SPARTUM 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--Pliny’s account of Spartum--Bulbous plant--Its fibrous
coats--Pliny’s translation 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 Idumæa and Northern Arabia--In Palestine and Egypt--In
Ethiopia 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, Eubœa, and Bœotia--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 Arcadia--Sheep-breeding in Macedonia and Epirus--Shepherds’
dogs--Annual migration of Albanian shepherds 217
CHAPTER II.
SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE
SCRIPTURES, ETC.
Sheep-breeding in Sicily--Bucolic poetry--Sheep-breeding in
South Italy--Annual migration of the flocks--The ram employed to
aid the shepherd in conducting 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--Origin of sheep-breeding in Italy--Faunus the same
with Pan--Ancient sculptures exhibiting Faunus--Bales of wool and
the shepherd’s dress--Costume, appearance, and manner of life of the
ancient Italian shepherds 256
CHAPTER III.
SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS 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 Bætica--Native
colors of Bætic wool--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 Grecian 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
Beavers through Europe--Fossil bones of Beavers 309
CHAPTER VI.
CAMELS-WOOL AND CAMELS-HAIR.
Camels’-wool and Camels’-hair--Ctesias’s account--Testimony of modern
travellers--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
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 climates--Cotton characteristic of India--Account of
Cotton by Herodotus, Ctesias, Theophrastus, Aristobulus, Nearchus,
Pomponius Mela--Use of Cotton in India--Cotton known before silk
and called Carpasus, Carpasum, Carbasum, &c.--Cotton awnings
used by the Romans--Carbasus applied to linen--Last request of
Tibullus--Muslin fillet of the vestal virgin--Linen sails, &c., 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 Theophylus Presbyter--Use of Cotton
by the Arabians--Cotton not common anciently in Europe--Marco Polo
and Sir John Mandeville’s 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 Abbé Clavigero--Fishing nets made from Cotton by the
inhabitants of the West India Islands, and on the Continent of
South America--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 textures of Bengal--Cæsar Frederick, Tavernier,
and Forbes’s testimony--Extraordinary fineness and transparency of
Decca muslins--Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins; compared
with English muslins--Sir Joseph Banks’s experiments--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
accounted for--Orme’s testimony of the universal diffusion of the
Cotton manufacture 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 manufacturers of Cotton throughout
the world.) Spinning wheel--Spinning without a wheel--Loom--Mode of
weaving--Forbes’s description--Habits and remuneration of Spinners,
Weavers, &c.--Factories of the East India Company--Marvellous 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 (Author of _Robinson Crusoe_.)--Indian fabrics prohibited
in England, and most other countries of Europe--Petition from Calcutta
merchants--Present condition 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--Envelopes of Linen found on Egyptian mummies--Examination of
mummy-cloth--Proved to be Linen--Flax still grown in Egypt--Explanation
of terms--Byssus--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, Cisalpine 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
Colchis--Caria--Etymology of Hemp 387
CHAPTER III.
ASBESTOS.
Uses of Asbestos--Carpasian flax--Still found in Cyprus--Used in
funerals--Asbestine-cloth--How manufactured--Asbestos used for fraud
and superstition by the Romish monks--Relic at Monte Casino 390
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
ON PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY.
Sheep and wool Price of wool in Pliny’s time--Varieties of wool
and where produced--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--Figured 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--Schönemann
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
manufacturer’s--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--Petasus--Statue of Endymion--Petasus in works of ancient
art--Hats of Thessaly 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 throwing
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 prætor 436
LIST OF PLATES.
I. Frontispiece--Chinese Looms. _to face page_
II. Egyptian Looms, with the Processes of Spinning and Winding, 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
according to the Raw Materials principally produced in them
for Weaving 400
VIII. Caps worn by Cynic Philosopher, Vulcan, Dædalus, Ulysses,
and a Desultor. Caps worn by Modern Greek Boy and Fisherman.
Mysian Cap or Phrygian Bonnet. Coins in the British Museum 415
IX. Statue of Endymion. Hats worn by Shepherds and Athenian
Ephebi. 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 Sage, M. Lavoisnè, Rev. J.
Robinson, Dr. A. Clarke, Rev. W. Hales, D.D., Mairan, Bailly, Guignes,
and Sir William Jones--Noah supposed to be the first emperor 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--Forster’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 משי, which occurs no where except here, but which, as appears from
the context, certainly meant some valuable article of female dress.
Le Clerc and Rosenmüller 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 different
interpretations. The only ground, on which silk of any kind is supposed
to be meant, is that in the Alexandrine or Septuagint version משי is
translated τρίχαπτον, and τρίχαπτον is explained by Hesychius to mean
“the _silken_ web fitted to be placed over the hair of the head” (τὸ
βομβύκινον ὕφασμα ὑπὲρ τῶν τριχῶν τῆς κεφαλῆς ἁπτόμενον), and that
other ancient Greek lexicographers also suppose a silken garment to be
meant.[1] But the meaning of τρίχαπτον is in reality as obscure as that
of משי. 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 Athenæus. Schneider,
followed by Passow, supposes it to mean some garment made of hair, and
quotes to this effect the explanation of Pollux (2. 24.), πλέγμα ἐκ
τριχῶν. 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 accurate in
their use of the epithet βομβύκινον, and secondly, that the Alexandrine
version is accurate in adopting the word τρίχαπτον.
[1] See Schleusner, Lexicon in LXX., v. Τρίχαπτον.
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
original עבדי פשתים שריקות. Rosenmüller adopts nearly the same
interpretation, which is founded upon the use of the verb שרק or סרק 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, τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὸ
λίνον τὸ σχιστὸν; by Symmachus, who instead of σχιστὸν uses κτενιστὸν;
and by Jerome, “qui operabantur linum _pectentes_.”
In the Targum of Jonathan and in the Syriac Version the same root is
taken to denote silk; רסריקין פלחי כתנא Targ. ܥܒܕܝ ܟܬܢܐ ܕܣܪܩܝܢ Syr. Both of
these seem to admit of the following literal translation, “_those who
make silken tunics_,” or in Latin, “_Factores tunicarum e sericis_.”
Kimchi supposes שריקות to mean silk webs, observing that silk is called
אל שרק by the Arabs. The same opinion has been adopted by Nicholas
Fuller[2], Buxtorf, and other modern critics. Kennicott, however,
arranges the words in two lines as follows,
ובשו עבדי פשתים
שריקות וארגים הורי
According to this arrangement, which seems most suitable to the rules
of grammatical construction, we have three co-ordinate phrases in the
plural number, denoting three different classes of artificers. The
second, שריקות, would by its termination denote _female_ artificers,
viz. women employed in _combing_ wool, flax, or other substances. On
the whole we are inclined to adopt this explanation of the word, as it
appears to be attended with the least difficulty, either grammatical or
etymological.
[2] Miscellanea Sacra, l. ii. c. 11.
Silk is mentioned Prov. xxxi. 22. in King James’s Translation, i. e.
the common English version, and in the margin of Gen. xli. 42. But the
use of the word is quite unauthorized.
After a full examination of the whole question Braunius[3] decides that
there is no mention of silk in the whole of the Old Testament, and that
it was unknown to the Hebrews in ancient times.
“There can be no doubt,” says Professor Hurwitz, “that manufactures and
the arts must have attained a high degree of perfection at the time
when Moses wrote; and that many of them were known long before that
period, we have the evidence of Scripture. It is true that inventions
were at first few, and their progress very slow, but they were suited
to the then condition and circumstances of man, as is evident even
in the art of clothing. Placed in the salubrious and mild air of
paradise, our first parents could hardly want any other covering than
what decency required. Accordingly we find that the first and only
article of dress was the חגורה _chagora_, the belt, (not aprons, as
in the established version). The materials of which it was made were
fig leaves; (Gen. iii. 7.) the same tree that afforded them food and
shelter, furnished them likewise with materials for covering their
bodies. But when in consequence of their transgressions they were to
be ejected from their blissful abode, and forced to dwell in less
favourable regions, a more substantial covering became necessary, their
merciful Creator made them (i. e. inspired them with the thoughts of
making for themselves) כתנות עור coats of skins. (Gen. iii. 21.) The
original word is כתנת _c’thoneth_, whence the Greek χιτὼν the tunic,
a close garment that was usually worn next the skin, it reached to
the knees, and had sleeves (in after times it was made either of wool
or linen.) After man had subdued the sheep (Hebrew כבשׂ _caves_ from
כגש to subdue[4]) and learned how to make use of its wool, we find
a new article of dress, namely the שמלה _simla_, an upper garment:
it consisted of a piece of cloth about six yards long and two or
three wide, in shape not unlike our blankets. This will explain Gen.
ix. 23, ‘And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both
their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their
father.’ It served as a dress by day, as a bed by night, (Exod. xxii.
26,) ‘If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou
shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down; for that is his
covering only; it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?’
And sometimes burdens were carried in it, (Exod. xii. 34,) ‘And the
people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs
being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.’
“In the course of time various other garments came into use, as
mentioned in several other parts of Scripture. The materials of which
these garments were usually made are specified in Leviticus xiii.
47-59, ‘The garment also that the plague of the leprosy is in, whether
it be a woollen garment or a linen garment, whether it be in the _warp_
or _woof_, of linen or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in anything
made of skin, &c.’”
[3] De vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum, l. 1. cap. viii. § 8.
[4] There is not the least shadow of truth in support of such a
deduction; and particularly so since the general tenor of the
Scriptures leads to a very different conclusion. We are, therefore,
not authorized to give our support to any such hypothesis. The
history of the Sheep and Goat is so interwoven with the history of
man, that those naturalists have not reasoned correctly, who have
thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them to
any wild stock at all. Such view is, we imagine, more in keeping
with the inferences to be drawn from Scripture History with regard
to the early domestication of the sheep. Abel, we are told, was
a keeper of sheep, and it was one of the firstlings of his flock
that he offered to the Lord, and which, proving a more acceptable
sacrifice, excited the implacable and fatal jealousy of his brother
Cain. (See Part ii. pp. 217 and 293.)
In our search for the distant origin of any art or science, or in
looking through the long vista of ages remote even to nations extinct
before our own, we are favored with satisfactory evidence so long as we
are accompanied with authentic records: beyond, all is dark, obscure,
tradition, fable. On such ground it would be credulous or rash in the
extreme to repeat as our own, an affirmation, when that rests on the
single testimony of one party or interest, especially when that is of
a very questionable character. It is even safer, when history or well
authenticated records fail us, to appeal to philosophy, or to the well
known laws of mind, from which all arts and science spring. The former
favors us with the commanding evidence of certainty and decision;
and though the latter may only afford the testimony of analogy, yet,
is its probability more safe, at least, than what rests on misguided
calculations or on the legendary tales of artifice and fiction.
We have, however, authentic testimony that the _inventive_ faculty
existed at a very early period. The peculiar condition of man at that
time must have afforded many imperative occasions for its exertion.
Hence we read that “Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents”
(_i. e._ _inventor_ of tent-making); that “Jubal, his brother, was the
father” (inventor) of musical instruments: such as the _kinnor_, harp,
or stringed instruments, and the _ugab_, organ, or wind instruments;
that “Tubal-cain was the instructor of every artificer in brass
and iron, the first smith on record, or one to teach how to make
instruments and utensils out of brass and iron; and that the sister of
Tubal-cain was Naamah, whom the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel affirms
to have been the _inventrix_ of plaintive or elegiac poetry[5]. Here
is then an account of the _inventive_ faculty being in exercise 3504
years before the Christian era; or 1156 years prior to the deluge; or
804 years before the earliest period assigned to the Chinese for the
discovery of silk. And of whatever arts or sciences existing amongst
men prior to the deluge, there is no difficulty in conceiving the
possibility of the transmission of the leading and most essential
parts, at least, to the post-diluvians, by the family of Noah.
[5] As a proof that the inventive faculty, as to every thing truly
useful to man, originally proceeded from _the only “Giver of every
good and perfect gift,”_ consult Isa. xxviii. 24-29: and also a
beautiful comment by Dr. A. Clarke on, “And thou shalt speak unto
all that are wise hearted, _whom I have filled_ with the spirit of
wisdom.” Exod. xxviii. 3: and also on, “I have filled him with the
spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge,
and in all manner of workmanship; to devise cunning works, to work
in gold, and in silver, and in brass; and in cutting of stones,
to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of
curious workmanship.” Exod. xxxi. 3, 4, and 5.
But instead of giving our unqualified assent to what has been
servilely copied from book to book from the most accessible account, we
shall advert to the great discrepancy relative to Chinese chronology,
amongst those who have had equal access to their records. Thus the time
of Fohi, the first emperor, has been said to be 2951 B. C., by some
2198 B. C., and by others 2057, or about 300 years after the deluge:
of Hoang-ti, 2700 B. C., by Mailla it is quoted at 2602 B. C., by Le
Sage at 2597 B. C., and by Robinson and others at 1703 B. C. Similar
disagreements might, would our limits allow, be observed concerning the
rest, and particularly of the emperors, Hiao-wenti, Chim-ti, Ming-ti,
Youen-ti, Wenti, Wou-ti, and Hiao-wou-ti. Even in more modern times,
and relative to a character so notorious as Confucius, no less than
three dates are equally affirmed to be true. As to Hoang-ti, who is
said to have begun _the culture of silk_, we are inclined to prefer the
latter account, 1703 B. C., which makes him contemporary with Joseph,
when prime minister over the land of Egypt.
As a confirmation of this, it may be stated, that by referring to the
account given of nine[6] of the patriarchs at this period, we shall
find that the average age of human life, _before much greater_, soon
after rapidly declined. Now the average duration of the reigns of the
first three[7] Chinese emperors, including Hoang-ti, was 118 years;
of the five that immediately succeeded, only 68 years. After this,
until the Christian era, the average duration of a single reign did
not exceed 23 years, and thence until the present time not 13 years.
Since, therefore, the average duration of the reign of the first three
emperors bears an evident and fit proportion to that of the age of man
at the period specified, though not at any other before or after, being
in the former case as much too small as it would in the latter be too
great, the opinion now offered is the only one that can be consistent
with these striking facts; and, if duly considered, presents an
argument strongly corroborating this view of the subject.
[6] Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph:
Gen. xi. 16-26; xlvii. 28; and l. 26.
[7] Fohi, Eohi Chinun, and Hoang-ti.
To attempt to establish any greater certainty, in a case of this
nature, the Chinese during the dynasty of Tschin, having, to conceal
the truth, destroyed everything authentic, would be in vain. It would
be even more rational to have recourse to the Vedas, or sacred books of
the Brahmins, or to records in the Sanscrit, were it not a well known
fact, that nearly all ancient nations, _except the Jews_, actuated by
the same ambition, have betrayed a wish to have their origin traced
as far back as the creation. And in the gratification of this passion
none are so notoriously pre-eminent as the Egyptians, Hindoos, and
Chinese.[8] For them the limits of the creation itself have been too
narrow, and days, weeks, and even months too short, unless multiplied
into years.[9]
[8] See Dr. A. Clarke’s remarks: end of Gen.
[9] See pp. 68, 74, 119 and 294.
The chronology relative to the early culture of silk, as found in
Chinese documents, for several irrefragable objections already
assigned, is exceedingly questionable, and therefore we are by no means
pledged to affirm that either in the authenticity of the books, or in
the correctness of the dates have we any faith. M. Lavoisnè dates the
commencement of the Chinese dynasties at A. M.[10] 1816, _or 159 years
after the deluge_. The Rev. J. Robinson of Christ Col., Cam., at A. M.
1947. We have already given as strong reasons, as under the extreme
incertitude of the case, can, perhaps, be offered, for preferring the
latter; the important points may be briefly stated, thus:
End of the deluge [11]1657 A. M.
Fohi, first emperor, began to reign 1947 A. M.
Noah died 2007 A. M.
Eohi Chinun, second emperor, began to reign 2061 A. M.
Hoang-ti, the third emperor, began to reign 2201 A. M.
Hoang-ti after establishing the silk culture, died 2301 A. M.
Hoang-ti was therefore contemporary with Joseph when administering
the affairs of Egypt.[12] But would we know what account the Chinese
themselves give relative to the earliest introduction of the silk
culture, we shall find it in the French version of the Chinese
Treatises, by M. Stanislas Julien, or in the following words of pages
77 and 78, as translated and published in 1838, at Washington, under
the title of “Summary of the principal Chinese Treatises upon the
Culture of the Mulberry, and the rearing of Silk-worms.”
[10] A. M. signifies _Anno Mundi_, that is in the year of the World.
The Year of Our Lord always commences on the first day of January,
the day on which Christ was circumcised, being eight days old. From
the Creation until the birth of Christ, was 4004 years.
Tirin places the birth of Christ in the 36th year of Herod, the 40th of
Augustus, the 28th from the battle of Actium, the 749th of Rome, and
the 4th of the 193d Olympiad.
[11] It will here not be improper to observe that the Samaritan
text and Septuagint version of the Hebrew, carry the deluge as far
back as to the year 3716 before Christ; or 1000 years before the
Chinese account of Hoang-ti. On this subject see the New Analysis
of Chronology, by the Rev. W. Hales, D.D. 4to., 3 vol.
[12] Joseph died in the 2369th year from the Creation.
In the book on silk-worms, we read: “The lawful wife of the emperor
Hoang-ti, named _Si-ling-chi_, began the culture of silk. It was
at that time that the emperor Hoang-ti invented the art of making
garments(!).” The same fact is mentioned more in detail in the general
history of China, by P. Maillà, in the year 2602, before our era (4447
years ago).
“This great prince (Hoang-ti) was desirous that Si-ling-chi, his
legitimate wife, should contribute to the happiness of his people. He
charged her to examine the silk-worms, and to test the practicability
of using the thread. Si-ling-chi had a large quantity of these insects
collected, which she fed herself, in a place prepared for that purpose,
and discovered not only the means of raising them, but also the manner
of reeling the silk, and of employing it to make garments.”
“It is through gratitude for so great a benefit,” says the history,
entitled _Wai-ki_, “that posterity has deified Si-ling-chi, and
rendered her particular honors under the name of the goddess of
silk-worms.” (Memoirs on the Chinese, vol. 13, p. 240.)
We have seen that the most probable account relative to the time of
Fohi, said to have been the first Chinese emperor, is that he reigned
2057 years before the Christian era, or in the year of the world 1947.
“According to the most current opinion,” says M. Lavoisnè, “China was
founded by one of the colonies formed at the dispersion of Noah’s
posterity under the conduct of Yao, who took for his colleague Chun,
afterwards his successor. But most writers consider Fohi to have been
Noah himself(!).”
Now the deluge terminated A. M. 1657, and Noah lived after the deluge
350 years[13], and therefore died A. M. 2007; and as Fohi is said to
have reigned 114 years, before Eohi Chun or Chinun succeeded him, he
was contemporary, at least, with Noah. The ark rested on Mount Ararat,
which is generally allowed to be one of the mountains of Armenia, to
the east of the head of the Tigris. And here the same author remarks,
that “in rather less than a century and a half, after the birth of
Peleg, it is supposed that Noah, being then about his 840th year,
_wearied with the growing depravity of his descendants, retired with
a select company to a remote corner of Asia, and there began what in
after ages has been termed the Chinese monarchy_.”[14] This view of the
subject, we believe, coincides perfectly with the reputable testimonies
presented by Mairan, Bailly, Guignes, and Sir William Jones, and
demonstrates that the transit of more central aborigines, since the
deluge, to the extremes of China, was perfectly feasible,[15] and a
matter of even high probability.
[13] Gen. ix. 28.
[14] Clarke’s “Treatise on the Mulberry-tree, and Silk-worm,” pp. 14,
18, 20, 21, 27, and 34.
[15] See chap. iv. p. 67. Also Plate VII. (Map.)
The first ancient author, who affords any evidence respecting the
use of silk, is Aristotle. He does not, however, appear to have been
accurately acquainted with the changes of the silk-worm; nor does he
say, that the animal was bred or the raw material produced in Cos. He
only says, “Pamphile, daughter of Plates, is reported to have first
woven it in Cos.” (See Chapters ii. iii. and iv. of this Part.)
Long before the time of Aristotle a regular trade had been established
in the interior of Asia, which brought its most valuable productions,
and especially those which were most easily transported, to the shores
opposite this flourishing island. Nothing therefore is more likely
than that the raw silk from the interior of Asia was brought to Cos
and there manufactured. We shall see hereafter from the testimony of
Procopius, that it was in like manner brought some centuries later to
be woven in the Phœnician cities, Tyre and Berytus.
The arts of spinning and weaving, which rank next in importance to
agriculture, having been found among almost all the nations of the old
and new continents, even among those little removed from barbarism, are
reasonably supposed to have been invented at a very remote period of
the world’s history[16]. They evidently existed in Egypt in the time of
Joseph (1700 years before the Christian era), as it is recorded that
Pharaoh “arrayed him in vestures of fine linen.” (Genesis xli. 42.) Two
centuries later, the Hebrews carried with them on their departure from
that ancient seat of civilization, the arts of _spinning_, _dyeing_,
_weaving_, and _embroidery_; for when Moses constructed the tabernacle
in the wilderness, “the women that were wise-hearted did spin with
their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and
of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.” (Exod. xxxv. 25.) They
also “spun goats’ hair;” and Bezaleel and Aholiab “worked all manner
of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of _the
embroiderer, in blue, and of purple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen,
and of the weaver_.” These passages contain the earliest mention of
woven clothing, which was linen, the national manufacture of Egypt. The
prolific borders of the Nile furnished from the remotest periods, as
at the present time, abundance of the finest flax[17]; and it appears,
from the testimony both of sacred and profane history, that linen
continued to be almost the only kind of clothing used in Egypt till
after the Christian era[18]. The Egyptians exported their “linen yarn,”
and “fine linen,” to the kingdom of Israel, in the days of Solomon, (2
Chron. i. 16; Prov. vii. 16;) their “fine linen with broidered work,”
to Tyre, (Ezek. xxvii. 7.)
[16] According to Pliny, Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, was believed
to have been the inventress of the art of weaving. Minerva is
in some of the ancient statutes represented with a distaff, to
intimate that she taught men the art of spinning; and this honor
is given by the Egyptians to Isis, by the Mohammedans to a son of
Japhet, by the Chinese to the consort of their emperor Yao, and
by the Peruvians to Mamaoella, wife to Manco-Capac, their first
sovereign. These traditions serve only to carry the invaluable arts
of spinning and weaving up to an extremely remote period, long
prior to that of authentic history.
[17] Paintings representing the gathering and preparation of flax
have been found on the walls of the ancient sepulchres at Eleithias
and Beni Hassan, in Upper Egypt, and are described and copied by
Hamilton.--“Remarks on several parts of Turkey, and on ancient and
modern Egypt,” pp. 97 and 287, plate 23.
[18] Herodotus, book ii. c. 37, 81. (See Plate VI.)
The women of Sidon before the Trojan war, were especially celebrated
for the skill in embroidery: and Homer, who lived 900 years B. C.,
mentions Helen _as being engaged in embroidering the combats of the
Greeks and Trojans_.
The transition from vegetable fibre to the use of animal staples,
such as wool and hair, could not have been very difficult; indeed, as
already stated, it took place at a period of which we possess no very
authentic written record.
The instrument used for spinning in all countries, from the earliest
times, was the distaff and spindle. This simple apparatus was put by
the Greek mythologists into the hands of Minerva and the Parcæ; Solomon
employs upon it the industry of the virtuous woman; to the present day
the distaff is used in India, Egypt, and other eastern countries.
The ancient spindle or distaff was a very simple instrument. The late
Lady Calcott informs us, that it continued even to our own days to be
used by the Hindoos in all its primitive simplicity. “I have seen,” she
says, “the rock or distaff formed simply of the leading shoot of some
young tree, carefully peeled, it might be birch or elder, and, further
north, of fir or pine; and the spindle formed of the beautiful shrub
Euonymus, or spindle-tree.”[19]
[19] The superior fineness of some Indian muslins, and their quality of
retaining, longer than European fabrics, an appearance of
excellence, has occasioned a belief that the cotton wool of which
they are woven is superior to any known elsewhere; this, however,
is so far from being the fact, that no cotton is to be found in
India which at all equals in quality the better kinds produced in
the United States of America. The excellence of India muslins must
be wholly ascribed to the skilfulness and patience of the workmen,
as shown in the different processes of spinning and weaving. (See
Plate v.) Their yarn is spun upon the distaff, and it is owing to
the dexterous use of the finger and thumb in forming the thread,
and to the moisture which it thus imbibes, that its fibres are more
perfectly incorporated than they can be through the employment of
any mechanical substitutes.
Spinning among the Egyptians, as among our ancestors of no very
distant age, was a domestic occupation in which ladies of rank did not
hesitate to engage. The term “spinster” is yet applied to unmarried
ladies of every rank, and there are persons yet alive who remember to
have seen the spinning wheel an ordinary piece of furniture in domestic
economy.
We are told that “Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen
yarn; the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.” (1
Kings, x. 28.) And the linen of Egypt was highly valued in Palestine,
for the seducer, in Proverbs, says, “I have decked my bed with
coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.”
(Prov. vii. 16.) The prophet Ezekiel also declares that the export of
the textile fabrics was an important branch of Phœnician commerce; for
in his enumeration of the articles of traffic in Tyre, he says: “Fine
linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest
forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elisha was that
which covered thee.” (Ezek. xxvii. 7.)
It deserves to be remarked that the prophet here joins Egypt with the
isles of Elisha or Elis, that is, the districts of western Greece,
and thus confirms the ancient tradition recorded by Herodotus of some
Egyptian colonists having settled in that country, which the sceptics
of the German school of history have thought proper to deny.[20]
Spinning was wholly a female employment; it is rather singular that
we find this work frequently performed by a large number collected
together, as if the factory system had been established 3000 years ago.
[20] The sceptical school of history, founded by Niebuhr, in Germany,
and extended by his disciples to a sweeping incredulity, far
beyond what was contemplated by the founder, has labored hard to
prove, that the Greek system of civilization was indigenous, and
that the candid confession of Herodotus, attributing to Egyptian
colonies the first introduction of the arts of life into Hellas,
was an idle tale, or a groundless tradition. But the examination of
the monuments has proved that Greek art originated in Egypt; and
that the elements of the architectural, sculptural, and pictorial
wonders which have rendered Greece and Italy illustrious, were
derived from the valley of the Nile.
We have, however, many specimens of spinning as a domestic employment.
Indeed, attention to the spindle and distaff forms a leading feature in
king Lemuel’s description of a virtuous woman. “Who can find a virtuous
woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth
safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will
do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and
flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchant’s
ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet
night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands
she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and
strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good:
her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle,
and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the
_poor_; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the _needy_. She is not
afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed
with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing
is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth
among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it;
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.” (Prov. xxxi. 10-24.)
Hamilton and Wilkinson have already shown that many of the descriptions
of combats we meet in the Iliad appear to have been derived from
the battle pieces on the walls of the Theban palaces, which the
poet himself pretty plainly intimates that he had visited. The same
observation may be applied to most of Homer’s pictures of domestic
life. We find the lady of the mansion superintending the labors of
her servants, and using the distaff herself. Her spindle made of some
precious material, richly ornamented, her beautiful work-basket, or
rather vase, and the wool dyed of some bright hue to render it worthy
of being touched by aristocratic fingers, remind us of the appropriate
present which the Egyptian queen, Alcandra, made to the Spartan Helen;
for the beauty of that frail fair one scarcely is less celebrated than
her skill in embroidery and every species of ornamental work. After
Polybus had given his presents to Menelaus, who stopped at Egypt on his
return from Troy,
Alcandra, consort of his high command,
A golden distaff gave to Helen’s hand;
And that rich vase, with living sculpture wrought,
Which, heap’d with wool, the beauteous Phylo brought;
The silken fleece empurpled for the loom,
Rivall’d the hyacinth in vernal bloom.
_Odyssey_, iv.
In the hieroglyphics over persons employed with the spindle on the
Egyptian monuments, it is remarkable that the word _saht_, which
in Coptic signifies to twist, constantly occurs. The spindles were
generally of wood, and in order to increase their impetus in turning,
the circular head was occasionally of gypsum, or composition: some,
however, were of a light plaited work, made of rushes, or palm leaves,
stained of various colors, and furnished with a loop of the same
materials, for securing the twine after it was wound[21]. Sir Gardner
Wilkinson found one of these spindles at Thebes, with some of the linen
thread upon it, and is now in the Berlin Museum.
[21] The ordinary distaff does not occur in these subjects, but we may
conclude they had it. Homer mentions one of gold, given to Helen by
“Alcandra the wife of Polybus,” who lived in Egyptian Thebes.--Od.
iv. 131.
Theocritus has given us a very striking proof of the pleasure which the
women of Miletus took in these employments; for, when he went to visit
his friend Nicias, the Milesian physician, to whom he had previously
addressed his eleventh and thirteenth Idylls, he carried with him
an ivory distaff as a present for Theugenis, his friend’s wife. He
accompanied his gift with the following verses, which modestly commend
the matron’s industry and virtue, and, at the same time, throw an
interesting light on the domestic economy of the ladies of Miletus:
O Distaff, friend to warp and woof,
Minerva’s gift in man’s behoof,
Whom careful housewives still retain,
And gather to their households gain;
With me repair, no vulgar prize,
Where the famed towers of Nileus rise[22],
Where Cytherea’s swayful power
Is worship’d in the reedy bower.
Thither, would Jove kind breezes send,
I steer my course to meet my friend,
Nicias, the Graces’ honor’d child,
Adorn’d with sweet persuasion mild,
That I his kindness may requite--
May be delighted, and delight.
Thee, ivory distaff, I provide,
A present for his blooming bride;
With her thou wilt sweet toil partake
And aid her _various vests_ to make.
For Theugenis the shepherds shear
The sheep’s soft fleeces twice a year,
So dearly industry she loves
And all that wisdom points, approves,
I ne’er design’d to bear thee hence
To the dull house of Indolence;
For, in that city thou wert framed
Which Archias built, Corinthian named,--
Fair Syracuse, Sicilia’s pride,
Where troops of famous men abide.
Dwell thou with him whose art can cure
Each dire disease that men endure;
Thee to Miletus now I give,
Where pleasure-crown’d Ionians live;
That Theugenis by thee may gain
Fair honor with the female train;
And thou renew within her breast
Remembrance of her muse-charm’d guest.
Admiring thee, each maid will call
The favor great, the present small;
For love the smallest gift commends,
All things are valued by our friends.
_Idyll_, xxviii.
[22] Miletus was called “the towers of Nileus,” from its having been
founded by Nileus, the son of the celebrated king Codrus, who
devoted himself for the safety of Athens. Nileus was so indignant
at the abolition of royalty on his father’s death, that he migrated
to Ionia.
The Roman and Grecian ladies displayed not less taste in the decoration
of their various spinning implements, than those of modern times in
the ornaments of their work-table. The _calathus_ or _qualus_ was
the basket in which the wool was kept for the fair spinsters. It was
usually made of wicker-work. Thus Catullus in his description of the
nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, says:
The softest fleeces, white as driven snow,
Beside their feet in osier baskets glow.
_Poema_, lxiv.
Homer asserts that the Egyptian queen Alcandra presented Helen with a
silver work-basket as well as a golden distaff (Odyss. iv.); and from
the paintings on ancient vases, we see that the _calathi_ of ladies
of rank were tastefully wrought and richly ornamented. From the term
_qualus_ or _quasillus_, equivalent to _calathus_, the Romans called
the female slaves employed in spinning _quasillariæ_.
The material prepared for spinning was wrapped loosely round the
distaff, the wool being previously combed, or the flax hackled by
processes not very dissimilar to those used at the present day amongst
the peasantry in the west of Ireland. The ball thus formed on the
distaff required to be arranged with some neatness and skill, in order
that the fibres should be sufficiently loose to be drawn out by the
hand of the spinner. Ovid declares, that Arachne’s skill in this simple
process excited the wonder of the nymphs who came to see her triumphs
in the textile art, not less than the finished labors of the loom.
Oft, to admire the niceness of her skill,
The nymphs would quit their fountain, shade, or hill:
Thither from green Tymolus they repair,
And leave the vineyards, their peculiar care;
Thither from fair Pactolus’ golden stream,
Drawn by her art, the curious Naids came.
Nor would the work, when finish’d, please so much
As while she wrought to view each graceful touch;
Whether the shapeless wool in balls she wound,
Or with quick motion turn’d the spindle round.
_Met_, vi.
The distaff was generally about three feet in length, commonly a stick
or reed, with an expansion near the top for holding the ball. It was
sometimes, as we have shown, composed of richer materials. The distaff
was usually held under the left arm, and the fibres were drawn out
from the projecting ball, being, at the same time, spirally twisted
by the forefinger and thumb of the right hand. The thread so produced
was wound upon the spindle until the quantity was as great as it would
carry.
The spindle was made of some light wood, or reed, and was generally
from eight to twelve inches in length. At the top of it was a slit, or
catch, to which the thread was fixed, so that the weight of the spindle
might carry the thread down to the ground as fast as it was finished.
Its lower extremity was inserted into a whorl, or wheel, made of stone,
metal, or some heavy material which both served to keep it steady and
to promote its rotation. The spinner, who, as we have said before, was
usually a female, every now and then gave the spindle a fresh gyration
by a gentle touch so as to increase the twist of the thread. Whenever
the spindle reached the ground a length was spun; the thread was then
taken out of the slit, or clasp, and wound upon the spindle; the clasp
was then closed again, and the spinning of a new thread commenced. All
these circumstances are briefly mentioned by Catullus, in a poem from
which we have already quoted:--
The loaded distaff, in the left hand placed,
With spongy coils of snow-white wool was graced;
From these the right hand lengthening fibres drew
Which into thread ’neath nimble fingers grew.
At intervals a gentle touch was given
By which the twirling whorl was onward driven.
Then, when the sinking spindle reach’d the ground,
The recent thread around its spire was wound,
Until the clasp within its nipping cleft
Held fast the newly-finish’d length of weft.
In order to understand this description of Catullus, it is necessary
to bear in mind, that as the bobbin of each spindle was loaded with
thread, it was taken off from the whorl and placed in a basket until
there was a sufficient quantity for the weavers to commence their
operations.
Homer incidentally mentions the spool or spindle on which the weft-yarn
was wound, in his description of the race at the funeral-games in honor
of Patroclus:
Oileus led the race;
The next Ulysses, measuring pace with pace
Behind him, diligently close he sped,
As closely following as the running thread
The spindle follows, and displays the charms
Of the fair spinner’s breast, and moving arms.
_Iliad_, xxiii.
In India women of all castes prepare the cotton thread for the weaver,
spinning it on a piece of wire, or a very thin rod of polished iron
with a ball of clay at one end; this they turn round with the left
hand, and supply the cotton with the right; the thread is then wound
upon a stick or pole, and sold to the merchants or weavers; for the
coarser thread the women make use of a wheel very similar to that of
the Irish spinster, though upon a smaller construction. (For further
information on the manufactures of India, their present state, &c., see
Part III.)
The Reverend Mr. C. Forster of Great Britain, has lately published
a very curious work on Arabia, being the result of many years’
untiring research in that part of the world; from which we learn the
very interesting fact, that the ancient Arabians were skilled in the
manufacture of _silken textures_, at as remote a period as within 500
years of the flood!
Mr. Forster has, it appears, succeeded in deciphering many very
remarkable inscriptions found on some ancient monuments near Adon on
the coast of Hadramant. These records, it is said, restore to the world
its earliest written language, and carry us back to the time of Jacob,
and within 500 years of the flood.
The inscriptions are in three parts. The longest is of ten lines,
engraved on a smooth piece of rock forming one side of the terrace
at Hisn Ghorab. Then there are three short lines, found on a small
detached rock on the summit of the little hill. There are also two
lines found near the inscriptions, lower down the terrace. They all
relate to one transaction, an incident in Adite history. The tribe of
Ad, according to Mr. Sale, were descended from Ad the son of Aws or Uz,
the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah. The event recorded
is the rout and entire destruction of the sons of Ac, an Arab tribe, by
the Aws or tribe of Ad, whom they invaded. In Mr. Forster’s book fac
similes are given of the inscription; the Aditie and the Hamyaritie
alphabet; and a glossary containing every word in them, its derivation,
and its explanation; with notes of copious illustration upon every
point which they involve. The first inscription of ten lines is thus
translated:
We dwelt, living long luxuriously in the zananas of this spacious
mansion; our condition exempt from misfortune and adversity. Rolled in
through our channel.
The sea, swelling against our castle with angry surge; our fountains
flowed with murmuring fall, above
The lofty palms; whose keepers planted dry dates in our valley
date-grounds; they sowed the arid rice.
We hunted the young mountain-goats and the young hares, with gins and
snares; beguiling we drew forth the fishes.
We walked with slow, proud gait, IN NEEDLE-WORKED, MANY-COLORED SILK
VESTMENTS, IN WHOLE SILKS, IN GRASS-GREEN CHEQUERED ROBES[23]!
Over us presided kings, far removed from baseness, and stern
chastisers of reprobate and wicked men. They noted down for us
according to the doctrine of Heber,
Good judgments, written in books to be kept; and we proclaimed our
belief in miracles, in the _resurrection_, in the _return into the
nostrils of the breath of life_.
Made an inroad robbers, and would do us violence; we rode forth, we
and our generous youth, with stiff and sharp-pointed spears; rushing
onward.
Proud champions of our families and wives; fighting valiantly upon
coursers with long necks, dun-colored, iron-gray, and bright bay.
With our swords still wounding and piercing our adversaries, until
charging home, we conquered and crushed this refuse of mankind.
[23] Silk is the only material used for human clothing which Mohammed,
the impostor, introduces among the luxuries of Paradise. (See the
Koran, chap. 35.)
On the subject of these inscriptions, Mr. Forster, in the dedication
of his book to the Archbishop of Canterbury, thus remarks: “What Job
(who, living in the opposite quarter of Arabia, amid the sands of the
great Northern desert, had no lasting material within reach on which to
perpetuate his thoughts,) so earnestly desired, stands here realized.”
“Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a
Book! That (like the kindred creed of the lost tribe of Ad) they were
_graven with an iron pen, and lead, in the rock forever_. (For mine
is a better and brighter revelation than theirs.) For I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth; and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in the
flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another.”
That the Arabians should have understood the manufacture of silken
textures at as remote a period as that supposed by Mr. Forster, viz.,
500 years after the flood, is, to say the least of it, exceedingly
questionable, yet it cannot be denied that we are indebted to them for
many useful inventions, and among which may be mentioned the art of
making _cotton paper_[24]. It is no less true that we first received
our cotton-wool from countries where the Arabic language was spoken.
To the Arabs also we are indebted for that almost indispensable article
of apparel, the _shirt_, the Arabic name for which is _camees_, whence
the Italian _camiscia_, and the French _chemise_[25].
In the attempt here made to trace from the dark ages of antiquity
the progress of trades and manufactures so widely diffused over
the civilised world as those of cotton, linen, silk, wool, &c.,
_chronological order_ is followed as closely as the nature of the
inquiry will permit.
[24] See Appendix B.
[25] For further information on Arabia, see Parts II. and III.
CHAPTER II.
HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED TO THE FOURTH 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 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.
Mention of silk by authors in the third century--Ælius
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.)
The next Authors, who make mention of silk, are the Latin poets of
the Augustan age, Tibullus and Propertius, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid.
The Parthian war, and the increased intercourse between the Roman
empire and the kingdoms of the East, had been the means of recently
introducing every kind of silken goods into more general use, although
these manufactures were still so rare as to be the objects of curiosity
and admiration, and were therefore well adapted to be brought in among
the embellishments of poetical imagery.
The appearance of the silken flags attached to the gilt standards of
the Parthians (Florus iii. 11.) must have been a very striking sight
for the army of Crassus, contributing both to inflame their cupidity
and to alarm them with a sense of the power of their opponents. The
conflict here referred to took place in the year 54 B. C. In about 30
years after this date the Roman empire obtained its greatest extension.
In the language of Petronius Arbiter (c. 119.),
Th’ insatiate Roman spread his conquering arms
O’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.
After these words he says, that among the richest productions of
distant climates the Seres sent their “new fleeces.” The remotest
countries thus contributed to increase the luxury of Rome, and we shall
now see how silk, one of the most costly and the most admired of its
recent acquisitions, was used by its poets to represent the polish
of elevated life and to adorn their language with rich and beautiful
allusions. The webs, which they mention, are either those still
obtained from Cos, or those imported from the country of the Seres.
TIBULLUS.
A Coan vest for girls.
L. ii. 4.
She may thin garments wear, which female Coan hands
Have woven, and in stripes dispos’d the golden bands.
L. ii. 6.
The latter of these two passages is remarkable as showing that the Coan
women practised the elegant art of interweaving gold thread in their
silken webs. The gold was no doubt displayed in transverse stripes.
PROPERTIUS.
Why thus, my life, display thy braided hair,
And heave beneath thin Coan webs thy bosom fair?
L. i. 2.
In the next passage Propertius is speaking of his own Poetry, and
alludes to his frequent mention of Coan garments.
If bright she walk in Coan vest array’d,
Through all this book will Coan be display’d.
L. ii. 1.
ON A STATUE OF VERTUMNUS.
My nature suits each changing form:
Turn’d into what you please, I’m fair.
Clothe me in Coan, I’m a decent lass,
Put on a toga, for a man I pass.
L. iv. 2.
The texture of the Coan Minerva.
L. iv. 5.
Who gives no Coan robe, but verse instead,
Artless shall be his lyre, his verses dead.
_Ibid._
The same poet (L. iv. 8. 23.) mentions “Serica carpenta,” chariots
with silk curtains; and the following line (L. i. 14. 22.) shows, that
couches with ornamented silk covers were then in use:
Quid revelant variis Serica textilibus?
Propertius also mentions silk under the name of the animal, which
produced it:
Shines with the produce of th’ Arabian worm.
L. ii. 3. 15.
In this line, as well as in some of those before quoted, he alludes to
the use of silk by females of indifferent character. He probably uses
the epithet _Arabian_, because the Roman merchants obtained silk from
the Arabs, who received it from Persia.
VIRGIL.
Soft wool from downy groves the Æthiop weaves,
And Seres comb their fleece from silken leaves.
_Georg._ ii. 120, 121.--Sotheby’s Translation.
The poet is here enumerating the chief productions of different
countries, and therefore mentions cotton and silk. The idea, that silk
webs were manufactured from thin fleeces obtained from trees, will be
found recurring in many of the subsequent citations. It may have been
founded on reports brought by the soldiers of Crassus, or by others who
visited the interior of Asia about the same period.
HORACE.
Nor Coan purples, nor the blaze
Of jewels can bring back the days,
Which, fix’d by time, recorded stand,
By all, who read the Fasti, scann’d.
_Od._ _l._ iv. 13. (_ad Lycen._) 13-16.
As if uncloth’d, she stands confess’d
In a translucent Coan vest.
_Sat._ i. 2. 101.
These passages allude to the fineness and transparency of silken webs,
which in the time of Horace were worn at Rome only by prostitutes,
or by those women who aimed at being as attractive and luxurious as
possible in their attire.
The former passage shows, that the silks manufactured in Cos were dyed
with the murex, “Coæ purpuræ.”
The expression “Sericos pulvillos” (_Epod._ 8. 15.) has been supposed
to denote small cushions covered with silk. But the epithet “Sericos”
implies nothing more than that they were obtained from the Seres, who
supplied the Romans with skins as well as silk[26]; and leather seems
to have been a more proper substance than silk for making cushions.
[26] Plin. xxxiv. cap. 24.
OVID.
Sive erit in Tyriis, Tyrios laudabis amictus,
Sive erit in Cois, Coa decere puta.
Aurata est: ipso tibi sit pretiosior auro;
Gausapa si sumsit, gausapa sumta proba.
_Ars Amat._ ii. 297-300.
Whatever clothing she displays,
From Tyre or Cos, that clothing praise:
If gold shows forth the artist’s skill,
Call her than gold more precious still:
Or if she choose a coarse attire,
E’en coarseness, worn by her, admire.
In another passage (_Amores_ i. 14. 5.) Ovid compares the thin hairs of
a lady to the silken veils of the Seres,
Veils such as color’d Seres wear.
We now proceed to the testimonies of authors who wrote either in Greek
or Latin at the latter part of the Augustan age, or immediately after
it.
DYONISIUS PERIEGETES.
Καὶ ἔθνεα βάρβαρα Σηρῶν,
Οἵτε βοὰς μὲν ἀναίνονται καὶ ἴφια μῆλα,
Αἰόλα δὲ ξαίνοντες ἐρήμης ἄνθεα γαίης,
Εἵματα τεύχουσιν πολυδαίδαλα, τιμήεντα,
Εἰδόμενα χροιῇ λειμωνίδος ἄνθεσι ποίης·
Κείνοις οὔτι κεν ἔργον ἀραχνάων ἐρίσειεν. (_l._ 755.)
And the barbarous nations of the Seres, who renounce the care of sheep
and oxen, but comb the variously colored flowers of the desert land
to make precious figured garments, resembling in color the flowers of
the meadow, and rivalling (in fineness) the work of spiders.--Yates’s
Translation.
It is worthy of observation that Dyonisius speaks expressly not only of
the fineness of the thread, but of the _flowered texture_ of the silk.
STRABO.
Τοιαῦτα δὲ καὶ τὰ Σηρικὰ, ἔκ τι νων φλοιῶν ξαινομένης βύσσου.
L. xv. 695. (v. vi. p. 40. _Tzschucke._)
This is repeated by Eustathius on Dyonisius Periegetes[27]. The
account seems to have been taken by Strabo, perhaps inaccurately, from
Nearchus. It is doubtful, whether Σηρικὰ denoted silken webs in this
passage. But whatever Strabo meant, he supposed the raw material to be
scraped from the bark of trees[28].
[27] L. 1107. p. 308, Bernhardy.
[28] Book ii. ch. 3. p. 307.
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 fœdaret.” _Taciti
Annales_, ii. 33. _Dion. Cass._ _l._ 57. p. 860. _Reim. Suidas in v._
Τιβέριος[29]. Silk was to be worn by women only.
[29] Dio Cassius (l. 43. p. 358. Rheim.) mentions as a report, that
Julius Cæsar employed silk curtains (παραπετάσματα Σηρικὰ) to add
to the splendor of his triumph.
The next emperor Caligula had silk curtains to his throne (_Dion.
Cass. l._ 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 Alexander, 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 gold[30].
The use of shawls and tunics of silk was, however, except in the case
of the extravagances of a Caligula, still confined to the female 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 public auction in the Forum of Trajan
the imperial ornaments and jewels together with the golden and silken
robes of the Empress[31].
[30] 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.
[31] Jul. Capitol. c. xvii. p. 65. Bip.
FIRST CENTURY.
SENECA, THE PHILOSOPHER.
Posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serum.--_Epist._ 91.
We may clothe ourselves without any commerce with the Seres.
Video Sericas vestes, si vestes vocandæ sunt, in quibus nihil est,
quo defendi aut corpus aut denique pudor possit: quibus sumtis mulier
parum liquidò nudam se non esse jurabit. Hæc ingenti summâ ab ignotis
etiam ad commercium gentibus accersunter, ut matronæ nostræ 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: on
taking which a woman will scarce with a clear conscience deny, that
she is naked. These are sent for 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 Little Bucharia as their
country[32], 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 origin[33].
[32] The position of Serica is discussed by Latreille in his paper
hereafter cited. See also Mannert. iv. 6. 6, 7. Brotier, Mém. de
l’Acad. des Inscrip. tom. 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.
[33] 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, l. 752. p. 242, Bernhardy.
SENECA, THE TRAGEDIAN.
Nec Mæonià distinguit acu,
Quæ Phœbeis subditus Euris
Legit Eois Ser arboribus.
_Herc. Œtæus_, 664.
Nor with Mæonian 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. (_Phædra loquitur._)
At a very early period the art of dyeing had been carried to a very
great degree of perfection in Phœnicia. 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:
“In oldest times, when kings and hardy chiefs
In bleating sheep-folds met, for purest wool
Phœnicia’s hilly tracts were most renown’d,
And fertile Syria’s and Judæa’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[34].”
[34] Old Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar in the second year after
the destruction of Jerusalem, or 584 B. C.
LUCAN.
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 embroidered. By the last process,
in which the Egyptians greatly excelled, the threads were in part
separated, so as to exhibit the appearance 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,
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 represents silk
as embroidered in Asia Minor, with the “Mæonian 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 converting foreign finished
goods into threads for their own weaving. It is, therefore, only
reasonable to suppose that whatever manufacture 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 knew that silk was produced by a worm; a tolerably strong
evidence that none were reared so near to Constantinople 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[35],
when they celebrated at Rome their triumph over the Jews.
[35] De Bello Jud. vii. 5. 4.
SAINT JOHN.
Silk (Σηρικὸν) 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
Præterea Ponti, depexaque vellera ramis,
Femineus labor. _Ib._ xiv. 664.
The produce of the Erythræan seas,
And fleeces comb’d by women from the trees[36].
Videre Eoi (monstrum admirabile!) Seres
Lanigeros cinere Ausonio canescere lucos.
_Ib._ xvii. 595, 596.
The Seres’ woolly groves, O wondrous sight!
In the far East, were with Italian ashes white.
[36] See latter part of Chapter viii. Part First.
In the last passage Silius is describing the effects of the recent
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.
_Sylvæ_, iii. 4. 89.
PLUTARCH
dissuades the virtuous and prudent wife from wearing silk[37]. He
mentions, that webs of silk and fine linen were at the same time thin
and compact or close[38].
[37] Conjugailia Præcepta, tom. vi. p. 550. ed. Reiske.
[38] De Pythiæ Orac. c. iv. p. 557. Reiske.
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,
Tam leve 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.
Fœmineum 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 dominæ 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.
PAUSANIAS,
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 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[39]. 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 body[40].
[39] 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.)
[40] _L._ vi. 26. p. 125. ed. Siebel.
The most interesting circumstance, mentioned by Pausanias, is the
breeding of the silk-worms within doors in houses adapted 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[41].
[41] Barrow’s Travels in China, p. 437, &c. Résumé des Traités Chinois,
&c. traduit par Julien, p. 70-72. 77-80. The practice is here shown
to have prevailed as early as the fifth century B. C.
GALEN
recommends silk thread for tying blood-vessels in surgical operations,
observing that the opulent women in many parts of the Roman empire
possessed such thread, especially in the great cities[42]. He also
mentions cloths of silk and gold in his treatise, c. 9. (_Hippocratis
et Galeni Opp. ed. Chartier_, tom. vi. p. 533.):
[42] Methodus Medendi, l. xiii. c. 22.
“Of this kind are the shawls _interwoven with gold_, the materials of
which are brought from afar, and which are called Seric or silk.”
CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS,
dissuading the Christian convert from luxury in dress, thus speaks:
Εἰ δὲ συμπεριφέρεσθαι χρὴ, ὀλίγον ἐνδοτέον αὐταῖς μαλακωτέροις χρῆσθαι
τοῖς ὑφάσμασιν· μόνον τὰς μεμωρημένας λεπτουργίας, καὶ τὰς ἐν ταῖς
ὑφαῖς περιέργους πλοκὰς ἐκποδὼν μεθιστάντας· νῆμα χρυσοῦ, καὶ σῆρας
Ἰνδικοὺς, καὶ τοὺς περιέργους βόμβυκας χαίρειν ἐῶντας, ὃς σκώληξ
φύεται τὸ πρῶτον· εἶτα ἐξ αὐτοῦ δασεῖα ἀναφαίνεται κάμπη. μεθ’ ἣν
εἰς τρίτην μεταμόρφωσιν νεοχμοῦται βομβύλιον· οἱ δὲ νεκύδαλον αὐτὸ
καλοῦσιν· ἐξ οὗ μακρὸς τίκτεται στήμων, καθάπερ ἐκ τῆς ἀράχνης ὁ τῆς
ἀράχνης μίτος.--_Pædag._ 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 fineness, which would imply folly, and
such webs as are _excessively labored_ and _intricate_; bidding
farewell to gold thread, and to the Indian Seres, and that industrious
bombyx, which is first a worm, then puts on the appearance of a hairy
caterpillar, 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 manner as the thread of the spider. --_Yates’s
Translation._
The use of the epithet “Indian” in this passage may be accounted 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 aërem 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 floating them through the air. It then devours them so as to
restore them to its stomach. 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 Medicâ 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 illum etiam vestis inflatior
delectâsset.
He had conquered the Medes, and was conquered by a Median garment.
When his breast exhibited the sculptured resemblances of scales, he
covered it 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, “_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. Vestite vos serico probitatis, byssino sanctitatis,
purpurâ pudicitiæ.
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_, _l._ i. p. 372.),
Imitare, si potes, apis ædificia, formicæ 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.
* * * Deamque, serico contectam amiculo, mihi gerendam imponunt.
_Metamorphoseon_, _l._ 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.
Hic incinctus baltheo militem gerebat; illum succinctum chlamyde,
copides et venabula venatorem fecerant; alius soccis obauratis,
indutus serica veste, mundoque pretioso, et adtextis capite crinibus,
incessu perfluo feminam mentiebatur. _Ibid._ _l._ xi. _p._ 769.
One performed the part of a soldier, girt with a sword; another
had his chlamys 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.
ULPIAN.
Vossius, in his _Etymologicum Linguæ Latinæ_, in the learned
and copious article SERICUM, says, “Inter _sericum_ et
_bombycinum_ discrimen ponit Ulpianus, l. 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.--_Kühn._
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 Procopius, 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 webs, called by the Greeks in his time _Seric_, were
more anciently denominated _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 beautiful than if the material had been interwoven
with threads of gold[43].
[43] Vestis subtegmine serico, aureis filis insignior.--Jul. Capitolini
Pertinax, c. 8. in Scrip. Hist. Augustæ.
THIRD CENTURY.
The authorities now quoted supply evidence 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 belonging to the following
century[44]; so far as we have discovered, only by the three historians
now to be quoted, by Cyprian, and by Solinus. But we have from these
historians some remarkable accounts of the regard paid to it by the
emperors Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus, Aurelian, Claudius II.,
Tacitus, and Carinus, all of whom reigned in the third century.
[44] 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.
ÆLIUS LAMPRIDIUS says (c. 26.), that the profligate and
effeminate emperor Heliogabalus was 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 general 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 Aurelian’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 materials. 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.
CYPRIAN,
Bishop of Carthage in the third century, inveighs in the following
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; although 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 indutæ, Christum induere non possunt: auro et
margaritis et monilibus adornatæ, 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 in.
18-23.
SOLINUS,
Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, qui, aquarum aspergine inundatis
frondibus, vellera arborum adminiculo depectunt liquoris, et lanuginis
teneram subtilitatem humore domant ad obsequium. Hoc illud est
sericum, in quo ostentare potius corpora quàm vestire, primò feminis,
nunc etiam viris persuasit luxuriæ 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 persuaded by the eagerness of
luxury rather to display their bodies, than to clothe them.
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.
This historian describes the Seres as “a quiet and inoffensive people
who, avoiding all quarrels with their 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 repose 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 intercourse with the
rest of mankind, that when foreigners venture 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 countries.
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 strangers 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[45]:
and probably the fact was so. Silk, as it 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.
[45] “The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the
Melanchlæni 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.”
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 confinement. “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, becomes soft and
pervious as wetted brown paper.”
In the seventh volume of the Linnæan Transactions, is an account
by Dr. Roxburgh of the Tusseh silk-worm. Both species are natives
of Bengal. The cocoons require to be immersed in cold water before
the silk can be obtained from them. In the latter species it is too
delicate to be wound from the cocoons, 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.)
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--Extravagance of the Consul Furius Placidus--Transparent
silk shifts--Ausonius describes silk as the produce of
trees--Quintus Aur Symmachus, and Claudian’s testimony of silk
and golden textures--Their extraordinary beauty--Pisander’s
description--Periplus Maris Erythræi--Dido of Sidon. Mention
of silk in the laws of Manu--Rufus Festus Avinus--Silk
shawls--Marciannus Capella--Inscription 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--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 invectives against Christians wearing
silk. Mention of silk by Christian authors in the fifth
century--Prudentius--Palladius--Theodosian Code--Appollinaris
Sidonius--Alcimus Avitus. Sixth century--Boethius. (Manufactures of
Tyre and Sidon--Purple--Its great durability--Incredible value of
purple stuffs found in the treasury of the King of Persia.)
FOURTH CENTURY.
Some curious evidence respecting the use of silk, both unmixed 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[46]. The passage pertaining to our
present subject, is as follows:
Sarcinatori in veste soubtili replicat(u)ræ * sex
Eidem aperturæ cum subsutura olosericræ * quinquaginta
Eidem aperturæ cum subsutura su(b)sericæ * triginta
(Sub)suturæ in veste grossiori * quattuor.
Denarii[47].
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 tissue of silk and flax 30
For an edging on a coarser vest 4
_Colonel Leake’s translation._
[46] It was edited A. D. 1826, by Colonel Leake, as a sequel to his
Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, and is also published in Tr. of
the Royal Society of Literature, vol. i. p. 181.
[47] A Roman coin of the value of about sixteen or seventeen cents,
called Denarii from the letter X upon it; which denoted _ten_.
This document proves, in exact conformity with the passages quoted
from Solinus and Ammianus, 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 giving 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 following
centuries are very numerous. We shall first take the heathen authors,
and then the Christian writers, whose observations often have some
moral application, which gives them an additional interest.
The unknown author of the Panegyric on the emperor Constantine,
pronounced A. D. 317, thus mentions silk as characterizing oriental
refinement.
Facile est vincere timidos et imbelles, quales amœna Græcia et deliciæ
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 pleasant 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 VOPISCUS, 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 following remarks on a display of
silk which he had himself recently witnessed.
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 patrimonies, 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 descended 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
contribution 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._ _l._
iv. 8.
In a letter to Magnillus (_l._ 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 pertaining to the prizes which were to be given.
CLAUDIAN
mentions silk in numerous passages. This poet, in describing 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 between them and
receiving tributes of its productions from the most distant regions:
Vestri juris erit, quicquid complectitur axis.
Vobis rubra dabunt pretiosas æquora conchas,
Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres.
_De III. Cons. Honorii_, _l._ 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.