and the traveller startled at the sound of their fire-arms instead of being charmed with the sweet melody of the syrinxt. But a new dynasty has been established under the sanction of the most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe. It remains to be seen whether this or any other part of Greece will again be- come wise, virtuous, and renowned. The philanthropist, who amidst the gloom and desolation of the moral world depends with confidence upon an x all-wise and all-disposing Providence, may console himself with the hope, that that great Being who bestowed such inestimable blessings upon Arcadian shepherds in their ignorance, will not abandon those of their descendants, who with superior means of knowledge, aim at corresponding attainments in the excellencies of political, social, and private fife. According to the representation in the Odyssey (xiv. 100.) * Bartholdy, Bruchstiicke ziir Kenntniss des heut. Griechenlands, p. 238. t Dodwell's Tour, vol. ii. p. 388-393. Leake's Travels in the Morea, vol. i. p. 486-490. The latter author gives the following account of a visit which he paid to the family of a shepherd, consisting of twelve or fifteen individuals, who lived together in a tent on Mount Lycreus: — " Milk and misithra (a preparation made by boiling milk and whey together) is their usual food. ' We have milk in plen- ty,' they tell me, ' but no bread.' Such is the life of a modem Arcadian shep- herd, who has almost reverted to the balanephagous state of his primitive ances- tors (Orac. Pyth. ap. Pausan. Arcad. c. 42.). The children, however, all look healthy and are handsome, having large black eyes and regular features wiih very dark complexion." PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 253 Ulysses had twelve flocks of sheep, and as many of goats on the continent opposite to Ithaca. At a much later period Xeoptol- emus, a king of Molossis, in possession of flocks and herds, which were superintended by a distinct officer appointed for the purpose*. In Macedonia also the king, though living in a state of so little refinement that his queen baked the bread for the whole household^ was possessed at an early period of flocks of sheep and goats together with horses and herds of oxen, which were entrusted to the care of separate officers. We are informed that three Argive brothers, having taken refuge in the upper part of Macedonia bordering upon Illyria, became hired servants to the king, one of them having the custody of the horses, another of the oxen, and a third of the sheep and goatst. Here then we find in Europe a state of society analo- gous to that which) as we have seen, existed in Palestine under David. Indeed we may observe, that all the countries bordering on Macedonia were contrasted with Attica and Arca- dia in this respect, that, while the Athenians and Arcadians were in general small landed proprietors, each shepherd tending his flock upon his own ground, PhrygiaJ, Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and even Bceotia belonged probably to an aristocracy, the richest and most powerful individuals of which became shepherd kings, their landed possessions giving them a superi- ority over the rest of their countrymen, and leading to the em- ployment of numerous persons as their servants engaged in tending their cattle and in other rural occupations. Respecting the attention paid to sheep-breeding in Epirus we have the testimony of Yarro in his treatise De Re Rustica. He informs us (ii. 2.) that it was usual there to have one man to take care of 100 coarse- wooled sheep (ores hirtce\ and two men for the same number of " oves yellitte? or sheep which wore skins. The attention bestowed upon dogs is an indirect evidence of the care which was devoted to flocks. It is worthy * Plutarchi Pyrrhus. p. 705. ed. Steph. t Herod, viii. 137. % Theopompus, as quoted by Servius on Virgil, Buc. vi. 13, makes mention of the shepherds, who kept the flocks of Midas, king of Phrygia. 254 SHEEP BREEDING AND of remark, that the dogs used to guard the flocks in the modern Albania, appear to be the genuine descendants of the ancient " canes Molossici," being distinguished by their size as well as by their strength and ferocity*. Further notices respecting them may be found in Virgil's Georgics, 1. iii. 404-413, and in the Notes of his editors and translators, Heyne, Martyn, and J. H. Voss. See also iElian de Nat. An. iii. 2. and Plautus, Capt. 1. i. 18. There is another important circumstance, in which probably the habits of the modern shepherds of Albania are similar to those of the ancient occupants of the same region, viz. the an- nual practice of resorting to the high grounds in summer and returning to the plains in winter, which prevails both here and in most mountainous countries devoted to sheep-breeding. The following extract from Dr. Holland's Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, "CIEXTS. 267 As sheep in flocks thick-pasturing on the plain Attend the footsteps of the shepherd-swain, His well-known call they hear, and fully fed, Pace slowly on, their leader at their head ; "Who pipes melodious, as he moves along, On sprightly reeds his modulated song : Thus charm" d with tuneful sounds the scaly train Pursued the flying vessel o'er the main. Faickes's Translation. The testimony afforded by Tarro relative to the management of the South- Italian sheep, having been given and illustrated, it is to be deplored that Italy, once so renowned for its sheep. can now boast little of this production of her bounteous clime. The Romans, whose dress was woollen, cultivated in an espe- cial degree the fineness of the fleece ; and it was not until the days of the Empire that the silk and cotton of the East began to supersede the ancient raiment of the Roman people. The finest wools of ancient Italy were produced in Apulia and Cala- bria, being the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Naples*. We now proceed to the other writers on Rural Affairs, viz., Columella and Palladius. The first attests the high estimation in which the sheep of Calabria and Apulia were held by the Romans, especially be- fore his own time, and he says that among them the Tarentine sheep were the best of all. In speaking of the practice so prev- alent in this district of covering them with skins, he shows, that these " oves pellitge" were also called " soft" (violles). and '• covered" (tectce). Indeed he makes the great distinction of sheep to be into the " genus molle?' i. e. the soft kind, and the u genus hirsutum," or '-hirtum," i. e. the coarse kind. We further learn that the soft sheep were called by the Romans Greek sheep, because they were bred in Graecia Magna, and * It appears from the following passage of Varro, that the Apulian was sold at a higher price than some other kinds of wool which were equally beautiful, be- cause it wore better. By lana Gullicana in this passage we must understand the wool of Gallia Cisalpina, of which we shall next treat. Sic enim lana Gallicana et Appula videtur imperito similis propter speciem, cum peritus Appulam emat pluris, quod in usu firmior sit. De Lin. hat., lib. ix. 28. p. 4S4. ed. Spengel. 268 SHEEP BREEDING AND Tarentine, because the best of all were bred at Tarentum. According to Palladium they were also sometimes called Asiatic (Asia?ice). It is to be observed that by Asia, Palladius and his contemporaries would understand the celebrated sheep- country of which Miletus was the centre* ; and considering the frequent, long-established, and very friendly intercourse be- tween Miletus and Tarentumt, we may infer that the Milesi- ans imported into Tarentum their fine breed of sheep, and at the same time introduced the art of dyeing and preparing the wool. The same sheep, which were called Greek by the Ro- mans, were called Italian by the Egyptians and others, to whom the word Greek would not have been distinctive. Col- umella (vii. 4.) insists particularly on the great pains and care, which it was necessary to bestow upon this description of sheep, the " covered" or " soft," in regard to food, warmth, and cleanli- ness, and he says that they were principally brought up in the house*. As there was in general a great affinity between the manners and ideas of Sicily and South Italy, we might infer that the pastoral habits of these two districts were in many respects similar. Theocritus accordingly lays the scene of some of his Idylls on the coast opposite to Sicily. The fifth Idyll describes a contest between a shepherd and a goatherd, who are sup- posed to have been employed as hired servants in the vicinity of Sybaris. The shepherd, observing some of his sheep to be feeding on an oak, which could not be very good for them, ut- ters the following exclamation, showing that it was customary to give proper names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact, * Cellarii Ant. Orbis Notitia, iii. 1. 7, 8, 9. t Herod, vi. 21. and WesseUng ad locum. i According to Bochart (Hieroz. cap. 45. p. 486, ed. Leusden), the Talmud and another rabbinical book, lambs soon after their birth were invested with garments fastened upon them with thongs or buckles. In the sheep-breeding countries of Europe the practice seems to have been very general. Besides South Italy, Attica, Megaris, and Epirus, in regard to which countries positive evidence has been produced, we find that soft sheep, or " oves pellitae" were kept by an inhabitant of Cynetha? in Arcadia (Polybius, L. ix. c. 17.), by the Roman settlers in the North of Gaul and in Spain. PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 269 that in ancient times they were regarded as the objects of affec- tion, and not of profitable speculation merely : Ovk drrd rdj 6pvos ovros b Kcjyapo?, & re ILvvatda' Tourti (jQji rpi%6s. f] tie dpl£ dvayKaia npog te o-%olvovs Kal colkkovs, Kal tcl tovtois TTapaiikno-ia, koX sis vavriKas vnripeoias, ovre KOiTTo/iepa ^aJic-jy, ovre ar\T:6^tva ^vaKcwj, iav jit] \iav KaTo\ty™v. It was made of thick flax, and was used for towels (aov&apia, Ju- lius Pollux, vii. c. 16.), and for sails (fcoWowas, Lycophron, v. 26.)*. $ajffw» may be translated canvass, or sail-cloth. Fine linen, on the other hand, was called '096^. This term, as well as the preceding, was in all probability an Egyptian word, adopted by the Greeks to denote the commodity, to which the Egyptians themselves applied it. It seems to correspond, as Salmasiust, Celsiust, Forster§, and Jablonskill have observed, to the ffilttP TTDfit, " Fine linen of Egypt," in Proverbs vii. 16. For tiiiK, put into Greek letters and with Greek terminations, becomes 696w and 696viov. Hesychius states, no doubt correctly, that 606vn was applied by the Greeks to any fine and thin cloth, though not of linenl". But this was in later times and by a general and secondary application of the term. It appears also that in later times &B6vn was not restricted to fine linen. It is used for a sail by Achilles Tatius in describing a storm (1. hi.), and by the Scholiast on Homer, 11. a. Agreeably to the preceding remarks, the mva% mentioned in the two passages of the Iliad may be supposed to have been procured from Egypt. Helen, when she goes to meet the sen- ators of Ilium at the Scsean Gate, wraps herself in a white sheet of fine linen (II. y. 141.). The women, dancing on the shield of Achilles (II. a. 595.), wear thin sheets. These thin sheets must be supposed to have been worn as shawls, or girt about the bodies of the dancers. Helen would wear hers so as to veil her whole person agreeably to the representation of the * Jablonski Glossarium Vocum iEgyptiarum, in Valpy's edition of Steph. The- saur. torn. i. p. ccxev. t Salmasius in Achill. Tat. 1. viii. c. 13, 6d6vris x lT ^> v - X Celsii Hierobotanicon, t. ii. p. 90. § Forster, De Bysso, p. 74. II Ubi supra, p. ccxvu. IT The ancient Scholia (published by Mai and Butmann) on Od. tj. 107, state that ddovai were made both of flax and of wool. The silks of India are called 'Od6vai cqpiKa. THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 369 lady, whom Paulus Silentiarius addresses in the following line, written evidently with Homer's Helen before his mind : You conceal your flowing locks with a snow-white sheet. — Brunch, Analecta, vol. iii. p. 81. Perhaps even the sheets, spread for Phoenix to he upon in the tent of Achilles, and for Ulysses on his return to Ithica from the country of the Phseacians*. though not called by the Egyp- tian name, should be supposed to have been made in Egypt. In the time of Homer (900 B. C.) the use of linen cloth was certainly rare among the Greeks : the manufacture of it was perhaps as yet unknown to them. The term E«>&»V (Sindon) : was used to denote linen cloth still more extensively than 6d6»v, inasmuch as it occurs both in Greek and Latin authors!. According to Julius Pollux this also was a word of Egyptian origin, and Coptic scholars inform us that it is found in the modern She?ito. which has the same significa- tion +. Serapion was called Sindonites, because he always wore linen (Palladii Hist. Lausiaca. p. 172). He was an Egyptian, and retained the custom of his native country. Although Livtw originally denoted linen, we find it applied, like '030V17, to cotton cloth likewise : and although both of these terms probably denoted at first those linen cloths only, and es- pecially the finer kinds of them, which were made in Egypt, yet as the manufacture of linen extends itself into other coun- tries, and the exports of India were added to those of Egypt, all varieties either of linen or cotton cloth, wherever woven, were designated by the Egyptian names 'Oflfru and E««?6»r. Another term, which is probably of Egyptian origin, and therefore requires explanation here, is the term Bi-Wos or Byssus. Vossius (Etymol. L. Lot. v. Byssus) thinks it was, as Pollux and Isidore assert, a fine, white, soft flax, and that the cloth made from it was like the modern cambric : " Similis fuisse videtur lino isti, quod vulgo Cameracense appellamus.'' Cel- sius, in his Hierobotanicon (vol ii. p. 173.), gives the same ex- * II. i. 657. Od. i. 73. 113. t E. g. Martial. I Jablonski, ubi supra, p. cclxxiv. 47 370 ANCIENT HISTORY OF planation. This was indeed the general opinion of learned men, until J. R. Forster advanced the position, that Byssus was cotton. A careful examination of the question confirms the correctness of the old opinions, and for the following reasons. I. The earliest author, who uses the term, is iEschylus. He represents Antigone wearing a shawl or sheet of fine flax*. In the Bacchae of Euripides (I. 776.) the same garment, which was distinctive of the female sex, is introduced under the same denomination. We cannot suppose, that dramatic writers would mention in plays addressed to a general audience cloth- ing of any material with which they were not familiarly ac- quainted. But the Greeks in the time of iEschylus and Eu- ripides knew little or nothing of cotton. They had, however, been long supplied with fine linen from Egypt and Phoenice ; and the /Jw«w»» ni-x^a of Antigone is the same article of female attire with the dpyswai 696vai of Helen, described by Homer. In- deed iEschylus himself in two other passages calls the same garment linen. In the Coephorae (I. 25, 26.) the expressions, A.ivos must have denoted a kind of flax. X. Jerome on Ezekiel xxvii. says, " Byssus grows principally in Egypt"' (Byssus in JEgypto quam maxime nascitur). Of the celebrity of the Egyptian flax we have the most abun- dant proofs : but, if by Byssus Jerome meant cotton, he here committed a strange mistake ; for, supposing cotton to have grown at all in Egypt, it certainly grew far more abundantly in other countries, and of this fact he could scarcely be ignorant. XL Martianus Capella plainly distinguishes between that substance and Byssust. He seems to have considered cotton as an Indian, Byssus as an Egyptian product. He certainly supposed, that they were not the same thing. XII. Isidorus Hispalensis expressly states, that Byssus was a land of flax, very white and soft. Byssus genus est quoddam lini nimiura candidi et mollissimi, quod Graeci papa- tem vocant. — Orig. I. xix. 27. Byssina (vestis) Candida, confecta ex quodam genere lini grossioris Sunt et qui genus quoddam lini byssum esse existiment. — Ibid. c. 22. Forster conjectures (p. 4.) that for genus quoddam lini we should read genus quoddam lance, and conceives tree-wool (as * Ant. Jud. iii. 7. 1, 2. p. 112. ed. Hudson. The shirt of the High Priest of the Jews was probably like that worn in the worship of Isis, which was of Byssus, but adorned with flowers, " Byssina, sed floride depicta." Apuleius, Met. 1. xi. t Etym. L. Lat. v. Byssus. 374 ANCIENT HISTORY OF Pollux and some others call it), i. e. cotton, to be intended. His conjecture seems probable. The remark of Isidore intimates, that in his time it had already been a matter of dispute whether Byssus was a kind of flax or something else. XIII. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, testifies to the great strength of the threads of Byssus. Cloth made of Byssus indicates firm faith : For threads of Byssus, it is said, surpass E'en ropes of broom in firmness and in strength*. Ad Cytherium in Max. Biblioth. Patrum, vol. vi. p. 264. Vossius also quotes the authority of Jerome and Eucherius to prove the great tenacity of Byssus. But, if Byssus were cotton, it certainly would not have been celebrated on that account. The arguments of Dr. J. R. Forster on the other side of the question will now be considered. See his Liber Singularis de Bysso A?itiquorum, Lon. 1776, p. 11. 50. I. His first argument is as follows. Julius Pollux says (I. vii. c. 17.), that Bwaos was " a kind of flax among the In- dians." The Jewish rabbis indeed all explain the Hebrew w (Shesh), which in the Septuagint is always translated Bwovi> LXX. Tro*i nt Jona- than ; xsriD-i anna (sudarium) Syriac. Hosea (ii. 5. 9.) mentions wool and flax as the two chief ar- ticles of clothing for the Jews in his time. Ezekiel (xliv. 17, 18.), in his description of the temple which he saw in vision, says, the priests on entering the inner court would put on linen garments, including a turban and drawers of linenf. The use of wool is here prohibited and linen pre- scribed for those who were to be engaged in sacred services, on account of its superior cleanliness and purity. They were not to "gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat." On returning to the outer court, so as to be in contact with the people, they were to put on the common dress, which was at least in part woollen. In the Old Testament we also find flax used for making cords, Judges xv. xvi. ; for the wicks of lamps, Is. xiii. 17.; and for a measuring line, Ezek. xl. 3+. According to Herodotus vii. 25, 34, 36, the Phoenicians fur- nished Xerxes with ropes of flax for constructing his bridge, * Hebr. y^Ti fH^-Ji'O nn^TBQ, i. e. " the families, or perhaps the partnerships, of the manufactory of Byssus ;" Vulg. " Cognationes domus operantium bys- sum." t It is remarkable that the Chaldee Paraphrast Jonathan here uses SIS (bys- sus) for the Hebrew DT1TD5. X The use of the cord of flax (lined) for measuring, &c. is the origin of the word line. " Linea genere suo appellata, quia ex lino fit." Isidori Hisp. Etymol. 1. xix. c. 18. De instruments aedificiorum. THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 381 while the Egyptians supplied ropes of Papyrus, which were in- ferior to the others in strength. Whilst nos, derived probably from '--s. to strip or peel, is used for flax in every state, we find another term. m$a, used for tow. This term therefore corresponds to Stapjja in Latin* : Etoupe in French : St***, cri—hv or wnmtm in Greek ; WipTOj from p-=. to comb, in Syriac : Werg in modern German. Eccles. xl. 4. represents poor persons as clothed in coarse linen. ufioKvov (Lino crudo, Jerome), meaning probably flax dressed and spun without having been steepedt. In Rev. xv. 6. the seven angels come out of the temple clothed li in pure and white linen. 71 This is to be explained by what has been already said of the use of linen for the temple service among the Egyptians and the Jews. On three other occasions mentioned in the New Testament, viz. the case of the young man, who had " a linen cloth cast about his naked body" (Mark xiv. 51. 52.) : the entombment of Christ (Matt. xxvii. 59. Mark xv. 46. Luke xxiii. 53. xxiv. 12. John xix. 40. xx. 5, 6. 7.) : and the case of the " sheet" let down in vision from heaven (Acts x. 11. xi. 5.). the sacred writers employ the equivalent Egyptian terms. Eucw . and 'OWn or 'OStrtw. The " Byssus of the Hebrews," mentioned by Pausanias may have been so called, because it was imported into Greece by the Hebrews, not because it grew in Palestine, as many critics have concluded. Herodotus (I. c.) observes, that the Greeks called the Colchian flax EapSoviKw. The epithet must be understood as referring to Sardes, from the vicinity of which city flax was obtained ac- cording to the testimony of Julius Pollux (I. c). In another passage Herodotus remarks (v. 87.), that the linen shift worn by the Athenian women, was originally Carian. The Milesian Sindones, mentioned by Jonathan, the Chaldee Paraphrast, on * The origin of Stuppa, the Latin term, was from its use in stopping chinks (stopfer, German). It was either of hemp or flax. " Stuppa cannabi est sive lini. Haec secundum antiquam orthographiam stup- pa (stipa?) dicitur, quod ex ea rimae navium stipentur : unde et stipatores dicun- tur, qui in vallibus earn componunt."' Isid. Hisp. Orig. xix. 27. t See Bodaeusa Stapel on Theophrasti Hist. Plant. 1. viii. p. 944. 382 ANCIENT HISTORY OF Lam. ii. 20, were, no doubt, made of the flax of this country, although Forster (De Bysso, p. 92.), on account of the celebrity of the Milesian wool, supposes them to have been woollen. It is probable, that the Milesian net caps, worn by ladies, were made of linen thread. Jerome, describing the change from an austere to a luxurious mode of life, mentions shirts from Laodicea. Some commen- tators have supposed linen shirts to be meant. According to Julius Pollux (vii. c. 16.) the Athenians and Ionians wore a linen shirt reaching to the feet. But the use of it among the Athenians must have come in much later than among the Ionians, who would adopt the practice in conse- quence of the cultivation of flax in their own country as well as in their colonies on the Euxine Sea, and also in consequence of the general elegance and refinement of their manners. Indeed it appears probable, that the linen used by the Athenians was imported. The only part of Greece, where flax is recorded to have been grown, was Elis. That it was produced in that country is affirmed by Pliny (I. xix. c. 4.), and by Pausanias in three pas- sages already quoted. When Colonel Leake was at Gastuni near the mouth of the Peneus in Elis, he made the following observations. For flax (one of the chief things produced there) the land is once ploughed in the spring, and two or three times in the ensuing autumn, with a pair of oxen, when the seed is thrown in and covered with the plough. The plant does not require and hardly admits of weeding, as it grows very thick. When ripe, it is pulled up by the roots, and laid in bundles in the sun. It is then threshed to sep- arate the seed. The bundles are laid in the river for five days, then dried in the sun, and pressed in a wooden machine. Contrary to its ancient reputation, the flax of Gastuni is not very fine. It is chiefly used in the neighboring islands by the peasants, who weave it into cloths for their own use*. In one of the Pseudo-Platonic Epistles (No. xiii. p. 363.) mention occurs of linen shifts for ladies, made in Sicily, which certainly implies nothing more than that linen was woven in Sicily. The material for making it may have been imported. In like manner the linen of Malta was exceedingly admired * Journal of a Tour in the Morea, vol. L p. 12. THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 383 for its fineness and softness* ; but the raw material was in all probability imported. " Flax," observes Professor MuUer, u was grown and manu- factured in Southern Etruria from ancient times, and thus the Tarquinii were enabled to furnish sail-cloth for the fleet of Scipio : yarn for making nets was produced on the banks of the Tiber, and fine linen for clothing in Faleriit.'' This ac- count agrees remarkably with the views of Micali, and those historians who maintain the Egyptian origin of the Etrurians. Pliny (xix. 1, 2.) mentions various kinds of flax of superior excellence, which were produced in the plains of the Po and Ticino ; in the country of the Peligni (in Picenum) : and about Cumae in Campaniat. No flax, he says, was whiter or more like wool than that of the Peligni. In the next chapter Pliny gives an account of the mode of preparing flax ; plucking it up by the roots, tying it into bun- dles, drying it in the sun, steeping, drying again, beating it with a mallet on a stone, and lastly hackling it, or, as he says, " combing it with iron hooksP This may be compared with the preceding extract from Colonel Leake's Journal, and with chapter 97 of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietabus Rerum, which is perhaps partly copied from Pliny and treats of the manufacture of flax, steeping it in water, &c, and of its use for clothes, nets, sails, thread, and curtains. In Spain there was a manufacture of linen at Emporium, which lay on the Mediterranean not far from the Pyrenees §. According to Pliny (I. c.) remarkably beautiful flax was produ- ced in Hispania Citerior near Tarraco. He ascribes its splendor to the virtues of the river-water flowing near Tarraco, in which the flax was steeped and prepared. Still further southward on the same coast we find Setabis, the modern Xativa, which is celebrated by various authors for the beauty of its linen, and especially for linen sudaria. or handkerchiefs : * Diod. Sic. 1. v. 12. torn. i. p. 339. ed. Wesseling. t Etrusker. vol. i. p. 235, 236. X Probably Cumce is intended by Gratius Faliscus in the expression " JEoliee de valle Sibyillae." — Cyneg. 35. § Strabo, 1. iii. cap. 4. vol. i. p. 428. ed. Siebenkees. 384 ANCIENT HISTORY OF Setabis et telas Arabum sprevisse superba ^ Et Pelusiaco filum componere lino. Silius Ital. iii. 373. Nam sudaria Setaba ex Hiberis Miserunt mihi muneri Fabullus Et Veranius. — Catullus, xx. 14. Hispanaeque alio spectantur Setabis usu. Gratius Faliscus, 1. 41. Pliny also mentions a kind of flax, called Zoelicum, from a place in Gallicia. Strabo (iv. 2. 2. p. 41. ed. Sieb.) particularly mentions the linen manufacture of the Cadurci : and from them the Romans obtained the best ticking for beds, which was on this account called Cadurcum. Flax, as we are told by Pliny (xix. 1.), was woven into sail- cloth in all parts of Gaul ; and, in some of the countries be- yond the Rhine, the most beautiful apparel of the ladies was linen. Tacitus states that the women of Germany wore linen sheets over their other clothing*. Jerome mentions the shirts of the Atrebates as one of the luxuries of his day, and his notice of them seems to show, that they were conveyed as an article of merchandize even into Asia. Whether the manufactures of the Atrebates were equal to the modern Cambric we cannot say ; but, supposing the gar- ments in question to have been linen, it is remarkable that this manufacture should have flourished in Artois for 1800 yearsf. The following translation of a passage from Eginhart's Life * Foemins ssepius lineis amictibus velantur. — Germania, xvii. 5. The use of the same term for Flax in so many European languages, and especially in those of the North of Europe, is an evidence of the extensive use of this substance in very early times ; e. g. Greek, Aivov Latin, Linum ; Slavonian, Len ; Lithua- nian, Linnai ; Lettish, Linni ; German, Lein ; French, Suio ; Gothic, and Anglo- Saxon, Lin ; Welsh, LI in. t Erasmus makes the following remarks on the words " Atrebatum et Laodi- ceae :" " Apparet ex his regionibus candidissima ac subtilissima linea mitti solere. Nunc hujus laudis principatus, si tamen ea laus, penes meos Hollandos est. Quan- quam et Atrebates in Belgis baud ita procul a nobis absunt." See also Mannert, Geogr. 2. 1. p. 196. THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 385 of Charlemagne (c. 23.) shows, that during several succeeding centuries the Franks wore linen for their under garments. Vestitu patrio, hoc est Francisco utebatur : ad corpus camiseam lineam, et fem- inalibus lineis induebatur : deinde tunicam, quae limbo serico ambiebatur, et tib- ialia Sago Veneto amictus. In festivitatibus veste auro texta, et calceamentis gemmatis, et fibula aurea sagum astringente, diademate quoque ex auro et gemmis ornatus incedebat Aliis autera diebus habitus ejus parurn a com- muni et plebeio abhorrebat. Charles drest after the manner of his countrymen, the Franks. Next to the skin he wore a shirt and drawers of linen : over these a tunic bordered with silk, and breeches. His outer garment was the sagum, manufactured by the Veneti. On occasion of festivals he wore a garment intericoten with gold, shoes adorned with gems, a golden fibula to fasten his sagum, and a diadem of gold and gems On other days his dress differed little from that of the common people*. The Yeneti here mentioned were, no doubt, the people who lived in the country near Yannes in Britany. We have for- merly seen (Part Second, pp. 282 and 283. Chapter III.), that the Sagum was the principal article of dress manufactured in the north of Gaul. According to Paulus Diaconus, as quoted in the notes on this passage of Eginhartt, the Lombards and the Anglo-Saxons used principally linen garments. Linen, which appears to have been originally characteristic of the Egyptian and Germanic nations, came by degrees into more and more general use among the Greeks and Romans, and was empk^ed not only for articles of dress, especially those worn by women, and for sheets to lie upon, but also for table- covers and for napkins to wipe the hands, an application of them which was the more necessary on account of the want of knives, forks, and spoons. Also those who waited at table, were girt with towels. At the baths persons used towels to dry themselves. A man wore a similar piece of cloth under the hands of the tonsor. Plutarch (On Garrulity) tells the follow- ing anecdote of Archelaus. When a loquacious hair-dresser was throwing the b>p6\ivov about him in order to shear him, he asked as usual, " How shall I cut your majesty's hair V " In * The trowsers worn by the Franks were sometimes linen, sometimes made of skins. — Agathias ii. 5. t Ed. Schmincke, Trajecti 1711, p. 110. 49 386 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. sile?ice" replied the king. Alciphron tells of the barber putting on him a linen cloth (oiv6uv) in order to shave him (/. iii. Ep. 66.) ; and Phaneas, in an Epigram, calls the cloth used in shaving by the same name, ZMv. Diogenes Laertius also (vi. 90.) tells a story respecting the philosopher Crates, which shows that at Athens it was not deemed proper for a man to wear linen as an outer garment, but that persons were enveloped in it under the hands of the hair-dresser. " The Athenian police- officers (oi darvojxoi) having charged him with wearing a linen sheet for his outer garment, he said, ' I will show you Theophrastus himself habited in that manner ;' and when they doubted the fact, he took them to see Theophrastus at the hair-dresser's." Coarser linen was used in great quantity both for sails, and for awnings to keep off the heat of the sun from the Roman theatres, the Forum, and other places of public resort*. The Emperor Alexander Severus, as we learn from the fol- lowing passage of his Life written by iElius Lampridius, was a great admirer of good linen, and preferred that which was plain to such as had flowers or feathers interwoven as practised in Egypt and the neighboring countries. Boni linteaminis appetitor fuit, et quidem puri, dicens, ' Si lintei idcirco sunt, ut nihil asperum habeant, quid opus est purpura ?' In linea autem aurum mitti, etiam dementiam judicabat, quum asperitati adderetur rigor. He took great delight in good linen, and preferred it plain. " If," said he, " lin- en cloths are made of that material in order that they may not be at all rough, why mix purple with them ?" But to interweave gold in linen, he considered madness, because this made it rigid in addition to its roughness. The following passage of the Life of the Emperor Carinus by Flavius Vopiscus is remarkable as proving the value attach- ed by the Romans of that age to the linen imported from Egypt and Phcenice, especially to the transparent and flowered varieties. Jam quid lineas petitas iEgypto loquar ? Quid Tyro et Sidone tenuitate per- lucidas, micantes purpura, plumandi difficultate pernobiles? Why should I mention the linen cloths brought from Egypt, or those imported from Tyre and Sidon, which are so thin as to be transparent, which glow with purple, or are prized on account of their labored embroidery ? * See p. 321. CHAPTER II HEMP*. CULTIVATION AND USES OF HEMP BY THE ANCIENTS ITS USE LIMITED THRACE COLCHIS CARIA ETYMOLOGY OF HEMP. The use of Hemp among the ancients was very limited. It is never mentioned in the Scriptures, and not often by the heathen writers of antiquity. It is remarkable, that no notice is taken of it by Theophrastus. It was however used among the Greeks and Romans for making ropes and nets, but not for sacks, these being made of goats'-hairf. The only reason for introducing hemp in this enumeration is, that, according to Herodotus (iv. 74.) garments were made of it by the Thracians. u They were so like linen,'' says he, M that none but a very experienced person could tell whether they were of hemp or flax : one, who had never seen hemp, would certainly suppose them to be linen." The coarser kinds of linen would, it is certain, be scarcely, if at all distinguishable from the finer kinds of hempen cloth. Hesychius (v. Kiwa /its) quotes the preceding remark of He- rodotus, only saying that the Thracian women made sheets of hemp (jiiaria). In substituting these expressions he puts upon the words of Herodotus an explanation derived from his famil- iar knowledge of Grecian customs. To the present day hemp is produced abundantly in the vicinity of the countries which were occupied by the ancient Thracians. A traveller who has lately visited them, informs us, that " the men who drive the * According to a statement in the Western (Missouri) Journal, about 7,000 bales of hemp, the crop of 1844, was shipped from that place last spring. It is thought that 20,000 bales will be raised in that neighborhood this year (1845). t See Chap. IV. p. 299, 301. 388 CULTIVATION AND USES OF horses, which drag the boats upon the Danube between Pest and Vienna, now wear coarse tunics of hemp*. Ammianus Marcellinus (xxxi. 2. p. 474.), speaking of the Huns, who lived beyond the Palus Meeotis, says, They cover themselves with tunics made of linen, or of the skins of wild mice sewed together. These tunics, though called " lintea," may have been the hempen garments, which, according to Herodotus, were scarce to be distinguished from linen. The next writer, who mentions hemp after Herodotus, is Moschion, rather more than 200 years B. C. He statest, that the magnificent ship Syracusia, built by the command of Hiero II., was provided with hemp from the Rhone for making ropes. The common materials for such purposes were the Egyptian Papyrus, the bark of the Lime-tree, of the Hemp-leaved Mallow, and of the Spanish and Portugal Broom, and probably also the Stipa Tenacissima of Linnaeus. Hemp, as well as flax, was grown abundantly in Colchis*. It was brought to the ports of the iEgean Sea by the Ionian merchants, who were intimately connected with the northern and eastern coasts of the Euxine through the medium of the Milesian colonies. This fact may account for the cultivation of hemp in Caria. The best was obtained in the time of Pliny (I. xix. c. 9.) from Alabanda and Mylasain that country. Pliny also mentions a kind, which grew in the country of the Sabines, and which was remarkable for its height. Automedon, who lived a little before Pliny, complains in an Epigram of a bad dinner given him by one of his acquaintances, and compares the tall stringy cabbages to hemp§. As this author was a native of Cyzicus, he would probably have abun- dant opportunities of becoming familiar with the plant. In the time of Pausanias hemp was grown in Elis. See his Eliaca, c. 26. § 4. * Travels in Circassia, &c, by Edmund Spencer, 1837, vol. i. p. 13. t Apud Athenaeum, 1. v. p. 206. Casaub. t Strabo, 1. xi. § 17. vol. iv. p. 402, ed. Siebenkees. § Kawa 0ivr]. Brunck's Analecta, ii. 209. HEMP BY THE ANCIENTS. 389 Dioscorides (I. iii. c. 141.) gives an account of hemp, in which he distinguishes between the cultivated and the wild. By Wild Hemp he means the Althoeee Cannabina, Linn.*. He observes respecting the Cultivated Hemp, by which he meant proper hemp, the Cannabis Sativa, Linn., that it was "of great use for twisting the strongest ropes." On the whole we may conclude, that hemp was not the natural growth either of Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, but was confined, as it still is in a great degree, to countries lying further north and having a more rigid climate. The intimate con- nexion of the Romans with the Greek colony of Marseilles may have brought it among the Sabines, as the active trade between the Euxine and Miletus may have introduced it into Caria. With the material its name was also imported, and this is substantially the same in all the languages of Europe, as well as in many Asiatic tonguest. * See Chap. XII. p. 194. t Sanscrit, Goni, Sana, or Shanapu ; Persic, Canna ; Arabic, Kanneh, or Kinnub ; Greek, Kannabis ; Latin, Cannabis ; Italian, Cannapa ; French, Chan- vre, or Chanbre ; Danish and Flam and, Kamp, or Kennep ; Lettish and Lithu- anian, Kannapes ; Slavonian, Konopi ; Erse, Canaib ; Scandinavian, Hampr ; Swedish, Hampa ; German, Hanf ; Anglo-Saxon, Haenep ; English, Hemp. Our English word Canvass (French, Canevas,) has the same origin, meaning cloth made of hemp (Canav). Hemp is comparatively rare in India, as well as flax ; and, as flax is there only used for obtaining oil, so hemp is never used for making cordage or for weaving, but only for smoking on account of the narcotic qualities of its leaves. (Wissett on Hemp, p. 20, 25.) Its name Sana, Sunu, or Gonu, is given also to the Crotalaria Juncea, which is principally applied by the Indians to the same usee as hemp in Europe. See Chap. XIII. p. 202. If we compare flax with other spinning materials, such as wool and cotton, wo shall find it to possess several characteristic properties. While cotton and wool are presented by nature in the form of insulated fibres, the former requiring merely to be separated from its seeds, and the latter to be purified from dirt and grease before being delivered to the spinner, flax must have its filaments separated from each other by tedious and painful treatment. In reference to the spinning and the subsequent operations, the following properties of flax are influential and im- portant : — 1. The considerable length of the fibres, which renders it difficult, on the one hand, to form a fine, level, regular thread, on the other, gives the yarn a consid- erably greater tenacity, so that it cannot be broken by pulling out the threads from each other, but by tearing them across. 390 CULTIVATION AND USES OF S The smooth and slim structure of the filaments. which gives to linen its pe- culiar polished aspect, and feel so different from cotton, and especially from wool- len stuffs, unless when disguised by dressing. The fibres of flax have no mutual entanglement, wh. as with wool, and thrv therefore be made adhesive by moisture. This wet" ■ hbres renders them more pliant and easier to twist together 3. The small degree of elasticity, by which the simple fibres can be stretched only one tw :' their natural length before t. . while sheep's wool will stretch from one fourth to one half before it gives way. Good flax should have a bri-h: ini rray or yellowish color /inclining neither to green nor black ^ : it should be long-, fine. soft, and glistening, somewhat like silk, and contain no broad tape-like portions, from und:ssevered filaments. Tow aaaan from flax in having shorter fibres, of very unequal length, and more or less entangled. Hemp agrees in its properties essentially with flax, and must I a larly treated in the spinning processes. The manufacture of linen and hemp yam. and the tow ox either, may be ef- fected by different processes : by the distant the hand-wheel, and spinning ma- chinery. It will be unnecessary to occupy the pages of this volume with a de- scription of the first two well known domestic i ,:s. Spianing of flax by machinery has been much more recently brought to a practical state than the sp innin g of cotton and wool by machines, of which the cause must be sought for in the nature of Baa as above described. The first attempts at the machine spin- ning of flax, went upon the principle of cutting the filaments into short fragments beginning the operation. But in this way the most valuable property of linen yarn, its cohesive force, was greatly impaired; or these attempts were re- stricted to the sp inni ng eh on account of its short and somewhat tor- tuous fibres, could be treated like cotton, especially after it had been further torn by the carding eng am. T..r final toleia ilta with machinery seem to I e en obtained by the brothers t."-, : . | the year 1810. But the French have never carried the appo • groat practical perfection. The towns of Leeds in Yorkshire, of Dundee in Scotland, and Belfast in Ireland, banc the merit of bringing the spinning of flax by machines into a state of perfec- tion little short of that for which the cotton trade has been so long eelehraJ For machine spinning, the flax is sometimes heckled by hand, and sometimes by machinery. The series of operations is the following : — 1. The heckling. 2. The conversion of the flax into a band of parallel rectilinear filaments, which the foundation of the future yarn. 3. The formation of a siiver from the riband, by drawing it out into a narrower range of fiaau 4. The coarse sp innin g, by tanking the sliver into a coarse and loose thread. 5. Tne fine spinning, by urn us extension and twisting of that coarse thread. AU heckle machines have this common property, that the flax is not drawn through them, as in working by hand, but, on the contrary, the system of heckles is moved through the flax properly suspended or laid. Differences exist in the shape, arrangement, and movements of th- in regard to the means HEMP BY THE ANCIENTS. 391 by which the adhering tow is removed from them. The simplest and most com- mon construction is to place the heckles upon the surface of a horizontal cylinder, while the flax is held either by mechanical means or by the hand during: its expo- sure to the heckle points. Many machines have been made upon this principle. It is proper in this ease to set the heekle teeth obliquely in the direction in which the cylinder turns, whereby they penetrate the fibres in a more parallel line, effect their separation more easily, and cause less waste in torn filaments. To conduct the flax upon the cylinders, two horizontal fluted rollers of iron are employed, which can be so modified in a moment by a lever as to present the flax more or less to the heckling mechanism. The operator seizes a tress lock of flax with her hand and introduces it between the fluted rollers, so that the tips on which the operation must begin, reach the heckles first, and by decrrees the advancing flax gets heckled through two thirds or three fourths of its length, after which the tress or strick is turned, and its other end is subjected to the same process. somewhat rapid revolution the heckle cylinder creates a current of air which not only carries away the boomy particles, bat also spreads out the flax like a sheaf of corn upon the spikes, effecting the same object as is done by the dexterous swing of the hand. The tow collects betwixtifcp teeth of the heckle, and may, when its quantity has become considerable, be removed in the form of a flock of parallel layers. Flax has been for a long period spun wet in the mills ; a method no doubt cop- ied from the practice of housewives moistening their yarn with their saliva at the domestic wheel Within a few years the important improvement has bees. introduced of substituting hot for cold water, in the troughs through which the fibres in the act of spinning pass. By this means a much finer, smoother, and more uniform thread can be spun than in the old way. The flax formerly spun to twelve pounds a bundle is, with hot water, spun to six. The inconvenience of the spray thrown from the yarn on the fliers remains, aggravated by incr ea s ed heat and dampness of the room where this hot process goes on. Being a new ex- pedient, it receives daily changes and ameliorations. When first employed, the troughs of hot water were quite open ; they are now usually covered in, so as al- most entirely to obviate the objections to which they were previously liable. Witk the covers has been also introduced a new method of piecening or joining on any end, which may have been run down, namely, by splicing it to the adjoin. : . ving, whereby it is carried through the water without imposing a necessity on the spinner to put her hand into the water at all. In some places she uses a wire, for the purpose of drawing through the end of the roving to mend a broken yarn. This may be considered the inherent evil of flax-spinning, — the spray thrown off by the wet yarn, as it whirls abc'rt with the flier of the spindles. A dress, indeed, is generally worn by the spinners ; but, unless it be made of impermeable to water, like Mackintosh's cloth, it will soon become uncomfortable, and cause injury to health by keeping the body continually in a hot bath. In some mills, water-proof cloth and leather aprons have actually been introduced, which are the only practicable remedy ; for the free space which must be left round the spindles for the spinner to see them play, is incompatible with any kind of fixed guard or parapluie. CHAPTER III. ASBESTOS. Uses of Asbestos — Carpasian flax — Still found in Cyprus — Used in funerals — As- bestine-cloth — How manufactured — Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks — Relic at Monte Casino — Further impostures of the monks — Remarks thereon. Varro mentions the name Asbestos as a proof, that the cloth so called was a Greek invention*. His argument is obviously correct. The term (aotfeea*) means inextinguishable, and was most properly applied to the wicks of lamps, which were made of this substance and were never consumed. The fullest account of the properties and uses of Asbestos is contained in the following passage from Sotacus, a Greek author who wrote on Stonesf. The passage occurs in the Historiae Commentitise, attributed to Apollonius Dyscolus (cap. 36). The Carystian stone has woolly and colored appendages, which are spun and woven into napkins. This substance is also twisted into wicks, which, when burnt, are bright, but do not consume. The napkins, when dirty, are not wash- ed with water, but a fire is made of sticks, and then the napkin is put into it. The dirt disappears, and the napkin is rendered white and pure by the fire, and is applicable to the same purposes as before. The wicks remain burning with oil continually without being consumed. This stone is produced in Carystus, from which it has its name, and in great abundance in Cyprus under rocks to the left of Elmaeum, as you go from Gerandros to Soli. — Yates's Translation. " At Carystus," says Strabo, " under Mount Ocha in Euboea is produced the stone, which is combed and woven so as to make napkins (x"? 6 p a >< T ? a ) or handkerchiefs. When these have become dirty, instead of being washed, they are thrown into a flame and thus purifledt" * De Lingua Lat. L. v. p. 134. ed. Spengel. t Sotacus is several times quoted by Pliny (L. xxxvi., xxxvii.) as a foreign writer on Stones. X Lib. x. p. 19. ed. Sieb. tJSES OF ASBESTOS. 393 Plutarch speaks in similar terms of napkins, nets, and head- dresses^ made of the Carystian stone, but says, that it was no longer found in his time, only thin veins of it, like hairs, being discoverable in the rock*. Mr. Hawkins ascertained, that the rock, which was quarried in Mount Ocha, now called St. Elias, above Carystus, is the Cipolino of the Roman antiquaries!. Further north in the same island Dr. Sibthorp observed " rocks of Serpentine in beds of saline marble, forming the Verdantique of the ancients* :'> and he states, that on the shore to the north of Negropont " the rocks are composed of serpentine stone with veins of as- bestos and soapstone intermixed^" Tournefort speaks cf Amiantus as brought from Ca ys o in his time, but of inferior quality ||. Pausanias (i. 26. 7.) says, the wick of the golden lamp which was kept burning night and day in the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens, was "of Carpasian flax, the only kind of flax which is indestructible by fire." This " Carpasian flax" was asbestos from the vicinity of Carpasus, a toAvn near the north-east corner of Cyprus, which retains its ancient name. Car pas. Dioscorides (L. v. c. 93.) gives a similar account of the quali- ties and uses of Amiantus, and says it was produced in CyprusT Majolus says**, that in the year 1566 he saw at Venice Podo- cattarus, a knight of Cyprus, and a writer on the history of that island, who exhibited at Venice cloth made of the asbestos of his country, which he threw into the fire, and took it out unin- jured and made quite clean. Referring to Cyprus, Sonnini ( Voyage en Grece, i. p. 66.) says, L'amiante, asbestos, ou lin incombustible des anciens, est encore aussi abon- * De Oraculorum Defectu, p. 770. ed. H. Stephani, Par. 1572. t Travels in various Countries of the East, edited by Walpole, p. 288. t Ibid. p. 37. § Ibid. p. 38. — N. B. Asbestos is always found in rocks of Serpentine. 11 Voyage, English Translation, vol. i. p. 129. 11 See p. 392. ** Dier. Canicular. Part I. Collog. xx. p. 453. 394 USES OF ASBESTOS. dant qu'il le fut autrefois ; la carriere qui le fournit est dans la montagne d'Aka- mantide, pres du cap Chromachiti. Le talc est commun, surtout pres de Larnaca, ou on l'emploie a blanchir les maisons ; et le platre a de nombreuses carrieres. The " talc " may be the same with the " Lapis specularis," which was found in Cyprus, according to Pliny (xxxvi. 45.). The testimony of Sonnini so far agrees with those of the ancients, that all the places mentioned were on the northern side of the island, so that the asbestos seems to have been found between Solse towards the West and Carpas towards the East. Pietro della Yalle, when he was at Larnaca, was presented with a piece of the amiantus of the country, but says that it was no longer spun and woven. Pliny, if we can rely upon his testimony as given in the ex- isting editions of his works, states, that Asbestos was obtained in Arcadia (H. N. xxxvii. 54.) and in India. " A kind of flax has been discovered which is incombustible by fire. It is called live flax; and we have seen napkins of it burning upon the hearth at en- tertainments, and, when thus deprived of their dirt, more resplendent through the agency of fire than they could have been by the use of water. The funeral shirts made of it for kings preserve the ashes of the body separate from those of the rest of the pile. It is produced in deserts and in tracts scorched by the Indian sun, where there are no showers, and among dire serpents, and thus it is inured to live even when it is burnt. It is rare, and woven with difficulty on account of the shortness of its fibres. That variety which is of a red color becomes resplendent in the fire. When it has been found it equals the prices of excellent pearls. It is Called by the Greeks Asbestine Flax, on account of its nature. Anaxilaus re- lates, that if a tree surrounded with cloth made of it be beaten, the strokes are not heard. On account of these properties this flax is the first in the world. The next in value is that made of byssus, which is produced about Elis in Achaia, and used principally for fine female ornaments. I find that a scruple of this flax, as also of gold, was formerly sold for four denarii*. The nap of linen cloths, ob- tained chiefly from the sails of ships, is of great use in surgery, and their ashes have the same effect as spodium. There is a certain kind of poppy the use of which imparts the highest degree of whiteness to linen cloths." — Pliny, Lib. xix. ch. 4. Besides the manufacture of napkins, this description exactly agrees with the accounts of Strabo, Sotacus, Dioscorides, and * i. e. eighteen grains of this flax were worth 2s. lOd. stg., being equal in value to its weight in gold. CSES OF ASBESTOS. 395 Plutarch. Pliny's account of the use of this material in fune- rals has been remarkably confirmed by the occasional discovery of pieces of asbestine cloth in the tombs of Italy. One was found in 1633 at Puzzuolo, and was preserved in the Barberini gallery*. Another was found in 1702 a mile without the gate called Porta Major in Rome. We have an account of the dis- covery in a letter written from Rome at the time, and appended to Montfaucon's Travels through Italy. A marble sarcophagus having been discovered in a vineyard was found to contain the cloth, which was about 5 feet wide, and 6^ long. It contained a skull and the other burnt bones of a human body. The sculptured marble indicates, that the deceased was a man of rank. He is supposed to have lived not earlier than the time of Con- stantine. This curious relic of antiquity has been preserved in the Vatican Library since the period of its discovery, and Sir J. E. Smith, who saw it there, gives the following description of its appearance : — It is coarsely spun, but as soft and pliant as silk. Our guide set fare to one comer of it, and the very same part burnt repeatedly with great rapidity and brightness without being at all injuredt. Also in the Museo Barbonico at Naples there is a considerable piece of asbestine cloth, found at Yasto in the Abruzzi, the an- cient Histonium. Hierocles, the historian, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, gives the following account of the Asbestos of India : — The Brachmans use cloth made of a kind of flax, which is obtained from rocks. Webs are produced from it, which are neither subject to be consumed by fire nor cleansed by water, but which, after they have become full of dirt and stains, are rendered clear and white by being thrown into the fire. The following testimonies illustrate the fact, recorded by both Hierocles and Pliny, that Asbestos was obtained from India. Marco PoloJ mentions, that incombustible cloth was woven from a fibrous stone found at Chenchen in the territory of the * Keyslers Travels, vol. ii. p. 292. London 1760. t Tour on the Continent, vol. ii. p. 201. t Marsden's Translation, p. 176. 50 396 USES OF ASBESTOS. Great Khan. It was pounded in a brass mortar ; then washed to separate the earthy particles ; spun and woven into cloth ; and cleansed, when dirty, by being thrown into the fire. Bugnon, in his Relation Exacte concernant les Caravanes (Nancy, 1707, p. 37-39.) mentions, that Amiantus was found in Cyprus and on the confines of Arabia. He says, they spun it and made stockings, socks, and drawers, which fitted close- ly ; that over these they wore their other garments ; and that they were thus protected from the heat in travelling with the caravans through Asia. Basil, Bishop of Ceesarea, shows that he was acquainted with the properties of this substance, by comparing the three chil- dren cast into the fiery furnace without being hurt (Dan. iii.) to Asbestos, " which, when put into the fire seems to burn and to be turned to ashes, but, when taken out, becomes purer and brighter than it was before*." Damasus (in Silvestro Papa) mentions, that the Emperor Constantine directed asbestos to be used for the wicks of the lamps in his baptistery at Rome. For further particulars respecting the places where amiantus is procured, and the mode of preparing it for the manufacture of cloth, we refer to the treatises of mineralogists and to the Essays of Ciampini, Tilingius, Mahudel, and Bruckmann on this particular subject. We are informed, that it is softened and rendered supple by being steeped in oil, and that fibres of flax are then mixed with it in order that it may be spun. When the cloth is woven, it is put into the fire, by which the flax and oil are dissipated, and the asbestos alone remainst. Ignorance of the true nature of Asbestos caused it to be em- ployed in the dark ages for purposes of superstition and relig- ious fraud. Of this we have a proof in the following account * Homilia de Jejunio, p. 111. t Tournefort's Travels, vol. i. p. 129. Bruckmann, Hist. Nat. Lapidis. Bruns- wic. 1727. p. 31, 32. This author says the asbestos was put into warm water, and there rubbed and turned about. An earth separates from it, which makes the water as white as milk. This is repeated five or six times. The fibres, thus purified, are spread out to dry. USES OF ASBESTOS. 397 which we find in the Chronicon Casinense of Leo Ostiensis. L. ii. c. 33. His diebus Monachi quidam ab Jerusolymis venientes particulam lintei, cum quo pedes discipulorum Salvator extersit, secum detulerunt, et ob reverentiam sancti hujus loci devotissime hie obtulerunt, sexto scilicet Idus Decembris : sed, cum a plurimis super hoc nulla fides adhiberetur. illi fide fidentes protinus praedictam par- ticulam in accensi turibuli igne desuper posuerunt, qua? mox quidem in ignis colo- rem conversa, post paululum vero, amotis carbonibus, ad pristmam speciem mi- rabiliter est reversa. Cumque excogitarent qualiter, vel quanam in parte pignora tanta locarent, contigit, dispositione divina, ut eodem ipso die, transmissus sit in hunc locum loculus ille mirificus, ubi nunc recondita est ipsa lintei sancti particula, argento et auro gemmisque Anglico opere subtiliter ac pulcherrime decoratus. Ibi ergo christallo superposito venerabiliter satis est collocata : morisque est singulis annis, ipso die Coense Dominicse ad mandatum Fratrum earn a Mansionariis de- ferri et in medium poni, duoque candelabra ante illam accendi et indesinenter per totum mandati spatium ab Acolito incensari. Demura vero juxta finem mandati a singulis per ordinem fratribus flexis genibus devotissime adorari et reverenter exosculari. There is no good reason to doubt the truth of this narrative so far as respects the veracity and credit of the historian. Leo Ostiensis became an inmate of the Abbey of Monte Casino a few years after the event is said to have happened, and could scarcely be misinformed respecting the circumstances, more es- pecially as he held during the latter part of his abode there the office of Librarian. There is nothing improbable in the story. Asbestine cloth, as we have learnt from Marco Polo, was man- ufactured in Asia during the middle ages, and the reputed relic was obtained at Jerusalem. That the pilgrim?, who visited Jerusalem, should be imposed upon in this manner, is in the highest degree probable, since we are informed, that the very same substance in its natural state was often sold to devotees AS THE WOOD OF THE TRUE CROSS, and its in- combustibility was exhibited as the proof of its genuineness. This we learn in the following passage from Tilingius, who wrote " De lino vivo aut asbestino et incoinbustibili." Antonius Musa Brassavolus Ferrariensis tradit, impostores lapidem Amiantum simplicibus mulierculis ostendere vendereque saepenumero pro ligno crusis Serva- toris nostri. Id quod facile credunt, cum igne non comburatur, quodque ligni mo- do plurimis constet lineis intercur santibus. — Miscellanea Curiosa Natures Curi- osorum, Decuria ii. Ann. ii. p. 111. Norembergce, 1684. 398 USES OF ASBESTOS. The monks on their arrival at Monte Casino would natural- ly display the same evidence, by which they themselves had been convinced ; and the appearance of the cloth, when put into the fire and taken out of it, is described exactly as it would be in fact, supposing it to have been made of amiantus. Montfaucon, in his Travels in Italy (p. 381. English ed. Svo.), describes a splendid service-book, which was written A. D. 1072 by Leo at the expense of brother John of Marsicana, and presented by John to the Monastery of Monte Casino, where it was exhibited to Montfaucon as one of the most valuable and curious monuments. An illumination in this book represents a monk kneeling before St. Benedict, the patron and founder of the institution, and holding in his hands a cloth, on which St. Benedict is placing his left foot. Montfaucon gives an en- graving from this picture : he supposes the cloth to be a monk's cowl, and conjectures that it was thus used in admitting novices. This explanation is evidently a most unsatisfactory one, nothing being produced to render it even probable. We believe the cloth to be that the history of which has just now been given, and that the design of the artist was to represent a monk wiping the feet of St. Benedict with the same cloth with which Jesus wiped the feet of his disciples. This supposition will appear the more probable if we attend to the date of the MS. (A. D. 1072) and the persons, by whom and at whose expense it was written. " Brother John of Mar- sicana" appears to have been at this time advanced in years, wealthy, and highly respected, since we are informed, that in the year 1055, when Peter was chosen Abbot of the Monas- tery, some of the brotherhood wished to choose John, although he, foreseeing that the choice would be likely to fall on him, had obstinately sworn on the altar, that he would never undertake the office. John was at this time provost of Capua*. Seven- teen years afterwards he went to the expense of providing the service-book seen by Montfaucon. He employed as his scribe one of the fraternity, who was his junior and from the same * Dominum Johannem, cognomine Marsicanum, qui tunc Capuae erat propo- situs, &c. — Leonis Ostiensis Chronicon Casinense, L. ii. c. 92. USES OF ASBESTOS. 399 city with himself. For there can be scarcely a doubt, but that Leo, who wrote the MS., was the same who was the author of the Chronicon. The author of the Chronicon, at the com- mencement of his history, calls himself " Frater Leo, cogno- mine Marsicanus*". He was made Bishop of Ostia A. D. 1101. so that we may suppose him to have been twenty or thirty years of age, when the MS. was made. Of his aptitude for such an employment we cannot doubt, when we consider his future labors as Librarian and author of the Chronicle. But if these facts be evident, it is equally manifest, that these two accomplished Benedictines could not have expressed their ven- eration towards their founder in any way better suited to their ideas and belief than by exhibiting in the manner described that relic, WHICH WAS SOLEMNLY DISPLAYED ONCE A YEAR WITH BURNING CANDLES AND ATTENDING ACOLYTHES TO THE ADMIRING AND ADORING CROWD OF DEVOTEES. On inquiry it is found that this relic exists no longer at Monte Casino, although the original copy of the Chronicon of Leo Ostiensis is still preserved in the Libraryt. It appears that the relic has long been lost, since there is no mention either of it, or of the casket which contained it in the " Descrizione Is- torica del Monastero di Monte Casino, Napoli, 1775." A large glove of this substance is in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. An English traveller states that he has lately seen at Parma a table-cloth, made of Amiantus from Corsica, for the use of the ex-Empress Maria Louisa, who resided there after the fall of Napoleon. In modern times cloth of asbestos is scarcely made. Indeed it is not probable that this material will ever be obtained in much abundance, or that it will cease to be a rarity except in the places of its production. It is never seen in Great Britain, or on the continent, save in the cabinets of the curious. * Marsicana (civitas) was in Marsica, the territory of the ancient Marsi. t Excursions in the Abruzzi, by the Hon. Keppel Craven, vol. i. p. 54. The annexed Map (Plate VII.) is designed to indicate .the divisions of the Ancient World as determined by the Raw Materials principally produced and employed in them for weaving. The Red division produced Sheeps'-Wool and Goats'-Hair : also Beavers'- Wool in the portion of this division, which lies to the North of the Mediterranean Sea, and of the rivers Padus and Ister : and Camels'- Wool and Camels'-Hair in the portion lying South-East of a line drawn through the coast of Syria. The nations to the North of this division clothed themselves in skins, furs, and felt. The Yellow at the Eastern corner indicates the commence- ment of the vast Region, unknown to the Ancients, the inhabitants of which clothed themselves in Silk. The Green indicates the countries, all low and bordering on rivers, in which the cloth manufactured was chiefly Linen. The Brown is designed to show the cultivation of Hemp in the low country to the North of the Euxine Sea, and probably in other places, North of the Red division, which were adapted for its growth. Lastly, the Blue, which is the colour of the Baharein Isles and of India, shows that the inhabitants of these countries have from time immemorial clothed themselves in Cotton. APPENDICES, APPENDIX A. ON PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. Sheep and wool — Price of wool in Pliny's time — Varieties of wool and where pro- duced — Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets — Woollen cloth of Egypt — Embroidery — Felting — Manner of cleansing — Distaff of Tanaquil — Varro — Tunic — Toga — Undulate or waved cloth — Nature of this fabric — Fig- ured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.) — Cloth of gold — Figured cloths of Babylon — Damask first woven at Alexandria — Plaided textures first woven in Gaul — ,$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet — Dyeing of wool in the fleece — Observations on sheep and goats — Dioscurias a city of the Colchians — Manner of transacting business. LIB. VIII. c. 47s. 72. 50s. 76.* " We are also much indebted to sheep both in sacrifices to propitiate the gods, and in the use of their fleeces. As oxen produce by cultivation the food of men, so we owe to sheep the protection of our bodies There are two prin- cipal kinds of sheep, the covered and the common. The former is softer, the lat- ter more delicate in feeding, inasmuch as the covered feeds on brambles. Its coverings are chiefly of Arabic materials. " The most approved wool is the Apulian, and that which is called the wool of Greek sheep in Italy, and the Italic wool in other places. The third kind in value is that obtained from Milesian sheep. The Apulian wools have a short staple, and are only celebrated for making paenulas. They attain the highest degree of excellence about Tarentum and Canusium. In Asia wools of the same kind are obtained at Laodicea. No white wool is preferred to those which are produced about the Po, nor has a pound ever yet exceeded a hundred sesterces (about .33,60.). Sheep are not shorn everywhere : in certain places the practice of pulling off the wool continues. There are various colors of wool, so that we want terms to denote all. Spain produces some of those varieties which we call native ; Pollentia, near the Alps, furnishes the chief kinds of black wool ; Asia * The edition here followed is that of Sillig, Lipsiae, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo. 51 402 on pliny's natural history. and Baetica those ruddy varieties called Erythrean ; Canusium a sandy-colored* wool ; and Tarentum one of a dark shade peculiar to that locality. New-shorn greasy wools have all a medicinal virtue. The wool of Istria and Liburnia being more like hair than wool, is unsuitable for making the cloths which have a long nap. This is also the case with the wool of Salacia in Lusitania ; but the cloth made from it is recommended by its plaided pattern. A similar kind is pro- duced about Piscenae (i. e. Pezenas), in the province of Narbonne, and likewise in Egypt, the woollen cloth of which country, having been worn by use, is em- broidered and lasts some time longer. The coarse wool with a thick staple was used in very ancient times for carpets : at least Homer (900 B. C.) speaks of the use of it. The Gauls have one method of embroidering these carpets, and the Parthians another. Portions of wool also make cloth by being forced to- gether by themselves^. With the addition of vinegar these also resist iron, nay even fires, which are the last expedient for purging them ; for, having been taken out of the caldrons of the polishers, they are sold for the stuffing of beds, an in- vention made, I believe, in Gaul, certainly in the present day distinguished by Gallic names : for in what age it commenced I could not easily say, since the ancients used beds of straw, such as are now employed in camps. The cloths called gausapa began to be used within the memory of my father ; those called amphimalla within my own, (See Part First, p. 30,) as well as the shaggy cov- erings for the stomach, called ventralia. For the tunic with the laticlave is now first beginning to be woven after the manner of the gausapa. The black wools are never dyed. Concerning the dyeing of the others we shall speak in their proper places, in treating of sea-shells or the nature of herbs. " M. Varro says, that the wool continued to his time upon the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, also called Caia Caecilia, in the temple of Sangus ; and that there re- mained in the temple of Fortune a royal undulate toga made by her, which Servius Tullius had worn. Hence arose the practice of carrying a distaff with wool upon it, and a spindle with its thread, after virgins who were going to be married. She first wove the straight tunic, such as is worn by tiros together with the toga pura, and by newly-married women. The undulate or waved cloth was origin- ally one of the most admired ; from it was derived the soriculateX. Fenestrella writes, that scraped and Phryxian togas came into favor about the end of the * This term is adopted as the best translation of the Latin fulvus, which, as well as the corresponding Greek adjective {avOds , denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters. — See Fellows's Discoveries in Lycia. t See Appendix C. X It is probable that soriculate cloth was a kind of velvet, or plush, so called from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse, sorex, dim. soricula. So- riculata may have been changed into sororiculata by repeating or at the begin- ning of the word. on pliny's natural history. 403 reign of the Divine Augustus. The thick poppied togas are of remoter origin, be- ing noticed even so far back as by the poet Lucilius in his Torquatus. The toga pretexta was invented among the Etruscans. I find evidence that kings wore the striped toga*, that figured cloths were in use even in the days of Homer ; and that these gave rise to the triumphal. To produce this effect with the nee- dle was the invention of the Phrygians* on which account cloths so embroidered have been called Phrygionic. In the same part of Asia king Attalus (see Part I. p. 88.) discovered the art of inserting a woof of gold : from which circumstance the Attalic cloths received their name. Babylon first obtained celebrity by its method of diversifying the picture with different colors, and gave its name to textures of this description. But to weave with a great number of leashes, so as to produce the cloths called polymita (i. e. damask cloths), was first taught in Alex- andria ; to divide by squares (i. e. plaids) in Gaul. Metellus Scipio brought it as an accusation against Cato, that even in his time Babylonian coverlets for triclinia were sold for 800,000 sesterces ($30,000), although the emperor Nero lately gave for them no less than 4.000,000 sesterces (about $150,000). The prcetexta of Servius Tullius, covering the statue of Fortune which he dedicated, remained until the death of Sejanus, and it is wonderful that they had neither decayed of themselves nor been injured by the worms of moths through the space of 560 years. "We have, moreover, seen the fleeces of living sheep dyed with purple, with the coccus, or the murex, in pieces of bark a foot and a half long, luxury appearing to force this upon them as if it were their nature. " In the sheep itself the excellence of the breed is sufficiently shown by the shortness of the legs and the clothing of the belly. Those which have naked bellies used to be called apiccz, and were condemned. The tails of the Syrian sheep are a cubit broad, and in that part they bear a great quantity of wool. It is thought premature to castrate lambs before they are five months old. In Spain, but especially in Corsica, there is a race of animals called musmons, resembling sheep, except that their covering is more like goats' -hair. The ancients called the mixed breed of sheep and musmons Umbri. Sheep hate a very weak head, on which account they are obliged to turn from the sun in feeding. They arc most foolish animals. Where they have been afraid to enter, they follow one dragged along by the horn. They live ten years at the longest, but in ^Ethiopia thirteen years. Goats live there eleven years, and in other countries eight at the most In Cilicia and about the Syrtes, goats have a shaggy coat, which admits of being shorn." LIB. VI. c. 5. " The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchlaeni and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a city of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that three hundred nations used to resort to it, speaking different languages ; and that business was afterwards transacted on our part through the medium of one hun- dred and thirty interpreters." * The toga worn by the kings and other supreme magistrates among the Ro- mans was called trabea from the stripes, which were compared to tho joists or rafters of a building (trabes). 404 ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF APPENDIX B. ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN, COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABI- ANS, A. D. 704. Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany — Schonemann to Italy — Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern — Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A.D. 1200 — Testimony of Abdollatiph — Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century — Cotton paper — The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom — Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturers — Clugny's testimony — Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100 — Ancient water-marks on linen paper — Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain — The Wasp a paper-maker — Manufacture of paper from shavings of wood, and from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn. No part of the Res Diplomatica has been more frequently- discussed than the question respecting the origin of paper made from linen rags. The inquiry is interesting on account of the unspeakable importance of this material in connection with the progress of knowledge and all the means of civilization, and it also claims attention from the philologist as an aid in determining the age of manuscripts. Wehrs refers to a document written A. D. 1308 as the oldest known specimen of linen paper ; and, as the invention must have been at least a little previous to the preparation of this document, he fixes upon 1300 as its probable date*. Yarious writers on the subject, as Von Murr, Breitkopf, Schonemann, &c., concur in this opinion. Gotthelf Fischer, in his Essay on Paper-markst, cites an * Vom Papier, p. 309, 343. t This Essay, translated into French, is published by Jansen, in. his Essai sur l'origine de la gravure en bois et en taille-douce, Paris 1808, tome i. p. 357-385. LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. 405 extract from an account written in 1301 on linen paper. In this specimen the mark is a circle surmounted by a sprig, at the end of which is a star. The paper is thick, firm, and well grained; and its water-lines and water-marks (vergures et pontuseaux) may readily be distinguished. The date was carried considerably higher by Schwandner, Principal Keeper of the Imperial Library at Vienna, who found among the charters of the Monastery of Goss in Upper Stiria one in a state of decay, only seven inches long and three wide. So highly did he estimate the value of this curious relic as to publish in 1788 a full account of his discovery in a thin quarto volume, which bears the following title, " Chart am linteam antiquissimam, omnia hactenus producta specimina cetate sua superantem, ex cimelils Bibliothecai Augusta Vindobo- nensis exponit Jo. Ge. Schwandner" $*c. The document is a mandate of Frederick II. Emperor of the Romans, entrusting to the Archbishop of Saltzburg and the Duke of Austria the determination of a dispute between the Duke of Carinthia and the Monastery of Goss respecting the property of the latter in Carinthia. Schwandner proves the date of it to be 1243. He does not say whether it has any lines or water-mark, but is quite satisfied from its flexibility and other qualities, that it is linen. Although on the first discovery of this document some doubt was expressed as to its genuineness, it appears to have risen in estimation with succeeding writers ; and we apprehend it is rather from inadvertence than from any deficiency in the evi- dence, that it is not noticed at all by Schonemann, Ebert, Delandine, or by Home. Due attention is, however, bestowed upon it by August Friedrich Pfeiffer Uber Bucher-Hand- schriften, Erlangen 1S10, p. 39, 40. With regard to the circumstances which led to the invention of the paper now in common use, or the country in which it took place, we find in the writers on the subject from Polydore Yirgil to the present day nothing but conjectures or confessions of ignorance. Wehrs supposes, and others follow him, that in making paper linen rags were either by accident or through design at first mixed with cotton rags, so as to produce a paper, which was partly linen and partly cotton, and that this led by 406 ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF degrees to the manufacture of paper from linen only*. Wehrs also endeavors to claim the honor of the invention for Germany, his own country ; but Schonemann gives that distinction to Italy, because there, in the district of Ancona, a considerable manufacture of cotton paper was carried on before the fourteenth centuryt. All however admit, that they have no satisfactory evidence on the subject. A clear light is thrown upon these questions by a remark of the Arabian physician, Abdollatiph, who visited Egypt A. D. 1200. He informs us J, " that the cloth found in the catacombs, and used to envelope the mummies, was made into garments, or sold to the scribes to make paper for shop-keepers. ," Having shown (See Part IV. Chapter I.) that this cloth was linen, the passage of Abdollatiph, therefore, may be considered as a decisive proof, which, however, has never been produced as such, of the manufacture of linen paper as early as the year 1200. This account coincides remarkably with what we know from various other sources. Professor Tychsen, in his learned and curious dissertation on the use of paper from Papyrus (publish- ed in the Comment ationes Reg. Soc. Gottingensis Recenti- ores, vol. iv. A. D. 1820), has brought abundant testimonies to prove that Egypt supplied all Europe with this kind of paper until towards the end of the eleventh century. The use of it was then abandoned, cotton paper being employed in- stead. The Arabs in consequence of their conquests in Bucharia had learnt the art of making cotton paper about the year 704, and through them or the Saracens it was introduced * Vom Papier, p. 183. t Diplomatik, vol . i. p. 494. t Chapter iv. p. 188 of Silvestre de Sacy's French translation, p. 221 of Wahl's German translation. This interesting passage was translated as follows by Ed- ward Pococke, the younger : — " Et qui ex Arabibus, incolisve Rifae, aliisve, has areas indagant, hoec integumenta diripiunt, quodque in iis rapiendum invenitur ; et conficiunt sibi vestes, aut ea chartariis vendunt ad conficiendam chartam em- poreaticam." Silvestre de Sacy (Notice, &c.), animadverting on White's version which is entirely different, expresses his approbation of Pococke's, from which Wahl's does not materially differ. LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. 407 into Europe in the eleventh century*. We may therefore con- sider it as in the highest degree probable, that the mode of making cotton paper was known to the paper-makers of Egypt. At the same time endless quantities of linen cloth, the best of all materials for the manufacture of paper, were to be obtained from the catacombs. If we put together these circumstances, we cannot but per- ceive how they conspire to illustrate and justify the statement of Abdollatiph. We perceive the interest which the great Egyptian paper-manufacturers had in the improvement of their article, and the unrivalled facilities which they possessed for this purpose ; and thus, we apprehend, the direct testimony of an eye-witness of the highest reputation for veracity and intel- ligence, supported as it is by collateral probabilities, clears up in a great measure the long-agitated question respecting the origin of paper such as we now commonly use for writing. The evidence being carried thus far, we may take in connec- tion with it the following passage from Petrus Cluniacensis : — Sed cojusmodi librum? Si talem quales quotidie in usu legendi habemus, uti- que ex pellibus arietum, hircorum, vel vitulorum, sive ex biblis, vel juncis orien- talium pallidum, aut ex rasuris veterum pannorum, seu ex quaiibet alia forte vili- ore materia compactos, et pennis avium vel calamis palustrium locorum, quaiibet tinctura infectis descriptos. — Tractatus adv. Judcsos, c. v. in Max. Bibl. vet. Patrum, torn. xxii. p. 1014. All the writers upon tins subject, except Trombelli, suppose the Abbot of Clugny to allude in the phrase " ex rasuris vete- rum pannorum'' to the use of woollen and cotton cloth only, and not of linen. But, as we are now authorized to carry up the invention of linen paper higher than before, and as the mention of it by Abdollatiph justifies the conclusion that it was manufactured in Egypt some time before his visit to that country in 1200, we may reasonably conjecture that Petrus Cluniacen- sis alluded to the same fact. The treatise above quoted is supposed to have been written A. D. 1120. The account of the materials used for making books appears to be full and ac- * Wehrs vom Papier, p. 131, 144, Note. Breitkopf, p. 81. 408 ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF curate. The expression " scrapings of old cloths" agrees ex- actly with the mode of making paper from linen rags, but is not in accordance with any facts known to us respecting the use of woollen or cotton cloth. The only objection against this view of the subject is, that, as Peter of Clugny had not when he wrote this passage travelled eastward of France, we can scarcely suppose him to have been sufficiently acquainted with the manor's and productions of Egypt to introduce any allu- sion to their newly invented mode of making paper. But we know that the Abbey of Clugny had more than 300 churches, colleges, and monasteries dependent on it, and that at least two of these were in Palestine and one at Constantinople. The intercourse which must have subsisted in this way between the Abbey of Clugny and the Levant, may account for the Abbot Peter's acquaintance with the fact. It is therefore probable that he alludes to the manufacture of paper in Egypt from the cloth of mummies, which on this supposition had been invented early in the twelfth century*. Another fact, which not only coincides with all the evidence now produced, but carries the date of the invention still a little higher, is the description of the manuscript No. 787, contain- ing an Arabic version of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, in Casiri's Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, torn. i. p. 235. This MS. was probably brought from Egypt, or the East. It has a date corresponding to A. D. 1100, and is of linen paper according to Casiri, who calls it " Chartaceus." " Codices chartacei," i. e. MSS. on linen paper, as old as the thirteenth century, are mentioned not unfrequently in the Cat- alogues of the Escurial, the Nani, and other libraries. Joseph Brooks Yates, Esq. F. S. A., of West Dingle near Liverpool, is in possession of a fine MS. of some of the Homilies of Chrys- ostom, written in all probability not later than the thirteenth century. It is on linen paper, with the water-lines perfectly dis- tinct in both directions. The water-mark is a tower, the size and * Gibbon says (vol. v. p. 295, 4to edition), " The inestimable art of transform- ing linen into paper has been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the Western world." This assertion appears to be entirely destitute of foundation. LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. 409 form of which are shown in Plate IX. Fig. 18. From the ap- pearance of this paper, it is probable that the form or mould may perhaps have been made of thin rods of cane or some other vegetable. These rods, however, may have been metal- lic. They were placed so close, that of the water-lines pro- duced by them 17 may be counted in the space of an inch, the water-lines at right angles to these being one inch and a quar- ter apart. The preceding facts coincide with the opinion long ago ex- pressed by Prideaux, who concluded that linen paper was an Eastern invention, because " most of the old MSS. in Arabic and other oriental languages are written on this sort of paper," and that it was first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain*. A few observations, by way of concluding this part of the subject, may here be properly bestowed upon the material with which the wasp-family construct their nests. The wasp is a paper-maker, and a most perfect and intelli- gent one. While mankind were arriving, by slow degrees, at the art of fabricating this valuable substance, the wasp was making it before their eyes, by very much the same process as that by which human hands now manufacture it with the best aid of chemistry and machinery. While some nations carved their records on wood, and stone, and brass, and leaden tablets, — others, more advanced, wrote with a style on wax, — others employed the inner bark of trees, and others the skins of animals rudely prepared, — the wasp was manufacturing a firm and durable paper. Even when the papyrus was rendered more fit, by a process of art, for the transmission of ideas in writing. The paper of the papyrus was formed of the leaves of the plant, dried, pressed, and polished ; the wasp alone knew how to reduce vegetable fibres to a pulp, and then unite them by a size or glue, spreading the substance out into a smooth and delicate leaf. This is exactly the process of paper-making. It would seem that the wasp knows, as the modern paper-makers * Old and New Testament connected, Part I. chapter 7. p. 393, 3rd edition, folio. 52 410 ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF now know, that the fibres of rags, whether linen or cotton, are not the only materials that can be used in the formation of paper ; she employs other vegetable matters, converting them into a proper consistency by her assiduous exertions. In some respects she is more skilful even than our paper-makers, for she takes care to retain her fibres of sufficient length, by which she renders her paper as strong as she requires. Many manufac- turers of the present day cut their material into small bits, and thus produce a rotten article. One great distinction between good and bad paper is its toughness ; and this difference is invariably produced by the fibre of which it is composed being long, and therefore tough ; or short, and therefore friable. The wasp has been laboring at her manufacture of paper, from her first creation, with precisely the same instruments and the same materials ; and her success has been unvarying. Her machinery is very simple, and therefore it is never out of order. She learns nothing, and forgets nothing. Men, from time to time, lose their excellence in particular arts, and they are slow in finding out real improvements. Such improvements are often the effect of accident. Paper is now manufactured very extensively by machinery, in all its stages ; and thus, instead of a single sheet being made by hand, a stream of paper is poured out, which would form a roll large enough to extend round the globe, if such a length were desirable. The first experimenters on paper machinery in England, Messrs. Fourdrinier, it is said, spent the enormous sum of 40,000J. in vain attempts to render the machine capable of determining the width of the roll ; and, at last, accomplished their object at the suggestion of a bystander, by a strap revolving upon an axis, at a cost of three shillings and sixpence ! Such is the difference between the workings of human knowledge and experience, and those of animal instinct. We proceed slowly and in the dark — but our course is not bounded by a narrow line, for it seems difficult to say what is the perfection of any art ; animals go clearly to a given point — but they can go no further. We may, however, learn some- thing from their perfect knowledge of what is within their range. It is not improbable that if man had attended in an earlier state of society to the labors of wasps, he would have sooner LIXEX AXD COTTON PAPER. 411 known how to make 'paper. "We are still behind in our arts and sciences, because we have not always been observers. If we had watched the operations of insects, and the structure of insects in general, with more care, we might have been far advanced in the knowledge of many arts which are yet in their infancy, for nature has given us abundance of patterns. "We have learnt to perfect some instruments of sound by examining the structure of the human ear ; and the mechanism of an eye has suggested some valuable improvements in achromatic glasses. Reaumur has given a very interesting account of the wasps of Cayenne (Charter gus nidulans). which hang their nests in trees*. Like the bird of Africa called the social grosbeak (Loxia socio)., they fabricate a perfect house, capable of containing many hundreds of their community, and suspend it on high out of the reach of attack. But the Cayenne wasp is a more expert artist than the bird. He is a pasteboard-maker ; — and the card with which he forms the exterior covering of his abode is so smooth, so strong, so uniform in its texture, and so white that the most skilful manufacturer of this substance might be proud of the work. It takes ink admirably ! The nest of the pasteboard-making wasp is impervious to water. It hangs upon the branch of a tree, and those rain- drops which penetrate through the leaves never rest upon its hard and polished surface. A small opening for the entrance of the insects terminates its funnel-shaped bottom. It is impossible to unite more perfectly the qualities of lightness and strength. Mr. J. Rennie, speaking of wasps : nests, gives us the following interesting account of one lately examined by him : — " The length," says he, " is about nine inches, six stout circular plat- forms stretch internally across, like so many floors, and fixed all round to the walls of the nest. They are smooth above, with hexagonal cells on the under surface. These platforms are not quite flat, but rather concave above, like a watch-glass reversed ; * Memoires sur les Insectes, torn, vi, mem. vii. See also Bonnet, vol. ix. 412 ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OP the centre of each platform is perforated for the admission of the wasps, at the extremity of a short funnel-like projection, and through this access is gained from story to story. On each platform, therefore, can the wasps walk leisurely about, attend- ing to the pupae secured in the cells, which, with the mouths downward, cover the ceiling above their heads — the height of the latter being just convenient for their work." Pendent wasps'-nests of enormous size are found in Ceylon, suspended often in the talipot-tree at the height of seventy feet. The appearance of these nests thus elevated, with the larger leaves of the tree, used by the natives as umbrellas and tents, waving over them, is very singular. Though no species of European wasp is a storer of honey, yet this rule does not apply to certain species of South America. In the " Annals and Magazine of Natural History" for June, 1841, will be found a detailed account, with a figure of the pendent nest of a species termed by Mr. A. White Myraptera sputellaris. The external case consists of stout cardboard covered with conical knobs of various sizes. The entrances are artfully protected by pent- roofs from the weather and heavy rains ; and are tortuous, so as to render the ingress of a moth or other large insect difficult. Internally are fourteen combs, exclusive of a globular mass, the nucleus of several circular combs, which are succeeded by others of an arched form — that is, constituting segments of circles. Good writing, printing and wrapping paper, may be procured from the shavings of common wood. The wood must be reduced to shavings by the ordinary jack-plain shaving size. The shavings are then placed in a cistern or boiler sufficiently large, and covered with water, which should be raised to the boiling-point. To every one hundred pounds of the wood so reduced, from twelve to eighteen pounds of alkali, either vege- table or mineral, is to be added, in proportion to its quality for strength. If salts are used they should be reduced before coming in contact with the wood. The salts may, however, be put in with the water and wood before reduction, but the first method is the most preferable. Should lime be used, there must LINEN AND COTTON PAPER. 413 be a sufficient, in all cases, to equal twelve pounds of pure black salts. One hundred pounds of wood will, if well attended to, make from five to seven reams of paper*. * Mr. Edmund Shaw, of Fenchurch Street, London, obtained a patent in Eng- land bearing date September 14, 1837, for a method of manufacturing paper from the leaves which cover the ears of Indian-corn. According to this patent the envelopes or leaves which cover the corn are in the first instance put into a vessel containing water. The water may be pure or slightly alkaline ; the water is then boiled in the vessel into which the aforesaid envelopes or fellicular leaves are thrown, after being macerated. When they have imbibed water and become thickened and swollen, so that the matter inter- posed between the fibres is reduced to a state of pulp or jelly, a slight beating by fulling, mallet, or other mechanical means will effect a separation of the fibre from the adherent glutinous matter, and washing or rinsing with water during the beating, will cleanse it entirely from the glutinous matter. The fibre is then bleached, by immersing, or immersing and beating or stirring it about in a solution of chloride of lime, or with beating engines, as at present practised for the bleaching of rags in paper mills, and the fibre is in like manner reduced to pulp, and paper manufactured therefrom, or the quality of the paper may be varied by the admixture of a portion of rags or other filamentous sub- stance. It may be well to remark, that some attempts to produce paper from the above mentioned material, have been made, but were abandoned from the incapability of producing good white paper. The patentee claims the mode, or process, above described of making white pa- per by the application of bleached pulp, produced from the stalks or leaves of In- dian-corn. 414 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF APPENDIX C. ON FELT. MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS. Felting more ancient than weaving — Felt used in the East — Use of it by the Tartars — Felt made of goats' -hair by the Circassians — Use of felt in Italy and Greece — Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c. — Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap — Desultores — Vulcan — Ulysses — Phrygian bonnet — Cap worn by the Asiatics — Phrygian felt of Camels'-hair — Its great stiffness — Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators — Mode of manufacturing Felt — Northern nations of Europe — Cap of liberty — Petasus — Statue of Endymion — Petasus in works of ancient art — Hats of Thes- saly and Maoedonia — Laconian or Arcadian hats — The Greeks manufacture Felt 9 jO B. C. — Mercury with the pileus and petasus — Miscellaneous uses of Felt. There seems no reason to question the correctness of Pro- fessor Beckmann's observation*, that the making of felt was in- vented before weavingf. The middle and northern regions of Asia are occupied by Tartars and other populous nations, whose manners and customs appear to have continued unchanged from the most remote antiquity!, and to whose simple and uni- form mode of existence this article seems to be as necessary as food. Felt is the principal substance both of their clothing and of their habitations. Carpini, who in the year 1246 went as ambassador to the great Khan of the Moguls, Mongals, or Tartars, says, " Their houses are round, and artificially made like tents, of rods and twigs interwoven, having a round hole in the middle of the roof for the admission of light and the pas- sage of smoke, the whole being covered with felt ) of which * Anleitung zur Technologies p. 117, Note. t See Gilroy's Treatise on the Art of Weaving, p. 14. t Malcolm's Hist, of Persia, ch. vi. vol. i. pp. 123, 124. Hate Jffl. FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 415 likewise the doors are made*? Very recently the same ac- count of these "portable tents of felt'' has been given by Julius von Klaprotht. Kupffer says of the Caratchai, ' ; Leurs larges manteaux de feutre leur servent en meme terns de matelas et de couverturej." The large mantle of felt, here mentioned, is used for the same purpose in the neighboring country of Cir- cassian One of these mantles now in the possession of Mr. Urquhart was made of black goats'-hair, and had on the out- side a long shaggy villus. The Circassians sleep under this mantle by night, and wear it, when required, over then other dress by day. A similar article is thus described by Colonel Leake !l : the postillions in Phrygia " wear a cloak of white camels'-hair, half an inch thick, and so stiff that the cloak stands without support, when set upright on the ground. There are neither sleeves nor hood ; but only holes to pass the hands through, and projections like wings upon the shoulders for the purpose of turning off the rain. It is the manufacture of the country." The Chinese traveller, Chy Fa Hian, who visited India at the end of the fourth century, says, that the people of Chen Chen, a kingdom in a mountainous district situated about the Lake of Lob, wore dresses like those of the Chinese, except that they made use of felt and stuffs {du feutre et des etoffes^). In conformity with the prevailing use of this manufacture in * Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. i. p. 128. See also p. 167, where the same facts are related by William de Rubruquis. The account which Herodotus gives (iv. 23) of the habitations of the Argippaei evidently alludes to customs similar to those of the modern Tartars. He says, " They live under trees, covering the tree in winter with strong and thick undyed felt (s-iXfj GTzyvu \cvku), and removing the felt in summer." Among the ceremo- nies observed by the Scythians in burying the dead, Herodotus also mentions the erection of three stakes of wood, which were surrounded with a close covering of woollen felt (iv. 73). Also, in the next section but one (iv. 75.) there is an evi- dent allusion to the practice of living under tents made of felt (fotrifanwi indrovs iri\ovs). t Reise in dem Kaucasus und nach Georgien, ch. vi. p. 161. X Voyage dans les Environs du Mont Elbrouz. St. Petersburg, 1829, 4to, p. 20. § Travels in Circassia, by Edmund Spencer. |] Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, p. 38. * Ch. ii. p. 7, of Remusat's Translation, Par. 1836, 4to. 416 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF the colder regions of Asia, scarlet or purple felt (such as that lately re-invented at Leeds, in England), was used by the Babylonish decorators for the drapery of the funeral pile, when Alexander celebrated the splendid obsequies of Hephsestion : for so we must understand the expression (Plato, Polit. ii. 2. p. 296, ed. Bekker). According to the ancient Greek and Latin glos- saries, and to Julius Pollux (vii. 30), a felt-maker, or hatter, was iriXoTzoios or rtXuTOTTotd?, in Latin coactiliarius. From m\os (dim. iri\iov, second dim. vi\Uiov) ) the proper term forfeit in general, derived from the root of ^Xfco, came the verb m\6a t signifying to felt, or to make felt, and from this latter verb was formed the ancient participle niXardsj felted, which again gave origin to 7ri\a)Toiroi6s. It may be observed, that our English word felt is evidently a participle or a derivative, and that its verb or root Fel ap- pears to be the same with the root of i«x«u. The Latin cogo, which was used, like the Greek -iXe'w, to de- * Xenophanes thought that the moon was a compressed cloud (vfyos nciriXTi/jievov, StobEei Eclog. i. 27. p. 550, ed. Heeren) ; and that the air was emitted from the earth by its compression (nlXricis, i. 23. p. 484). FELT BY THE AXCIEXTS. 417 note the act of compressing, or forcing the separate hairs to- gether, gave origin to the participle coactus, and its derivative coactilis. Pliny (H. N. viii. 48. s. 73.), after speaking of woven stuffs, mentions in the following terms the use of wool for making felt : " Lanes et per se coactae (al. coactam) vestem ficiunt," i. e. " Parcels of wool, driven together by themselves, make cloth." This is a very exact, though brief description of the process of felting. The following monumental inscription (Gruter, p. 648, n. 4.) contains the title Lanarius coactiliarius, meaning a manufacturer of woollen felt : — M. Ballorius M. L. Lariseus, Laxarius coactiliarius, COXJUGA CARISSIM^E B. M. FEC. Helvius Successus, the son of a freed man, and the father of the Roman emperor Pertinax, was a hatter in Liguria [tabernam coactiliariani in Liguria exercuerat, Jul. Cap. Pertinax, c. 3.). Pertinax himself, being fond of money, hav- ing the perseverance expressed by his agnomeu, and having doubtless, in the course of his expeditions into the East, made valuable observations respecting the manufacture which he had known from his boyhood, continued and extended the same business, carrying it on and conveying his goods to a dis- tance by the agency of slaves. The Romans originally receiv- ed the use of felt together with its name* from the Greeks (Plutarch, Numa, p. 117, ed. Steph.). The Greeks were ac- quainted with it as early as the age of Homer, who lived about 900 B. C. {R x. 265), and Hesiod {Op. et Dies, 542, 546). The principal use of felt among the Greeks and Romans was to make coverings of the head for the male sex, and the most common cover made of this manufacture was a simple skull-cap, i. e. a cap exactly fitted to the shape of the head, as is shown in Plate Till. fig. 1. taken from a sepulchral bas-relief which was found by Mr. Dodwell in Boeotiat. The original is as large as life. The person represented appears to have been a Cynic philosopher. He leans upon the staff (bacillus, * Pileus or Pileum (Son. Marc, iii., pilea virorum sunt, Servius in Virg. Mn. ix. 616.). dim. Pileolus or Pileolum (Colum. de Arbor. 25). t Tour through Greece, vol. i. pp. 242, 243. 53 418 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF Qaicrpov, aKrjTTTpov) ; he is clothed in the blanket (pallium, x KaXva ^ rptQcov) with one end, which is covered, over his left breast, and another hanging behind over his left shoulder ; he wears the beard (barba, ™y<»v) ; his head is protected by the simple skull- cap (pileus, rctXos). All these were distinct characteristics of the philosopher, and more especially of the Cynic*. The dog also probably marked his sect. Leonidas of Tarentum, in his enumeration of the goods belonging to the Cynic Posocharesf, including a dog-collar (kwovxov), mentions, *ai -:\ov K tai. X Hirt's Bilderbuch, p. 88. tab. xi. figs. 8, 9. § Bartoli, Luc. Ant., P. II. tav. 11. FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 425 wood-cut in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman An- tiquities (p. 160), which is taken from the Column of Trajan. The same thing appears in various coins belonging to the reign of this Emperor, two of which, preserved in the British Museum, are engraved in Plate Till. fig. 16. represents Dacia sitting as a captive with her hands tied behind her back, wear- ing browsers (braccce) and a conical or oval cap with the edge turned up. Figure 17. represents Dacia mourning. In each we see a Dacian target together with Roman armor. Each has the same legend, Dac. Cap. Cos. V. P. P. S. P. Q. R. Optimo. Princ. On the reverse is the head of the Emperor with the inscription Imp. Trajaxo. Aug. Ger. Dac. P. M. Tr. P. According to the representation of Lucian (de Gynmas.). the Scythians were in the constant habit of wearing caps or hats : for in the conversation between Anacharsis and Solon described by that author, Anacharsis requests to go into the shade, saying that he could scarce endure the sun, and that he had brought his cap {*i\ov) from home, but did not like be- ing seen alone in a strange habit. In later times we read of the ' ; pileati Gothi : ' and ' : pileati sacerdotes GothorumV In considering the use of the skull-cap, or of the conical cap of felt, it remains to notice the use of it among the Romans as the emblem of libertyt. "When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaven, and wore instead of his hair the pi- leus, or cap of undyed felt, (Diod. Sic. Exc. Leg. 22. p. 625, ed. Wess.). Plutarch, in allusion to the same custom, calls the cap ™W 3 which is the diminutive of *rx*. It is evident, that the Latin pilens or pileum is derived from the Greek «Xo$ and its diminutive, and this circumstance in conjunction with other ev- idence tends to show, that the Latins adopted this use of felt from the Greeks. Sosia says in Plautus (Amphit. i. 1. 306), as a description of the mode of receiving his liberty, " Ut ego hodie, raso capite calvus, capiam pileum.'' Servius (in Virg. JEn. viii. 564) says, the act of manumitting slaves in this form was * Jornandes, Sec, ap. Div. Gentium. Hist. Ant., Hamb. 1611, pp. 86. 93. t Hasc mea libertas ; hoc nobis pilea donant. — Persius, v. 82. 54 426 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF done in the temple of Feronia, who was the goddess cf freed- men. In her temple at Terracina was a stone seat, on which was engraved the following verse : " Benemeriti servi sedeant, surgent liberi." In allusion to this practice it appears that the Romans, though they did not commonly wear hats, put them on at the Saturna- lia*. At the death of Nero, the common people to express their joy went about the city in felt capsf. In allusion to this cus- tom the figure of Liberty on the coins of Antoninus Pius holds the cap in her right hand. Figures 1 and 2 in Plate IX. are examples selected from the collection in the British Museum, and. as we learn from the legend, were struck when he was made consul the fourth time, i. e. A. D. 145. In contradistinction to the various forms of the felt cap now described and represented, all of which were more or less ele- vated, and many of which were pointed upwards, we have now to consider those, which, though made of felt, and therefore classed by the ancients under the general terms pileus, -?Xo?, &c.+, corresponded more nearly to our modern hat. The Greek word viraoos, dim. Treraunav, derived from ireTavwpa, eztendo, dilato, and adopted by the Latins in the form petasus, dim. petasuncidus, well expressed the distinctive form of these hats. They were more or less broad and expanded. What was taken from their height was added to their width. Those al- ready mentioned had no brim ; the petasus of every variety had a brim, which was either exactly or nearly circular, and which varied greatly in its width. In some cases it seems to be a mere circular disc without any crown at all. Of this we have an example in a beautiful statue, which has, no doubt, been meant for Endymion, in the Townley collection of the British Museum. See Plate IX. Fig. 3. His right hand en- circles his head, and his scarf is spread over a rock as described * Pileata Roma. Martial, xi. 7 ; xiv. 1. t Plebs pileata. Sueton. Nero, 57. t Plutarch (Solon, 179) says that Solon, pretending to be mad and acting the part of a herald from Salamis, ifcrrfiSriiTev els rrjv dyopav atyvw m\iov irepiQlpevos. Here xtXiov seems to mean the ttctcktos. FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 427 by Lucian*. He sleeps upon it holding the fibula in his left hand. His feet are adorned with boots {cothurni) and his sim- ple petasus is tied under his chin. In this form the petasus il- lustrates the remark of Theophrastus, who. in describing the Egyptian Bean, says, that the leaf was of the size of the Thessa- lian petasust. For the purpose of comparing these two objects, a representation of the leaves of the plant referred to, is intro- duced into the same Figure (3) : taken from the " Botanical Magazine," Plates 903, 3916, and Sir J. E. Smith's - : Exotic Botany," Tab. 31, 32. The petasus here shown on the head of Endymion, the original statue being as large as life, certain- ly resembles very closery both in size and in form the leaf of the Egyptian Bean, which is the Cyamus rselumbo, or Xelum- bium Speciosum of modern botanists. The flowers of umbelliferous plants are aptly called by Pha- niast -tracer,, i. e. like a petasus. The petasus, as worn by the two shepherds, who discover Romulus and Remus, in a bas-relief of the Vatican:, is certainly not unlike the umbel of a plant. See Plate IX. Fip;. 4. * In the Dialogues of the Gods (xi.), the Moon says in answer to Venus, that Endymion is particularly beautiful " when he sleeps, having thrown his scarf under him upon the rock, holding in his left hand the darts just falling from it, whilst his right hand bent upwards lies gracefully round his face, and, dissolved in sleep, he exhales his ambrosial breath." The recumbent statue, here represented, is of white marble, and is placed in room XI. of the Townley Gallery. It was found in 1774 at Roma Vecchia (Dal- laway's Anecdotes of the Arts, p. 303). It has been called Mercury or Adonis. But there are no examples or authorities in support of either of these suppositions. It is not sufficient to say that even* beautiful youth may have been meant either for Mercury, who was never represented asleep, or for Adonis. We know that the fable of Endymion and the Moon was a favorite subject with the ancient art- ists. In the Antichita d'Ercolano, torn. iii. tav. 3, we find a picture, which was discovered at Portica, and which represents this subject. It is still more frequent in ancient bas-reliefs. See Mus. Pio-Clem. torn. iv. v. 8, pp. 38, 41 ; Sandrart, Sculp. Vet. Adm. p. 52 ; Gronovii Thesaur. torn. i. folio O : Proceedings of the Philological Society, vol. i. pp. 8, 9. t IL-T-dc-cj GtrraAo.-)'. Hist. Plant, iv. 10. p. 147, ed. Schneider. t Apud Athen. ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub. § Museo Pio-Clementino, torn. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly belonged to the Mattei collection. See Monumenta Matthceinana, torn. iii. tab. 37. 428 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF Callimachus ascribes the same head-dress to shepherds in the following lines : "E^psn-c toi irpoi-^ovaa napm tvpsia KaAt-rrp/j, HoipevtKov TtiXrina. — Frag. cxxv. The wide covering projecting from your head, the pastoral hat, became you. This " pastoral hat," if we may judge from the representa- tion of the two shepherds in the bas-relief just referred to (Fig. 4.), was in its shape very like the "bonny blue bonnet" of the Scotch. Figure 5 in Plate IX. is taken from a painted Greek vase, and represents the story of the delivery of CEdipus to be exposed. His name OIAIITOAAE is written beside him. The shepherd ET$0PB02, who holds the naked child in his arms, wears a flat and very broad petasus hanging behind his neck. It is of an irregular shape, as if from long usage*. The shep- herd Zethus wears a petasus hanging behind his back in a bas-relief belonging to the Borghese collection, published by Winckelmann [Mon. Inediti, ii. 85). See Plate IX. Fig. 6. The Athenian ephebi wore the broad-brimmed hat, together with the scarf or chlamyst. Meleager, in an epigram on a beau- tiful boy, named Antiochus, says, that he would be undistinguish- able from Cupid, if Cupid wore a scarf and petasus instead of his bow and arrows and his wings t. When a young Greek conquered in the games, his friends semetimes bestowed a hat (petasus) upon him as a present?. In consequence of the uso of the petasus as a part of the ordinary costume of the Athenian youth, we find it in a great variety of works of ancient art illustrative of the religion and mythology of Greece. For example : — 1. In the inner frieze of the Parthenon, the remains of which are now in the British Museum, it is worn by many of the riders on horseback. Figure 7, in Plate IX. shows one of * See Monumenti Inediti pubblicati dalV Instituto di Correspondenza ArcheO' logica, vol. ii. tav. 14. t Pollux, Onom. x. 164 ; Philemon, p. 367. ed. Meineke ; Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. p. 41 ; Jacobs in Athol. Grcec. i. 1. p. 24. X Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. 5. § Eratosthen. a Bernhardt/, p. 249. 250. FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 429 these horsemen (from the slab No. 54.) with his petasus tied under his chin. 2. It is worn by Theseus, as represented on a vase in the Vatican collection. See AVinckelmann. Mon. Inediti. vol. ii. 98, and Fig. 8, Plate IX. 3. Also by (Edipus, as represented on one of Sir William Hamilton's vases (vol. ii. Plate 24.), standing before the sphinx. 4. The coins of iEtolia exhibit Meleager wearing the petasus. Five of these have been selected from the collection in the British Museum, which are engraved according to the size of the originals in Plate IX. Figures 9, 10, and 11, are of silver. In each of them the petasus has the form of a circular disc with a boss at the top like that on a Scotch bonnet : on the reverse is the Calydonian boar, with a spear head beneath it, and the word AIT&AflN. Figure 12, which is of gold*, and Figure 13, which is of silver, have the head of Hercules on the reverse. The hero, supposed to be Meleager, wears a petasus, a scarf, and boots, as we have seen to be the case with Endymion (Fig. 3), this being the attire of hunters. In these two coins he also holds a spear in his right hand, and is seated upon a shield (see Fig. 13.) and other pieces of armor. AITGA^X is written by the side. The gold coin (see Fig. 12.) represents him with a Victory in his left hand, and with a small figure of Diana Lucifera in front* The broad-brimmed hat, or petasus, was more especially worn by the Greeks when they were travellingt. Its appearance is well shown in Fig. 14, taken from a fictile vase belonging to the late Mr. Hope*. It represents a Greek soldier on a journey, wearing his large blanket, and holding two spears in his right hand. This figure also shows one of the methods of fastening on the hat, viz. by passing the string round the occiput. The comedies of Plautus, being translated from the Greek, contain allusions to the same practice. In the Pseudolus (ii. 4. 55, and iv. 7. 90.) the petasus and the scarf are supposed to be * This is engraved by Taylor Combe, Vet. Populorum Nunmi. tab. v. jSo. 23 t Brunck, Anal. ii. 170, No. 5. t Hope, Costume of the Ancients, vol. i. pi. 71. 430 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF worn by a person to indicate that he was coming from a journey. In the prologue to the Amphitryo, Mercury says, Ego has habebo hie usque in petaso pinnulas, Turn raeo patri autem torulus merit aureus Sub petaso : id signum Amphitruoni non erit. Mercury and his father Jupiter are here supposed to be attired like Sosia and Amphitryo his master, both of whom had been travelling and were returning home. At the same time there is an allusion to the winged hat of Mercury, of which more hereafter. Again, in act i. scene i. 1. 287, the petasus is attributed to Sosia, because he is supposed to be coming from a journey; and to Mercury, both because it was commonly attributed to him, and because on this occasion he was person- ating Sosia. The Romans were less addicted to the use of the petasus than the Greeks : they often wore it when they were from home ; but that they did not consider it at all necessary to wear hats in the open air is manifest from the remark of Suetonius about the Emperor Augustus, that he could not even bear the winter's sun, and hence " domi quoque non nisi petatasus sub divo spatiabatur." (August. 82.) Caligula permitted the senators to wear them at the theatres as a protection from the sun (Dio. Cass. lix. 7. p. 909, ed. Reimari). What was meant by wearing hats " according to the Thessalian fashion" is by no means clear. Perhaps the Thessalians may have worn hats resembling those of their neighbors, the Macedonians, and of the shape of these we may form some conception from the coins of the Macedonian kings. One of these coins from the collec- tion in the British Museum is copied in Plate IX. Fig. 15. It is a coin of the reign of Alexander I. and exhibits a Mace- donian warrior standing by the side of his horse, holding two spears in his left hand, and wearing a hat with a broad brim turned upwards. This Macedonian petasus is called the Causia (wwia)*, and was adopted by the Romanst, and more * Val. Max. v. 1. Extern. 4. Pausan., ap. Eustath. in II. ii. 121. It is to be observed, that the causia and petasus are opposed to one another by a writer in Athenaeus (L. xii. 537, e), as if the causia was not a petasus ! t Plautus, Mil iv. 4. 42. Pers. i. 3. 75. Antip. Thess. in Brunch Anal. ii. 111. FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 431 especially by the Emperor Caracalla, who, as Herodian states, aimed to imitate Alexander the Great in his costume. It appears probable, nevertheless, that the turning up of the brim was not peculiar to the Macedonians, and it may have depended altogether on accident or fancy ; for we find instances of it on painted fictile vases, where there is no reason to suppose that any reference was intended either to Macedonia or Thessaly. Fig. 16. Plate IX. for example, is taken from the head of Bellerophon, on one of Sir William Hamilton's vases* ; and the left-hand figure from a fictile vase at Vienna, engraved by Ginzrotj. This hat is remarkable for the boss at the top, which we observe also on the iEtolian coins, and in various other examples. In connection with the above quoted expression of Dio Cas- sius it may be observed further, that besides the causia two varieties of the petasus seem to be alluded to by several ancient authors, viz. the Thessalian, and the Arcadian or Laconian. How they were distinguished, cannot be ascertained, but the passages which mention them will now be produced, that the reader may judge for himself. The Tbessalian variety is mentioned by Dio Cassius, by Theophrastus, as above quoted (p. 427), and by Callimachus in the following fragment, which is preserved in the Scholia on Sophocles, (Ed. Col. 316. And about his head lay a felt, newly come from Thessaly, as a protection from wet. — Frag. 124. ed. Ernesti. The frenzied Cynic philosopher Menedemus, among other pe- culiarities, wore an Arcadian hat, HAVING THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC WOVEN INTO ITt ! Am- mianus (Brunck, Anal. ii. 384.) represents an orator dedicating " an Arcadian hat"' to Mercury, who was the patron of his art, and also a native of Arcadia. Herodes Atticus wore " the Arcadian hat" at Athens, as a protection from the sun ; and the language of Philostratus, in recording the fact, shows that the Athenians of his time com- * Vol. i. pi. 1. t Uber die Wagen und Fuhricerke der Alien, vol. i. p. 342. X Diog. Laert. vi. 102. See Gilroy's Treatise on the Art of Weaving, Amer- ican edition, p. 446. 432 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF monlv wore it, more especially in travelling*. Arrian, who wrote about the middle of the second century, says, that " La- conian or Arcadian hats," were worn in the army by the pel- tastse instead of helmetsf. This circumstance shows a remark- able change of customs ; for in the early Greek history we find the Persian soldiers held up as the objects of ridicule and con- tempt, because they wore hats and trowserst On the whole, it is very evident that " the Arcadian or Laconian hat " was one and the same variety, and that this variety of head-dress was simply the petasus, or hat with a brim, so called to distinguish it from the proper m\o S , which was the skull-cap, or hat without a brim. This supposition suits the representations of the only ima- ginary beings who are exhibited in works of ancient art wear- ing the petasus, viz. the Dioscuri and Mercury. It has been already observed that the Dioscuri are commonly represented with the skull-cap, because they were worshipped, as the reader will have perceived, as the guardians of the mar- iner§ ; but on ancient vases we find them sometimes painted with the petasus ; and if this was the same with the wtXos Aa*om- Kd S , it would coincide with their origin as natives of Sparta. In Plate IX. Fig. 16, an example is shown, on one of Sir Wil- liam Hamilton's vases, in which their attire resembles that of the Athenian ephebi. They wear boots and a tunic, over which one of them also wears the scarf or chlamys. They are conducted by the goddess Night. In like manner Mercury, as a native of Arcadia, might be expected to wear " the Arcadian hat." In the representations of this deity on works of ancient art, the hat, which is often decorated with wings to indicate his office of messenger, as his talaria also did II, has a great variety of forms, and sometimes the brim is so narrow, that it does not differ from the cap of the artificer already described, or the ttT\u S in its ordinary form. * Vit. Sophist ii. 5. 3. t Tactica, p. 12. ed. Blancardi. t Herod, v. 49. § See p. 419. || Servius (on Virg. Mn. viii. 138) says, that Mercury was supposed to have wings on his petasus and on his feet, in order to denote the swiftness of speech, he being the god of eloquence. FELT BY THE AXCIENTS. 433 These hats, with a brim of but small dimensions, agree most exactly in appearance with the cheapest hats of undyed felt, now made in the United States and Great Britain*. On the heads of the rustics and artificers in our streets and lanes we often see forms the exact counterpart of those which we most admire in the works of ancient art. The petasus is also still commonly worn by agricultural laborers in Greece and Asia Minor. A bas-relief in the Vatican collection"!*, represents the birth of Hercules, and contains two figures of Mercury. In one he car- ries the infant Hercules, in the other the caduceus. In both he wears a large scarf, and a skull-cap, like that of Daedalus}, without a brim. This example therefore proves that, although the petasus. as distinguished from the pileus, was certainly the appropriate attribute of Mercury?, yet the artists of antiquity sometimes took the liberty of placing on his head the skull-cap instead of the hat, just as we have seen that they sometimes made the reverse substitution in the case of the Dioscuri. Another bas-relief in the Vatican , represents the story of the birth of Bacchus from Jupiter's thigh. Thus the subject of it is very similar to that, which relates to the birth of Her- cules, the infant being in each instance consigned to the care of Mercury. But the covering of Mercury's head in these two cases is remarkably different, though from no other reason than * These hats are sold in the shops for sixpence, ninepence, or a shilling each. t Museo Pio-Clementino. torn. iv. tav. 37. t See Plate VIII. Fig. 8. § See Brunck, Anal. ii. 41, and Arnobius, Adv. Gentes, lib. vi. See also Ep- hippus, ap. Athen. xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub. It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus in the Dionys- iac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus {Athen. v. 27. p. 198 A.). In this case the imagination ap- pears to have been indulged in decorating a mere festive character with the pecu- liar attributes of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven by " boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi" {Athen. v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the custom of the Grecian youth. The following Is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua {Gruter. p. 297) : Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestal cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque. 11 Museo Pio-Clementino. torn. iv. tav. 19. 55 434 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF the fancy of the artist. In the bas-relief now under consider- ation, Mercury holds the skin of a lynx or panther to receive the child. He wears the scarf or chlamys and cothurni. This was a very favorite subject with the ancients. It occurs on a superb marble vase with the inscription EAAIII2N EIIOIHEE*, and on one of Sir W. Hamilton's fictile vasesf. Figure 4. in Plate X. is from Hope's Costume of the An- cients, vol. ii. pi. 175. The money-bag is in Mercury's right hand. In a painting found at Pompeii}:, Mercury is represented with wings (pinnules) on his petasus, though not very ancient, is also recognized in the Amphitryo of Plautus. Figure 5. in Plate X. is from the Marquis of Lansdowne's marble bust, published by the Dilettanti Society§. In this beautiful bust the brim of the hat is unfortunately damaged. Figures 6 and 7, Plate X., are from coins engraved in Ca- relli's Nummi Veteris Italice (plates 58 and 65). Figure 7 is a coin of Suessa in Campania. To these illustrations might have been added others from an- cient gems, good examples of which may be found in the sec- ond volume of Mariette's Traite des Pierres Gravees, folio, Paris, 1750. Besides the application of felt as a covering of the head for the male sex in the manner now explained, it was also used as a lining for helmets. When in the description of the helmet worn by Ulysses we read Mltnri} (5' evl 7r?Aos dpfipei\], we may suppose rr~i\o S to be used in its most ordinary sense, and * Spon., Misc. Erud. Ant. § xi. art. 1. t Vol. i. No. 8. t GelPs Pompeiana, London 1819, pi. 76. § Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, London 1809, pi. 51. || Homer, II. x. 265. Eustathius, in his commentary on this passage, says, that the most ancient Greeks always wore felt in their helmets, but that those of more recent times, regarding this use of felt as peculiar to Ulysses, persuaded the paint- ers to exhibit him in a skull-cap, and that this was first done, according to the tradition, by the painter Apollidorus. The account of Pliny, who, together with Servius (in Mn. ii. 44), represents Nicomachus, and not Apollidorus, as having first adopted this idea. 18 ww PlafelZ FELT BY THE ANCIENTS. 435 consequently that the interior of the helmet was a common skull-cap. Being generally thicker than common cloth, felt presented a more effectual obstacle to missile weapons. Hence, when the soldiers under Julius Caesar were much annoyed by Pompey's archers, they made shirts or other coverings of felt, and put them on for their defence*. Thucydides refers to the use of similar means to protect the body from arrowst; and even in besieging and defending cities felt was used, together with hides and sackcloth, to cover the wooden towers and military enginest Felt was also sometimes used to cover the bodies of quadru- peds. According to Aristotle §, the Greeks clothed their molles oves either with skins or with pieces of felt ; and the wool be- came gray in consequence. The Persians used the same ma- terial for the trappings of their horses (Plutarch, Art ax. II. p. 1858. ed. Stephani). The loose rude coverings for the feet called Udones were sometimes made of felt, being worn within the shoes or brogues of the rustic laborers II. In concluding this investigation it may be proper to observe, that, although ^rx os originally meant felt, and more especially a skull-cap made of that manufacture, it was sometimes used, at least by the later Greek authors, by an extension of its meaning, to denote a cap of any other material. Thus Athen- aeus (lib. vi. p. 274. Casaub.) speaking of the Romans, says, that they wore about their heads »*Xow irpopareiuv Sep^d™* 6aatTs, i. e. " thick caps made of sheep skins." * Jul. Caesar, Bell. Civ. iii. 44. t Thucyd. iv. 34. Schol. ad loc. \ iEneas Tacticus, 33. § De Gen. Animalium, v. 5. p. 157. ed. Bekker. || Hesiod, Op. ed Dies, 542 ; Greevius, ad loc. ; Cratini, Fragmenta, p. 29. ed. Runkel. 436 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF APPENDIX D. ON NETTING. MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC. Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom — General terms for nets — Nets used for catching birds — Mode of snaring — Hunting-nets — Method of hunting — Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes — Manner of fixing them — Purse-net or tunnel-net — Homer's testimony — Nets used by the Persians in lion-hunting — Hunting with nets practised by the ancient Egyptians — Method of hunting — Depth of nets for this purpose — Description of the purse-net — Road-net — Hallier — Dyed feathers used to scare the prey — Casting-net — Manner of throw- ing by the Arabs — Cyrus king of Persia — His fable of the piper and the fishes — Fishing-nets — Casting-net used by the Apostles — Landing-net (S cap-net) — The Sean — Its length and depth — Modern use of the Sean — Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians and ancient Egyptians — Corks and leads — Figurative application of the Sean — Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the Persians — Nets used in India to catch tortoises — Bag- nets and small purse-nets — Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian praetor. The raw materials, of which the ancients made nets, were flax, hemp*, and broomt. Flax was most commonly used ; so that Jerome, when he is prescribing employment for monks. says, " Texantur et Una capiendis piscibust." The operation of netting, as well as that of platting, was expressed by the verb 7rX«£u/§. The meshes were called in Latin macidceW, in Greek /fyfyoi, dim. PpoxifcH. * Rete cannabina. Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 5. p. 216, ed. Bipont. t Pliny, H. N. xix. 1. s. 2 ; xxiv. 9. s. 40. t Hieron. Epist. I. ii. p. 173, cd. Par. 1613, 12mo. Hunting-nets are called " lina nodosa" by Ovid, Met. iii. 153, and vii. 807. Compare Virg. Georg. i. 142 ; Homer, II. v. 487 ; Brunck, Anal. ii. 94, 494, 495 ; Artimedorus, ii. 14. See also Pliny, H. N. xix. 1. s. 2. § nx^d^i/oj apKvs, Aristoph. Lysist. 790. Twi/ -rri-^ypivoiv ciktvojv, Bokkeri Anecdota, vol. i. p. 354. II Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 11 ; Ovid, Epist. v. 19 ; Nemesiani Cyneg. 302. T Heliodor. 1. v. p. 231, ed. Commelini. NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. 437 The use of all the Latin and Greek terms for nets will now be explained, and in connection with this explanation of terms, Avill be produced all the facts which can be ascertained upon the subject. Retis and Rete ; dim. Reticulum. AIKTYON*. Retis or Rete in Latin, and lucnw in Greek, were used to de- note nets in general. Thus in an epigram of Leonidas Tarenti- nust, three brothers, one of whom was a hunter, another a fowler, and the third a fisherman, dedicate their nets to Pan. Several imitations of this epigram remain by Alexander iEtolus*, Antipater Sidonius§, Archiasl, and other sT. In one of these epigrams ('IovXtdvov Aiynrin) we find Xwa adopted as a general term for nets instead of a). Aristophanes mentions nets by the same denomination among the contrivances employed by the fowlertt. Fishing-nets are called tun* in the following passages of the New Testament : Matt. iv. 20, 21 ; Mark i. 18, 19 ; Luke v. 2, 4-6 ; John xxi. 6, 8, 11 : also by Theocritus, ap. Athen. vii. 20. p. 284, Cas. ; and by Plato, Sophista. 220, b. p. 134, ed. Bekker. Netting was applied in various ways in the construction of lien-coops and aviaries ; and such net- work is called retell. It was used to make pens for sheep by night. At the amphi- theatres it was sometimes placed over the podium. At a gladi- atorial show given by Xero, the net, thus used as a fence against * From cikuv, to throw. See Eurip. Bacc. 600, and the Lexicons of Schnei- der and Passow. t Branch, Anal. i. 225. X Brunch, Anal. i. 418. Alexandri .Etoli Fragmenta, a Capelmann, p. 50. § Ibid. ii. 9, Xos. 15, 16. || Ibid. ii. 94, Xo. 9. 7 Ibid. ii. 494, 495. Jacobs, Anthol. vol. i. p. 188, 189. ** Branch, Anal. iii. 239, Xo 417. tt Ates, 526-528. tt Varro, De Re Rust. iii. 5. 438 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF the wild beasts, was knotted with amber*. The way in which the net was used by the Retiarii is well known. The head-dress called irwpityaXcv, was a small net of fine flax, silk, or gold thread, and was also called reticulum]. But by far the most important application of net-work was to the kindred arts of hunting and fishing : and besides the general terms used alike in reference to both these employments, there are special terms to be explained under each head. The use of nets for catching birds was very limited, on which account we find no appropriate name for fowlers' netst Nevertheless thrushes were caught in them§, and doves or pigeons, with their limbs tied up, or fastened to the ground, or with their eyes covered or put out, were confined in a net in order that their cries might allure others into the snare II. An account of the nets used by the Egyptians to catch birds is given by Sir Gardner WilkinsonlF, being derived from the paintings found in the catacombs. The net commonly em- ployed for the purpose was the clap-net. Bird-traps were also made by stretching a net over two semicircular frames, which, being joined and laid open, approached to the form of a circle. The trap was baited, and when a bird flew to it and seized the bait, it was instantly caught by the sudden rising of the two sides or flaps. II. Cassis ; Plaga. ENOAION, APKYE. In hunting it was usual to extend nets in a curved line of considerable length**, so as in part to surround a space, into * Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 3. s. 11. t Nonius Marcellus, p. 542, ed. Merceri. See also the article Calantica, in Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities. t See Aristophanes, I. c. § Hor. Epod. ii. 33, 34. || Aristoph. Aves, 1083. IT Man. and Customs, vol. iii. p. 35-38, 45. ** Td SiKTva ircpiP&Wowt. jElian, H. A. xii. 46. Uno portante multitudinem, qua saltus cingerentur. Plin. H. N. xix. 1. s. 2. Oppian (Cyneg. iv. 120-123) says, that in an Asiatic lion-hunt the nets (apxvcs) were placed in the form of the new moon. NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. 439 which the beasts of chase, such as the boar, the wild goat, the deer, the hare, the lion, and the bear might be driven through the opening left on one side. Tibullus (iv. 3. 12) speaks of inclosing woody hills for this purpose : — densos indagine colles Claudentem. The following lines of Yirgil show, that the animals were driven into the toils from a distance by the barking of dogs and the shouts of men : Thy hound the wild-ass in the sylvan chase, Or hare, or hart, with faithful speed will trace ; Assail the muddy cave with eager cries, Where the rough boar in secret ambush lies ; Press the tall stag with clamors echoing shrill To secret toils, along the aerial hill. Georg. iii. 411-413. — Warton's Translation. In another splendid passage the boar is described as coming into the midst of the nets after he has been driven to them from a mountain or a marsh at a great distance : And as a savage boar on mountains bred, With forest mast and fattening marshes fed ; When once he sees himself in toils inclosed, By huntsmen and their eager hounds opposed ; He whets his tusks, and turns and dares the war : The invaders dart their javelins from afar : All keep aloof and safely shout around, But none presumes to give a nearer wound. He frets and froths, erects his bristled hide, And shakes a grove of lances from his side. Mn. x. 707-715.— Dry den's Translation. Even in a case where the same poet introduces an equivalent expression to that of Tibullus, already quoted, viz. "saltus indagine cingunt" (JEn. iv. 121), he represents the hunting- party as going over a large extent of country to collect the animals out of it : Postquam altos ventum in montes atque invia lustra, Ecce ferae saxi dejecta? vertice capraa Decurrere jugis ; alia de parte patentes Transmittunt cursu campos, atque agmina cervi Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt. 440 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri Gaudet equo, jamque hos cursu, jam praeterit illos, Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem. Mn. iv. 151-159. So Ovid (Epist. iv. 41, 42) : In nemns ire libet, pressisque in retia cervis, Hortari celeres per juga summa canes ; and (Epist. v. 19, 20) : Retia saepe comes maculis distincta tetendi, Soepe citos egi per juga longa canes. The younger Pliny describes himself on one occasion sitting beside the nets, while the hunters were pursuing the boars and driving them into the snare (Epist. i. 6). In Euripides (Bacc 821-832) we find the following beautiful description of a fawn, which has been driven into the space inclosed by the nets, but has leaped over them and escaped : — wj vefipos %\o£paTs iji-Kai^ovaa XeipaKos ff dovais, fivix av (poffepdv (pvXaKas ciizXcKTCJV vnip dpicvcov, &C. Here a Bacchanal, tossing her head into the air with gambols and dancing, is said to be " like a fawn sporting in the green delights of a meadow, when she has escaped the fearful chase by leaping over the well-platted nets so as to be out of the inclosure, whilst the shouting hunter has been urging his dogs to run still more swiftly : by great efforts and with the rapidity of the winds she bounds over a plain beside a river, pleased with solitudes remote from man, and hides herself in the thickets of an umbrageous forest." If hollows or valleys were inclosed*, the nets were no doubt * Nee, velit insidiis altassi claudere valles, Dum placeas, humeri retia ferre negent. — Tibullus, i. 4. 49, 50. It was the duty of the attendants (J. Pollux, v. 4. 27-31) in most cases to carry the nets on their shoulders, agreeably to the representation in the Plate X. Pliny, L c. Cassibus impositos venor. — Propert. iv. 2. 32. alius raras Cervice gravi portare plagas. — Sen. Hippol. i. 1. 44. NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. 441 extended only in those openings, through which it was possible for the animals to escape. Also a river was of itself a sufficient boundary : Inclusum flumine cervum. — Virg. JEn. xii. 749. The proper Latin term for the hunting-net, but more espe- cially for the purse-net. which will be hereafter described, was Cassis. '-' Cassis, genus venatorii retis." Isidori Hispalensis Orig. xix. 5. " Arctos rodere casses" is appUed by Persius (v. 170) to a quadruped with incisor teeth caught in such a net and striving to escape. See also Propertius as just quoted, and the Agamemnon of Seneca and Virgil's Georgics as quoted below. Cassis seems to be derived from the root of capere and catch. But Plaga was also applied to hunting-nets, so that Horace describes the hunting- of the boar in the following terms : Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane Apros in obstantes plagas. — Epod. ii. 31, 32. Lucretius (lib. v. 1251, 1252) aptly compares the setting up of the plaga to the planting of a hedge around the forest : Nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum, Quara saepire plagis saltum, canibusque ciere. In the same manner plagai is used in the Hippolytus of Sen- eca, as above quoted, and in Pliny*. To dispose the nets in the manner which has been described, was called :; retia ponere' (Virg. Georg. i. 307) or " retia ten- dered (Ovid, Art. Amat. i. 45). In Homer a hunting-net is called y^ov iravayo™, literallv, ••' the flax that catches everythingt.'' But the proper Greek term for the hunting-net. corresponding to the Latin cassis, was aoxvs, which is accordingly employed in the passages of Oppian and Euripides cited above. Also the epigram of Antipater Sidoni- us, to which a reference has already been made, specifies the hunting-net by the same appellation : Aa^is fdv dripiov aOK-vv dpuovSpuv. The word is used in the same sense by Cratinust ; also by Ar- * H. X. xix. 1. s. 2. t H. v. 487. X Cratini Frasrmenta, a Runkel, p. 28. 56 442 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF rian, where he remarks that the Celts dispensed with the use of nets in hunting, because they trusted to the swiftness of their greyhounds*. In Euripidest it is used metaphorically : the chil- dren cry out, when their mother is pursuing them, '£ls lyyvs n&n y iopiv dpuvcov £i(f>ovs t i. e. " Now how near we are being caught with the sword." Also in the Agamemnon of JEschylus (1. 1085) : 'H 6'iKTvov ri y' A.'iSov' } &W apicvs V ^vvevvos, h ^vvairia > and in the Agamemnon of Senecall the same allusion is intro- duced : At ille, ut altis hispidus silvis aper ; Cum, casse vinctus, tentat egressus tamen, Arctatque motu vincla, et incassum furit, Cupit, fluentes undique et ceecos sinus Disjicere, et hostem quaerit implicitus suum. Part of the apparatus of a huntsman consisted in the stakes which he drove into the ground to support his nets, and which Antipater Sidonius thus describes : K/, TrepKTTtx' 1 ^, nXovrov e'l/xaTos kclkov. — Agamem. 1353, 1354. "M.ipivr]uo 6\ ajMpiftXricrrpov w$ iKaiviaav. — Choeph. 485. Lycophron (1. 1101) calls this garment by the same name, when he refers to the same event in the fabulous history of Greece. We have seen, that in other passages the shawl so used is with equal aptitude called a purse-net (ap K vs). One of the comedies of Menander was entitled 'AA^r?, " the Fisherman." The expression, 'A^ipMorpt.) xepiPaXXerai, is quoted from it by Julius Pollus (x. 132)f. Athenseus (lib. x. 72. p. 450 c. Casaub.) quotes from Antiph- anes the following line, which describes a man " throwing a casting-net on many fishes" : 'lively dj.upi/3\r]<7Tpov avrjp noXXoTs ETrt0aXXo)v. In an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus we find the casting- net called djKpipoXov instead of d^x^rpovt. The dfififfx^Tpov is mentioned together with two other kinds of nets by Artemidorus, and which will be quoted presently. * Menandri et Phil. Reliquce, a Meineke, p. 16. t Brunck, Anal. i. 223, No. xii. Jacobs, Anthol i. 2. p. 74. 452 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF The following curious passage of Meletius de Natura Homi- nis, in which that author, probably following Galen, describes the expansion of the optic nerves, mentions the casting-net as " an instrument used by fishermen" : Aidc^i^ovrai ol to. vevpa els tovs OaXafxovs, toowep i]v tis \a/3u)v Tranvpov, TavTqv elg Xgn-ra Stare/icjv Kal Siaa-^i^wv avan\tKriTai vaXiv, Kal ttoitj ^trwva ^yo^EvOv d^77tyos. What kind of net this was we have been unable to discover. It must, however, have been one of the most useful and important kinds, because Plutarch mentions ypifoi *£po^£i/oi)j. — De Genio Socraiis, p. 1050, ed Steph. Passages have been already produced from Plutarch, Artemi- dorus, and the Alexandrine version of Isaiah and Habakkuk, in which the sean is mentioned by its Greek name aayfivr,, in contradistinction to other kinds of nets. Also the passage above cited from Virgil's Georgics (" pelagoque alius trahit hu- mida lina"), indicates the use of the sean in deep water, and the practice of dragging it out of the water by means of ropes, which gave origin both to its English name, the Drag-net, and to its Latin appellations, tragula, used by Pliny (I. c.), * "M-tKpov K(ii tovs (peWoig kScrjae Karaavpai v' ol 3e t£ tt&vtes JS.xijjiad' a\ug tto9iovt£s Im xpa^iaQoiai Kt-yyvrai. The poet here compares Penelope's suitors, who lie slain upon the ground, to fishes, " which the fishermen by means of a net * Tragum genus retis, ab eo quod trahatur nuncupatum : ipsum est et verricu- lum. Verrere enim trahere est. — Orig. xix. 5. The Latin name verriculum occurs in a passage of Valerius Maximus, which is also remarkable for a reference to the Ionian fisheries, and for the use of the word jactus, literally, a throw, corresponding to that which the Cornish men de- nominate, a hawl offish. A piscatoribus in Milesia regione verriculum trahentibus quidam jactum emerat. — Memor. lib. iv. cap. 1. We introduce here an expression of Philo, in which we may remark that 06- Xoy ixBvwv corresponds exactly to jactus in Latin, and that the drawing of the net into a circle is clearly indicated : P6\ov i^fluwi' xavras iv kvk'Xco oayrivcicos. — Vita Mosis, torn. ii. p. 95. ed. Mangey. t Haynvn OvwsvTiKfi. — Epist. Saturn, torn. iii. p. 406. ed. Reitz. t 'O Ovvvos Ik yLti^ov rrjs aayr\vr]s Siifvycv. — Timon, § 22. tom. i. p. 136. § Ovr en TrXwiafyi tt) aaynvri. — JElian, H. A. xi. c. 12. In this chapter the same net is twice called by the common name, 6'iktvov. 460 MANUFACTURE AND USE OP full of holes have drawn out of the hoary sea to a hollow bay, and all of which, deprived of the waves of the sea, are poured upon the sands." Although the general term SUrmv is here used, it is evident that the net intended was the sean, or drag- net. In one of the passages of Alciphron already referred to, mention is made of the use of the sean in a similar situation. Some persons, who are fishing in a bay for tunnies and pela- mides, inclose nearly the whole bay with their sean, expecting to catch a very large quantity*. This circumstance proves, that the sean was used with the ancient Greeks, as it is with us, to encompass a great extent of water. We have seen that the sean supplied figures of speech no less than the purse-net (apw), and the casting-net (d^ipMarpov). It is applied thus in the case of persons who are ensnared by the * T? aayfji'ii jiovopov^i top koKtzov o\ov irtpiz\aPoii£v. — Epist. i. 17. A few miscellaneous passages, which refer to the use of the sean, may be con- veniently introduced here : Diogenes, seeing a great number of fishes in the deep, says there is need of a sean to catch them; vayrivris Serais. — Lucian, Piscata, § 51. torn. i. p. 618, ed. Reitz. The sean is called, from its material, cayrjvatov \ivov, in an epigram of Archias. — Brunck, Anal. ii. 94. No. 10. Plutarch, describing the spider's web, says, that its weaving is like the labor of women at the loom, its hunting like that of fishermen with the sean. — De So- lertia Animalium, torn. x. p. 29, ed. Reiske. He here uses the term cayr\vevTh<; for a fisher with the sean. This verbal noun is regularly formed from aayriveveiv, which means to inclose or catch with the sean : e. g. iv 6'lktvois aeaay^vcvucvoi. — Herodian, iv. 9, 12. Lucian uses the same verb in reference to the story of Vulcan inclosing Mars and Venus in a net ; aayovevei toXs hajioXi. — Dialogi Deor. torn. i. p. 243. Som- nium, torn. ii. p. 707, ed. Reitz. Leonidas of Tarentum, in an epigram enumerating the ornaments of a lady's toilet (Brunck, Anal. i. p. 221), mentions 6 ir\aris rpi^Qtv cayr^vevrfip. Jacobs (Annot. in Anthol. i. 2. p. 63) supposes this to mean the lady's comb ; but, judg- ing from the known meaning of aaynvrt and its derivatives, we may conclude that it was the xexpvipaXos, or net, which inclosed and encircled the hair, like a sean. The following verse of Manilius (lib. v. ver. 678.) is remarkable as a rare in- stance of the adoption of the Greek word sagena by a Latin poet : — Excipitur vasta circumvallata sagena. NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. 461 wicked* who are captivated by the charms of lovef or of elo- quence!, or who are held in bondage by superstitions But by far the most distinct, expressive and important of its meta- phorical applications, was to the mode of besieging a city by encircling it with one uninterrupted line of soldiers, or sweeping away the entire population of a certain district by marching in similar order across it. Of this the first example occurs in Herodotus hi. 145 : — Tr/i> o£ Lia/iov aay^vevaavrcg ol Tlipaai -apihoaav SoXvg-wjti, ipnpov lovaav dvSpdv. " The Persians, having dragged Sarnos, delivered it, being now destitute of men, to Solyson." As we speak of dragging a pit, so the Greeks would have spoken, in this metaphorical sense, of dragging an island. In the sixth book (ch. xxxi.) Herodotus particularly describes this method of capturing the enemy. According to this account the Persians landed on the northern side of the island. They then took hold of one another's hands so as to form a long line, and thus linked together they walked across the island to the south side, so as to hunt out all the inhabitants. The historian here particularly mentions, that Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos were reduced to captivity in this manner. It is recorded by Platoil, that Datis, in order to alarm the Athenians, against whom he was advancing at the head of the Persian army, spread a report that his soldiers, joining hand to hand, had * 1±ayT)vEvonai irpos avrcjv. — Lucian, Timon, § 25. torn. i. p. 138, ed. Reitz. t Brunck, Anal. iii. 157. No. 32. Here the sean is called by the general term SUrvov, but the particular kind of net is indicated by the participle aayrjvevOets. Twvcl [ladriTTiVi Ot Kocfiov y\vxeori<7i Qeoij hr\cavro cayfivais, i. e. " A disciple of those who bound the world in the sweet seans of God." — Greg. Nazianz. ad Nemesium, torn. ii. p. 141, ed. Paris, 1630. (See Chap. Ill, p. 53.) § Plutarch, evidently referring to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, says, " The Jews on the Sabbath sitting down on coarse blankets (iv dyvamirron, literally, in iuana, or blankets, which had not been fulled, or cleansed by the yva 0a\\ovai tov aprov oi dproK6~oi. — Hesych. Reticulum panis. — Hor. Sat. i. 1. 47. 464 MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS. infer that it was sometimes not larger than a purse for the pocket. Hence Aristotle* properly applies the term yvpya6o S to the small spherical or oval bag in which spiders deposit their eggs. Among the luxurious habits of the Sicilian praetor Verres, it is recorded, that he had a small and very fine linen net, filled with rose-leaves, "which ever and anon he gave his noset." This net was, no doubt, called yvpyaOos in Greek. * Anim. Hist. v. 27. Compare Apollodorus, Frag. xi. p. 454, ed. Heyne. t Reticulum ad nares sibi admovebat, tenuissimo lino, minutis maculis, plenum sae. — Cic. in Verr. ii. 5. 11 THE END. SOT ,-22.111 GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE I III III II II 1 1 II III I II II I 3 3125 01392 1230 V-- SC ocj^r « <1C ' : cc S ^c <3s: c_ cc <3 CC cc c cc ^1___58C_ CL«C c *3 c" flES C CCc _ -c cc ^c : cc