Claudian describes a magnificent toga, worn by Honorius on being
appointed a fourth time consul, by saying, that it received its color
(_the Tyrian purple_) from the Phœnicians; its woof (_of silk forming
stripes or figures_) from the Seres; and its weight (_produced by
Indian gems_) from the river Hydaspes[48]. Again, in his poem on the
approaching marriage of Honorius and Maria, he mentions yellow silk
curtains (_l._ 211.) as a decoration of the nuptial chamber.
[48] De IV. Cons. Honorii, i. 600, 601.
Again he says (_in Eutrop._ _l._ i. _v._ 225, 226. 304. _l._ ii. _v._
337.):
Te grandibus India gemmis,
Te foliis Arabes ditent, te vellere Seres.
Let India with her gems thy wealth increase,
The Arabs with their leaves, the Seres with their fleece.
He also mentions with delight the use of gold in dress, as well as
of silk. The following passage represents the manner in which Proba,
a Roman matron, near the end of the fourth century, expressed her
affectionate congratulations on the elevation of her two sons to the
Consulship, by preparing robes _interwoven with gold_ for the ceremony
of their installation.
With joy elated at this proud success,
Their venerable mother now prepares
The golden trabeas, and the cinctures bright
With Seric fibres shorn from woolly trees:
Her well-train’d thumb protracts the length’ning gold,
And makes the metal to the threads adhere.
_In Probini et Olybrii Consulatum_, _l._ 177-182.
From these verses we learn that Proba had herself acquired the art of
_covering the thread with gold_, and that she then used her gold thread
in the _woof_ to form the stripes or other ornaments of the consular
trabeæ. These are afterwards called stiff togas (_togæ rigentes_, _l._
205.), on account of the rigidity imparted to them by the gold thread.
The same poet gives an elaborate description of a Trabea which he
supposes to have been woven by the Goddess Rome with the aid of Minerva
for the use of the Consul Stilicho. Five different scenes are said to
have been _woven_ in this admirable robe (_regentia dona, graves auro
trabeas_), and certain parts of them were wrought in gold[49].
[49] In I. Cons. Stilichonis, L. ii. 330-359.
Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold and purple
for her son Achilles:
Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. (_Ep._ 35.)
The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that Serena,
mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius, wove garments of the same kind
for him.
Maria, the daughter of the above-mentioned Stilicho, was bestowed
by him upon Honorius, but died shortly after, about A. D. 400. In
February, 1544, the marble coffin, containing her remains, was
discovered at Rome. In it were preserved a garment and a pall,
which, on being burnt, yielded 36 _pounds of gold_. There were also
found a great number of glass vessels, jewels, and ornaments of all
kinds, which Stilicho had given as a dowry to his daughter[50]. We
may conclude, that the garments discovered in the tomb of Maria
were _woven_ by the hands of her mother Serena, since the epigram
of Claudian proves that she wove robes of a similar description for
Honorius, and probably on the same occasion. Anastasius Bibliothecarius
says, that when Pope Paschal was intent on finding the body of St.
Cæcilia, having performed mass with a view to obtain the favor of a
revelation on the subject, he was directed A. D. 821 to a cemetery on
the Appian Way near Rome, and there found the body enveloped in cloth
of gold[51]. Although there is _no_ reason to believe, that the body
found by Paschal was the body of the saint pretended, yet it may have
been the body of a Roman lady who had lived some centuries before, and
probably about the time of Honorius and Maria.
[50] Surii Comment. Rerum Gest. ab anno 1500, &c.
[51] “Aureis vestitum indumentis.” DE VITIS ROM. Pontificum Mogunt.
1602, p. 222.
Pisander, who belonged to the same period (900 B. C.) with Homer,
speaks of the _Lydians_ as _wearing tunics adorned with gold_. Lydus
observes, that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of
the Pactolus and the Hermus[52].
[52] De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64.
Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed
in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was manufactured by
_Dido_, the _Sidonian_, one by Andromache, and another was in the
possession of Anchises[53]. In all these instances the reference is to
the habits of Phœnice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia.
[53] Æn. iii. 483.; iv. 264.; viii. 167.; xi. 75.
He describes an ape ludicrously attired in a silk jacket; and,
inveighing against the progress of luxury, he speaks of some to whom
even silk garments were a burthen. In elaborate descriptions of the
figured consular robes (the Trabeæ) of Honorius and Stilicho, he
mentions the _reins and other trappings of horses_, as being wrought in
silk[54].
[54] Rubra Serica, De VI. Cons. Honor. I. 577. Serica Fræna. In I.
Cons. Stilichonis 1. ii. V. 350.
The frequent allusions to silk in the complimentary poems of Claudian,
receive illustration from various imperial laws, which were promulgated
in the same century, and in part by the very emperors to whom his
flattery is addressed, and which are preserved in the CODE OF
JUSTINIAN. Their object was not to encourage the silk manufacture,
but, on a principle very opposite to that of modern times, to make
it an imperial monopoly. The admiration excited by the splendor and
elegance of silk attire was the ground, on which it was forbidden that
any individual of the _male sex_ should wear even a silken border upon
his tunic or pallium, with the exception of the emperor, his officers
and servants. To confine the enjoyment of these luxuries more entirely
to the imperial family and court, all private persons were strictly
forbidden engaging in the manufacture, gold and silken borders were to
be made only in the imperial Gynæcea[55].
[55] See the Corpus Juris Civilis, Lugduni 1627, folio, tom. v. Codex
Justiniani, l. x. tit. vii. p. 131. 134.
THE PERIPLUS MARIS ERYTHRÆI.
In this important document on ancient geography and commerce, we find
repeated mention of silk in its raw state, in that of thread, and
woven[56]. These articles were conveyed down the Indus to the coast
of the Erythrean Sea. They were also brought to the great mart of
Barygaza, which was on the Gulf of Cambay near the modern Surat, and
to the coast of Lymirica, which was still more remote. The author of
the Periplus states, that they were carried by land through Bactria to
Barygaza from a great city called _Thina_, lying far towards the North
in the interior of Asia. He of course refers to some part of Serica.
It is remarkable, that he makes no mention of silk as the native
production of India.
[56] Arriani Opp., vol. ii. Blancardi, pp. 164. 170. 173. 177.
Silk is mentioned in two passages of the laws of Manu, viz. XI. v.
168, and XII. v. 64. It is, however, observed by Heeren, who quotes
passages of the Ramayana that make mention of silk, that garments of
this material are there represented as worn only on festive occasions,
and that they were undoubtedly Seric or Chinese productions[57]. Indeed
it appears that the cloth made from the thread of the native worms of
Hindostan, although highly valued for strength and durability, is not
remarkable for fineness, beauty, or splendor.
[57] Ideen über die Politik, &c. der alten Welt, i. 2. pp. 647. 648.
665-668. 677. 3rd edition. Göttingen, 1815.
RUFUS FESTUS AVIENUS.
This author, adopting the common notion of his time, supposes the Seres
to spin thread from fleeces which were produced upon the trees. He
also mentions silk shawls (_Serica pallia_, _l._ 1008.) as worn by the
female Bacchantes of Ionia in their processions in honor of Bacchus;
and it is worthy of remark, that they are not mentioned in the original
passage of Dionysius, the author whom Avienus translates, so that we
may reasonably infer, that the use of them on these occasions was
introduced between the time of Dionysius (about 30 B. C.) and that of
Avienus (A. D. 400).
MARTIANUS CAPELLA.
Beyond these (_the Anthropophagi_) are the Seres, who asperse their
trees with water to obtain the down, which produces silk.
L. vi. _p._ 223. _ed. Grotii_, 1599.
The following Inscription is given in Gruter, Tom. iii. p.
DCXLV. It was found at Tivoli, and expresses that M. N.
Proculus, _silk-manufacturer_, erected a monument to Valeria Chrysis,
his excellent and deserving wife.
D. M.
VALERIAE. CHRYSIDI.
M. NVMIVS. PROCVLVS.
SERICARIVS.
CONJVGI. SVAE.
OPTIMÆ. BENEM.
FECIT.
Before proceeding to the Christian writers of the 4th and following
centuries we may now introduce the remarks of Servius on the passage
formerly quoted from Virgil. He is supposed to have written about A. D.
400.
Among the Indians and Seres there are on the trees certain worms,
called Bombyces, which draw out very fine threads after the manner of
spiders; and these threads constitute silk.
It will be seen hereafter, that these “Indian Seres” were the
inhabitants of Khotan in Little Bucharia.
The frequent comparison of Bombyces to spiders by the ancients suggests
the inquiry whether they employed the thread of any kind of spider
to make cloth, as was attempted in France by M. Bon. The failure of
his attempt is sufficient, as it appears, to show, that the extensive
manufacture of garments from this material must have been scarcely
possible in ancient times. It is also to be observed, that the
ancients, when they compare the silk-worm to the spider, refer to the
spider’s _web_, whereas M. Bon, not finding the web strong enough, made
his cloth from the thread with which the spider envelopes its eggs[58].
[58] The most extraordinary account of a spider’s web, which we have
ever seen, is that given by Lieutenant W. Smyth. He says, “We
saw here (_viz._ at Pachiza, on the river Huayabamba in Peru) a
gigantic spider’s web suspended to the trees: it was about 25 _feet
in height_, and near 50 _in length_; the threads were very strong,
and it had the empty sloughs of thousands of insects hanging on it.
It appeared to be the habitation of a great number of spiders of a
larger size than we ever saw in England.” Narrative of a Journey
from Lima to Para, London, 1836, p. 141.
For some interesting notices of the great spider of Brazil the
reader is referred to Caldcleugh’s Travels in South America, London
1825, vol. i. ch. 2. p. 41; and to the Rev. R. Walsh’s Notices
of Brazil, London 1830, vol. ii. p. 300, 301. Mr. Caldcleugh
“_assisted in liberating from a spider’s net a bird of the size of
a swallow, quite exhausted with struggling, and ready to fall a
prey to its indefatigable enemies_.” Mr. Walsh had his light straw
hat removed from his head by a similar web extending from tree
to tree in an opening through which he had occasion to pass. He
wound upon a card several of the threads composing the web; and he
observes, that, as these spiders are gregarious, the difficulties
experienced by M. Bon from the ferocity of the solitary European
spiders in killing and devouring one another, would not exist if
the attempt were made to obtain clothing from the former.
In the forests of Java Sir George Staunton “found webs of spiders,
woven with threads of so strong a texture as not easily to be
divided without a cutting instrument.”--Account of Lord Macartney’s
Embassy to China, London 1797, vol. i. ch. 7. p. 302. (See Chap.
IX.)
But, although we have no reason to believe, that the web of any spider
was anciently employed to make cloth, yet these accounts may have
referred to worms, possibly varieties of the silk-worm, which spun long
threads floating in the air. The common silk-worm spins and suspends
itself by its thread, long before it begins its cocoon. It appears
probable, therefore, that there may have been wild varieties of this
creature, or perhaps other species of the same genus, which in the
earlier stages of their existence spun threads long enough for use. We
ground this conjecture partly on the following passage from Du Halde’s
History of China[59].
[59] Vol. ii. p. 359, 360, 8vo. edition, London, 1736.
“The province of Chan-tong produces a particular sort of silk, which
is found in great quantities on the trees and in the fields. It is
spun and made into a stuff called _Kien-tcheou_. This silk is made
by little insects that are much like caterpillars. They do not spin
an oval or round cocoon, like the silk-worms, but very long threads.
These threads, as they are driven about by the winds, hang upon the
trees and bushes, and are gathered to make a sort of silk, which is
coarser than that made of the silk spun in houses. But these worms are
wild, and eat indifferently the leaves of mulberry and other trees.
Those who do not understand this silk would take it for unbleached
cloth, or a coarse sort of drugget.
“The worms, which spin this silk, are of two kinds: the first,
much larger and blacker than the common silk-worms, are called
_Tsouen-kien_; the second, being smaller, are named _Tiao-kien_. The
silk of the former is of a reddish gray, that of the latter darker.
The stuff made of these materials is between both colors, it is very
close, does not _fret_, is very lasting, washes like linen, and, when
it is good, receives no damage by spots, even though oil were to be
shed on it.
“This stuff is much valued by the Chinese, and it is sometimes as
dear as satin or the finest silks. As the Chinese are very skilful at
counterfeiting, they make a false sort of _Kien-tcheou_ with the waste
of the Tche-kiang silk, which without due inspection might easily be
taken for the genuine article.”
This account affords a remarkable illustration of many of the
expressions of the ancient writers, such as “Bombyx pendulus urget
opus,” _Martial_; “Per aerem liquando aranearum horoscopis idoneas
sedes tendit,” _Tertullian_; “In aranearum morem tenuissima fila
deducunt,” _Servius_.
In further illustration of the subject, and as tending to show
that the _Kien-tcheou_ is manufactured from the thread of a
silk-worm, modified in its habits and perhaps in its organization by
circumstances, we shall now quote a few passages from a work having the
following title: “_China; its costume, arts, manufactures, &c., edited
from the originals in the cabinet of M. Bertin, with observations by M.
Breton. Translated from the French. London, 1812._” _Vol._ iv. _p._ 55,
_&c._
“The wild silk-worms are found in the hottest provinces of China,
especially near Canton. They live indifferently on all sorts of
leaves, particularly on those of the ash, the oak, and the fagara, and
spin a greyish and rarely white silk. The coarse cloth manufactured
from it is called _Kien-tcheou_, will bear washing, and on that
account persons of quality do not disdain to wear clothes of it. With
this silk also the strings of musical instruments are made, because it
is stronger and more sonorous.
“Entomologists treat but very superficially of the habits of the wild
silk-worms, while they dwell in minute detail on the method of rearing
them in Provence.
“It is between the nineteenth and twenty-second day of their
existence, that they undertake the great work of spinning their
cocoon. They curve a leaf into a kind of cup, and then form a cocoon
as large and nearly as hard as a hen’s egg! This cocoon has one end
open like a reversed funnel; it is a passage for the butterfly, which
is to come out.
“The oak-worms are slower in making their cocoon than those of the
fagara and ash, and they set about it differently. Instead of bending
a single leaf, they roll themselves in two or three and spin their
cocoon. It is larger, but the silk is inferior in quality, and of
course not so valuable.
“The cocoons of wild silk-worms are so strong and compact, that the
insects encounter great difficulty in extricating themselves, and
therefore remain inclosed from the end of the summer, to the spring
of the following year. These butterflies, unlike the domestic insect,
fly very well.--The domestic silk-worm is but a variety of the wild
species. It is fed on the leaves of the mulberry tree.” (See chap.
VIII.)
The circumstance that the worms were sometimes fed with oak-leaves is
mentioned in Du Halde’s History of China, vol. ii. p. 363.
Here then we have a justification of the ancients in asserting, both
that the silk-worms produced _long threads and webs floating in the
air like those of spiders_, and that they fed upon the leaves of the
oak, the ash, and many other trees. It may be recollected, that Pliny
expressly mentions both the oak (_quercus_) and the ash (_fraxinus_).
Until very lately the use of silk among the ancients was investigated
only by philologists. Within a few years M. Latreille, an entomologist
of the highest distinction, has directed his attention to the subject
and has examined particularly the above-cited passages of Aristotle,
Pliny, and Pausanias[60]. He never supposes the ancient Sericum to
have been the produce of anything except the silk-worm. But of this
there are several varieties, partly perhaps natural, and partly the
result of domestication. He endeavors to explain some parts of Pliny’s
description by showing their seeming correspondence with some of the
practices actually observed by the Orientals in the management of
silk-worms.
[60] M. Latreille’s paper is published in the Annales des Sciences
Naturelles, tome xxiii. pp. 58-84.
An account of the wild silk-worms of China is to be found in the
“Mémoires concernant l’Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, &c., des
Chinois,” compiled by the missionaries of Peking[61]. This account is
principally derived from the information of Father D’Incarville, one
of the missionaries. It coincides generally with the accounts already
quoted from Du Halde and Breton. We extract the following particulars
as conveying some further information:
[61] Tome ii. pp. 579-601. Paris, 1777, 4to. This Memoir is reprinted
with abridgments as an Appendix to Stanislas Julien’s Translation
of the Chinese Treatise on the Breeding of Silk-worms, Paris, 1837,
8vo.
“The Chinese annals from the year 150 B. C. to A. D. 638 make frequent
mention of the great quantity of silk produced by the wild worms, and
observe that their cocoons were as large as eggs or apricots.”
The following passage is also deserving of attention: “Le papillon de
ces vers sauvages, dit le Père d’Incarville, est à ailes vitrées.” This
information, if correct, would prove that there was at least one kind
of wild silk-worms in China, which was a different species from the
Phalæna Mori; for that has no transparent membranes in its wings, and
would not be likely to receive them in consequence of any change in its
mode of life.
We now proceed to take the Christian authors of the fourth and
following centuries in the order of time.
ARNOBIUS (A. D. 306.)
thus speaks of the heathen gods:
They want the covering of a garment: the Tritonian virgin must spin a
thread of extraordinary fineness, and according to circumstances put
on a tunic either of mail, or silk[62].
[62] Adv. Gentes, l. iii. p. 580, ed. Erasmi.
GREGORIUS NAZIENZENUS, CL., A. D. 370.
The following passage contains, we believe, the earliest allusion to
the use of silk in the services of the Christian Church.
Ἄλλοι μὲν χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον, οἱ δὲ τὰ Σηρῶν
Δῶρα φέρουσι θεῷ νήματα λεπταλέα.
Καὶ Χριστῷ θυσίην τὶς ἁγνὴν ἀνέθηκεν ἑαυτον·
Καὶ σπένδει δακρύων ἄλλος ἁγνὰς λιβάδας.
_Ad Hellenium pro Monachis Carmen._
_tom._ ii. _p._ 106. _ed. Par._ 1630.
Silver and gold some bring to God
Or the fine threads by Seres spun:
Others to Christ themselves devote,
A chaste and holy sacrifice,
And make libations of their tears.
Yates’s Translation.
BASIL, CL., A. D. 370.
Although this celebrated author was a native of Asia Minor, and had
studied in Syria and Palestine, he appears to have known the silk-worm
only from books and by report. His description of it in the following
passage, in which we first find the beautiful illustration of the
doctrine of a _resurrection_ from the change of the chrysalis, is
chiefly copied from Aristotle’s account as formerly quoted.
Τί φάτε οἱ ἀπιστοῦντες τῷ Παύλῳ περὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν
ἀλλοιώσεως, ὁρῶντες πολλὰ τῶν ἀερίων τὰς μορφὰς μεταβάλλοντα; ὁποῖα
καὶ περὶ τοῦ Ἰνδικοῦ σκώληκος ἱστορεῖται τοῦ κερασφόρου· ὃς εἰς κάμπην
τὰ πρῶτα μεταβαλὼν, εἶτα προϊὼν βομβυλιὸς γίνεται, καὶ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ ταύτης
ἵσταται τῆς μορφῆς, ἀλλὰ χαύνοις καὶ πλατέσι πετάλοις ὑποπτεροῦται.
Ὅταν οὖν καθέζησθε τὴν τούτων ἐργασίαν ἀναπηνιζόμεναι αἱ γυναῖκες,
τὰ νήματα λέγω, ἃ πέμπουσιν ὑμῖν οἱ Σῆρες πρὸς τὴν τῶν μαλακῶν
ἐνδυμάτων κατασκευὴν, μεμνημέναι τῆς κατὰ τὸ ζῶον τοῦτο μεταβολῆς,
ἐναργῆ λαμβάνετε τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔννοιαν, καὶ μὴ ἀπιστεῖτε τῇ ἀλλαγῇ,
ἣν Παῦλος ἅπασι κατεπαγγέλλεται.--_Hexahemeron_, _p._ 79. _A. Ed.
Benedict._
What have you to say, who disbelieve the assertion of the Apostle
Paul concerning the change at the resurrection, when you see many
of the inhabitants of the air changing their forms? Consider, for
example, the account of the horned worm of India, which (i. e. the
silk-worm) having first changed into a caterpillar (_eruca_, or
_veruca_), then in process of time becomes a cocoon (_bombylius_, or
_bombulio_), and does not continue even in this form, but assumes
light and expanded wings. Ye women, who sit winding upon bobbins
the produce of these animals, namely the threads, which the Seres
send to you for the manufacture of fine garments, bear in mind the
change of form in this creature; derive from it a clear conception of
the resurrection; and discredit not that transformation which Paul
announces to us all.--Yates’s Translation.
When St. Basil says of the new-born moth, that “it assumes light
and expanded wings,” the beauty of the comparison in illustrating
the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is enhanced, when we
consider that in its _wild_ state the moth flies very well, although,
when domesticated, its flight is weak and its wings small and
shrivelled[63]: but still more beautiful does the figure become, if we
suppose a reference to those larger and more splendid Phalænæ which
produce the coarser kinds of silk in India, and probably in China also.
[63] The Phalæna Atlas, apparently a native of China, measures eight
inches across the wings from tip to tip.
Basil is the _first_ writer, who distinctly mentions the change of
the silk-worm from a Chrysalis to a moth. In his application of that
fact he addresses himself to his countrywomen in Asia Minor, and his
language represents them sitting and winding on bobbins the raw silk
obtained from the Seres and designed to be afterwards woven into cloth.
Between these two authors, Aristotle and Basil, we observe a difference
of phraseology which appears deserving of notice. While they both
describe the women, not as spinning the silk, but as _winding it on
bobbins_, they designate the material so wound by two different names.
Basil uses the term νήματα, which might be meant to imply that the silk
came from the Seres in skeins as it comes to us from China: Aristotle,
on the contrary, uses the term βομβύκια, which can only refer to the
state of silk before it is wound into skeins. As it might appear
impossible to convey it in this state to Cos, we shall here insert from
the authorities already quoted, the Chinese Missionaries, an account of
the process by which the cocoons are prepared for winding, and it will
then be seen, that the cocoons might have been transported to any part
of the world.
“To prepare the cocoons of the wild silk-worms, the Chinese cut the
extremities of them with a pair of scissors. They are then put into a
canvass bag, and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling
lye, which dissolves the gum. When this is effected, they are taken
from the kettle; pressed to expel the lye, and then laid out to dry.
Whilst they are still moist, the chrysalises are extracted; each
cocoon is then turned inside out, so as to make a sort of cowl. It is
necessary only, to put them again into lukewarm water, after which ten
or twelve of them are capped one upon another like so many thimbles, to
insert a small distaff through them, when the silk may be reeled off.”
Basil, in one of his Homilies, (_Opp. tom._ ii. _p._ 53. 55. _ed.
Benedict._) inveighs against the ladies of Cæsarea, who employed
themselves in weaving gold; and he is no less indignant at their
husbands who adorned even their horses with cloths of gold and scarlet
as if they were bridegrooms.
The author of a Treatise “De disciplinâ et bono pudicitiæ,” which is
usually published with Cyprian, and which may be referred to the fourth
or fifth century, thus speaks (_Cypriani Opera, ed. Erasmi, p._ 499.):
To weave gold in cloth is, as it were, to adopt an expensive method of
spoiling it. Why do they interpose stiff metals between the delicate
threads of the warp?
The same censure is implied in the following address of Alcimus Avitus
to his sister.
Non tibi gemmato posuere nonilia collo,
Nec te contexit, neto quæ fulguratauro
Vestis, ductilibus concludens fila talentis:
Nec te Sidonium bis coeti muricis ostrum
Induit, aut rutilo perlucens purpura succo,
Mollia vel tactu quæ mittunt vellera Seres:
Nec tibi transfossis fixerunt auribus aurum.
No threaded gems have pressed thy sparkling neck:
No cloth, with lines incased in ductile gold,
Or twice with the Sidonian murex dyed,
Has glittered on thee: thou hast never worn
The fleeces soft which distant Seres send:
Nor are thy ears transfixed for pendent gold.
The effect of such exhortations as the preceding, was to induce
piously disposed persons to apply pieces of gold cloth to _public_
and _sacred_, instead of private purposes. After this period we find
continual instances of their use in the decoration of churches and in
the robes of the priesthood.
AMBROSE, CL. A. D. 374.
Sericæ vestes, et auro intexta velamina, quibus divitis corpus
ambitur, damna viventium, non subsidia defunctorum sunt.--_De Nabutho
Jezraelitâ_, _cap._ i. _tom._ i. _p._ 566. _Ed. Bened._
Silken garments, and veils interwoven with gold, with which the body
of the rich man is encompassed, are a loss to the living, and no gain
to the dead.
Here we think it not out of place to introduce the account of the
silk-worm by Georgius Pisida, who flourished about A. D. 640, although
he lived at Constantinople after the breeding of silk-worms had been
introduced there. According to him the silk-worm pines or moulders
almost to nothing in its tomb, and then returns to its former shape.
The verses are however deserving of attention for their elegance, and
for the repetition of Basil’s idea, which Ambrose has left out, of the
analogy between the restoration of the silk-worm and the resurrection
of man.
Ποῖος δὲ καὶ σκωλήκα Σηρικὸν νόμος
Πείθει τὰ λαμπρόκλωστα νήματα πλέκειν,
Ἃ, τῇ βαφῇ χρωσθέντα τῆς ἁλουργίδος,
Χαυνοῖ τὸν ὄγκον τῶν κρατούντων ἐμφρόνως;
Μνήμη γὰρ αὐτοὺς εὐλαβῶς ὑποτρέχει,
Ὅτι πρὸ αὐτῶν τῆς στολῆς ἡ λαμπρότης
Σκώληκος ἦν ἔνδυμα καὶ φθαρτὴ σκέπη,
Ὃς, τῇ καθ’ ἡμᾶς μαρτυρῶν ἀναστάσει,
Θνῆσκει μὲν ἔνδον τῶν ἑαυτοῦ νημάτων,
Τὸν αὐτὸν οἶκον καὶ ταφὴν δεδεγμένος,
Σχεδὸν δὲ παντὸς τοῦ κατ’ αὐτὸν σαρκίου
Σαπέντος ἢ ῥυέντος ἢ τετηγμένου,
Χρονόυ καλοῦντος ἐκ φθορᾶς ὑποστρέφει,
Καὶ τὴν πάλαι μόρφωσιν ἀῤῥήτως φύει
Ἐν τῷ περιττεύσαντι μικρῷ λειψάνῳ,
Πρὸς τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς σωματούμενος πλάσιν.
_l._ 1265-1282.
What law persuades the Seric worm to spin
Those shining threads, which, dyed with purple hue,
Inflate, yet check the pride of mighty men?
For, whilst they blaze in grand attire, the thought
Steals on,--This splendid robe once cloth’d a worm:
Type of our resurrection from the grave,
It dies within the tomb itself has spun,
That perishing abode, which is at once
Its house and tomb; in which it rots away,
Till at the call of time it gladly leaves
Corruption, and its ancient shape resumes.
A little remnant of its mould’ring flesh,
By processes unspeakable and dark,
Restores the wonders of its earliest form.
Yates’s Translation.
MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373.
This author gives us an additional proof (_Homil._ 17, § 9,) that the
use of silken clothing was characteristic of dissolute women.
JEROME, CL., A. D. 378.
This great author mentions silk in numerous passages.
In his translation of Ezekiel xxvii. he has supposed silk (_sericum_)
to be an article of Syrian and Phœnician traffic as early as the time
of that prophet.
In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Læta on the Education of
her Daughter (_Opp. Paris_, 1546, _tom._ i. _p._ 20. C.), he says:
Let her learn also to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to place the
basket in her bosom, to twirl the spindle, to draw the threads with
her thumb. Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the
Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as
may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed.
Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c.
Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks; because
we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter,
we are called restrained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we
immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek.--_Epist.
ad Marcellum, De Ægrotatione Blesillæ, tom._ i. _p._ 156, _ed.
Erasmi_, 1526.
You formerly went with naked feet; now you not only use shoes, but
even ornamented ones. You then wore a poor tunic and a _black_ shirt
under it, dirty and pale, and having your hand callous with labor; now
you go adorned with linen and silk, and with vestments obtained from
the Atrebates and from Laodicea.--_Adv. Jovinianum, l._ ii. _Opp. ed.
Paris_, 1546, _tom._ ii. _p._ 29.
In the following he further condemns the practice of wrapping the
bodies of the dead in cloth of gold:
Why do you wrap your dead in garments of gold? Why does not ambition
cease amidst wailings and tears? Cannot the bodies of the rich go to
corruption except in silk?--_Epist._ L. ii.
You cannot but be offended yourself, when you admire garments of silk
and gold in others.--_Epist._ L. ii. No. 9, _p._ 138, _ed. Par._ 1613,
_12mo._
CHRYSOSTOM, CL., A. D. 398.
Ἀλλὰ σηρικὰ τὰ ἱμάτια; ἀλλὰ ῥακίων γέμουσα ἡ ψυχή.
_Comment. in Psalm 48. tom._ v. _p._ 517. _ed. Ben._
Does the rich man wear silken shawls? His soul however is full of
tatters.
Καλὰ τὰ σηρικὰ ἱμάτια, ἀλλὰ σκωλήκων ἐστὶν ὕφασμα.
(_Quoted by Vossius, Etym. Lat. p._ 466.)
Silken shawls are beautiful, but the production of worms.
Chrysostom also inveighs against the practice of embroidering shoes
with silk thread, observing that it was a shame even to wear it woven
in shawls. Such is the change of circumstances, that now even the
poorest persons of both sexes, if decently attired, have silk in their
shoes.
HELIODORUS, CL., A. D. 390.
This author, describing the ceremonies at the nuptials of Theagenes
and Chariclea, says, “The ambassadors of the Seres came, bringing the
thread and webs of their spiders, one of the webs dyed _purple_ (!),
the other white.” _Æthiopica, lib._ x. _p._ 494. _Commelini._
Salmasius (_in Tertullianum de Pallio, p._ 242.) quotes the following
passage from _an uncertain author_.
Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ παρόντος βίου τερπνότης Ἰνδικῷ σκωληκιῷ, ὅπερ τῷ
φυλλῷ τοῦ δένδρου συντυλιχθὲν, καὶ τῇ τροφῇ ἀσχοληθὲν, συνεπνίγη ἐν
αὐτῷ τοῦ μεταξίου κουκουλίῳ.
The pleasure of the present life is like the Indian worm, which,
having involved itself in the leaf of the tree and having been
satisfied with food, chokes itself in the cocoon of its own
thread.--Yates’s Translation.
This writer, whoever he was, appears to have had a correct idea of the
manner in which the silk-worm wraps itself in a leaf of the tree, on
which it feeds, and spins its tomb within[64].
[64] In the Royal Museum of Natural History at Leyden are eight or ten
cocoons of the Phalæna Atlas from Java. They consist of a strong
silk, and are formed upon the leaves of a kind of Ficus. The first
layer of the cocoon covers the whole of a leaf, and receives the
exact impress of its form. Then two or three other layers are
distinctly perceptible. Two or three leaves are joined together to
form the cocoon. In regard to the looseness of the layers these
cocoons do not correspond to M. Breton’s description of the cocoons
of the wild silk-worms of China, which are very strong and compact,
and therefore more resemble those of the Phalæna Paphia.
FIFTH CENTURY.
PRUDENTIUS, CL., A. D. 405.
The following sentence occurs in a speech of St. Lawrence at his
martyrdom:
Hunc, qui superbit serico,
Quem currus inflatum vehit;
Hydrops aquosus lucido
Tendit veneno intrinsecus.
_Peristeph. Hymn._ ii. _l._ 237-240.
See him, attir’d in silken pride,
Inflated in his chariot ride;
The lucid poison works within,
Dropsy distends his swollen skin.
In another Hymn to the honor of St. Romanus we find the following lines:
Aurum regestum nonne carni adquiritur?
Inlusa vestis, gemma, bombyx, purpura,
In carnis usum mille quæruntur dolis.
_Peristeph. Hymn._ x.
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.
In the same Hymn (_l._ 1015.) Prudentius describes a heathen priest
sacrificing a bull, and dressed _in a silken toga_ which is held up by
the Gabine cincture (_Cinctu Gabino Sericam fultus togam_). Perhaps,
however, we ought here to understand that the cincture only, not the
whole toga, was of silk. It was used to fasten and support the toga by
being drawn over the breast.
In two other passages this poet censures the progress of luxury in
dress, and especially when adopted by men.
Sericaque in fractis fluitent ut pallia membris
_Psychomachia, l._ 365.
The silken scarfs float o’er their weaken’d limbs.
Sed pudet esse viros: quærunt vanissima quæque
Quîs niteant: genuina leves ut robora solvant,
Vellere non ovium, sed Eoo ex orbe petitis
Ramorum spoliis fluitantes sumere amictus,
Gaudent, et durum scutulis perfundere corpus.
Additur ars, ut fila herbis saturata recoctis
Inludant varias distincto stamine formas.
Ut quæque est lanugo feræ mollissima tactu,
Pectitur. Hunc videas lascivas præpete cursu
Venantem tunicas, avium quoque versicolorum
Indumenta novis texentem plumea telis:
Ilium pigmentis redolentibus, et peregrino
Pulvere femineas spargentem turpitur auras.
_Hamartigenia, l._ 286-298.
They blush to be call’d men: they seek to shine
In ev’ry vainest garb. Their native strength
To soften and impair, they gaily choose
A flowing scarf, not made of wool from sheep,
But of those fleeces from the Eastern world,
The spoil of trees. Their hardy frame they deck
All o’er with tesselated spots: and art
Is added, that the threads, twice dyed with herbs,
May sportively intwine their various hues
And mimic forms, within the yielding warp.
Whatever creature wears the softest down,
They comb its fleece. This man with headlong course
Hunts motley tunics which inflame desire,
_Invents new looms_, and weaves a feather’d vest,
Which with the plumage of the birds compares:
That, scented with cosmetics, basely sheds
Effeminate foreign powder all around.
PALLADIUS.
A work remains under the name of Palladius on “The Nations of India
and the Brachmans.” Whether it is by the same Palladius, who wrote the
Historia Lausiaca, is disputed. But, as we see no reason to doubt, that
it may have been written as early as his time, we introduce here the
passages, which have been found in it, relating to the present subject.
The author represents the Bramins as saying to Alexander the Great,
“You envelope yourselves in soft clothing, like the silk-worms.” (_p._
17. _ed. Bissœi._) It is also asserted, that Alexander did not pass
the Ganges, but went as far as Serica, where the silk-worms produce
raw-silk (p. 2.).
In the London edition this tract is followed by one in Latin, bearing
the name of St. Ambrose and entitled DE MORIBUS BRACHMANORUM.
It contains nearly the same matter with the preceding. The writer
professes to have obtained his information from “Musæus Dolenorum
Episcopus,” meaning, as it appears from the Greek tract, Moses, Bishop
of Adule, of whom he says,
Sericam ferè universam regionem peragravit: in quâ refert arbores
esse, quæ non solum folia, sed lanam quoque proferunt tenuissimam, ex
quâ vestimenta con ficiuntur, quæ Serica nuncupantur. _p._ 58.
He travelled through nearly all the country of the Seres, in which, he
says, that there are trees producing not only leaves, but the finest
wool, from which are made the garments called Serica.
These notices are not devoid of value as indicating what were the first
steps to intercourse with the original silk country. It may however
be doubted, whether the last account here quoted is a modification of
the ideas previously current among the Greeks and Romans, or whether
it arose from the mistakes of Moses himself, or of other Christian
travellers into the interior of Asia, _who confounded the production of
silk with that of cotton_.
THE THEODOSIAN CODE,
published A. D. 438, mentions silk (_sericam et metaxam_) in various
passages.
APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS, CL., A. D. 472.
Describing the products of different countries, this learned author
says (_Carmen._ v. _l._ 42-50),
Fert
Assyrius gemmas, Ser vellera, thura Sabæus.
Th’ Assyrian brings his gems, the Ser
His fleeces, the Sabean frankincense.
In a passage (_Carmen._ xv.), he mentions a pall,
Cujus bis coctus aheno
Serica Sidonius fucabat stamina murex.
The Tyrian murex, twice i’ th’ cauldron boil’d,
Had dyed its silken threads.
The expression here used, indicates that the silk thread was brought
from the country of the Seres to be dyed in Phœnice. In Horace we have
already noticed the “Coæ purpuræ.”
A passage from the Burgus Pontii Leontii (_Carmen._ xxii.), shows that
the same article (_Serica fila_) was imported into Gaul.
In the same author (_l._ ii. _Epist. ad Serranum_) we meet with
“Sericatum toreuma.” The latter word probably denoted a carved sofa or
couch. The epithet “sericatum” may have referred to its silken cover.
The same author describes Prince Sigismer, who was about to be married,
going in a splendid procession and thus clothed:
Ipse medius incessit, flammeus cocco, rutilus auro, lacteus serico.
_L._ iv. _Epist. p._ 107. _ed. Elmenhorstii_.
He himself marched in the midst, his attire flaming with coccus,
glittering with gold, and of milky whiteness with silk.
Describing the heat of the weather, he says:
One man perspires in cotton, another in silk.
_L._ ii. _Epist._ 2.
Lastly, in the following lines he alludes to the practice of giving
silk to the successful charioteers at the Circensian games:
The Emp’ror, just as powerful, ordains
That silks with palms be given, crowns with chains:
Thus marks high merit, and inferior praise
In brilliant _carpets_ to the rest conveys.
_Carmen._ xxiii. _l._ 423-427.
ALCIMUS AVITUS, CL., A. D. 490.
Describing the rich man in the parable of Lazarus, this author says:
Ipse cothurnatus gemmis et fulgidus auro
Serica bis coctis mutabat tegmina blattis.
_L._ iii. 222.
In jewell’d buskins and a blaze of gold,
Silk shawls, or twice in scarlet dipt, he wore.
Avitus also mentions “the soft fleeces sent by the Seres.”
SIXTH CENTURY.
BOETHIUS, CL., A. D. 510
Nor honey into wine they pour’d, nor mix’d
Bright Seric fleeces with the Tyrian dye.
_De Consol. Philos._ ii.
The Tyrians are chiefly known to us in commercial history for their
skill in dyeing; the Tyrian purple formed one of the most general and
principal articles of luxury in antiquity: but dyeing could scarcely
have existed without weaving, and though we have no direct information
respecting the Tyrian and Sidonian looms, we possess several ancient
references to their excellence, the less suspicious because they are
incidental. Homer, for instance, when Hecuba, on the recommendation
of the heroic Hector, resolves to make a rich offering to Minerva,
describes her as selecting one of Sidonian manufacture as the finest
which could be obtained.
The Phrygian queen to her rich wardrobe went
Where treasured odors breathed a costly scent;
There lay the vestures of no vulgar art--
Sidonian maids embroider’d every part,
Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore
With Helen, touching on the Tyrian shore.
Here, as the queen revolved with careful eyes
The various textures and the various dyes,
She chose a veil that shone superior far,
And glow’d refulgent as the morning star.
_Iliad_, vi.
Tyre appears to have been the only city of antiquity which made dyeing
its chief occupation, and the staple of its commerce. There is little
doubt that purple, the sacred symbol of royal and sacerdotal dignity,
was a color discovered in that city; and, that it contributed to its
opulence and grandeur. It is related that a shepherd’s dog, instigated
by hunger, having broken a shell on the sea shore, his mouth became
stained with a color, which excited the admiration of all who saw it,
and that the same color was afterwards applied with great success
to the dyeing of wool. According to some of the ancient writers,
this discovery is placed in the reign of Phœnix, second King of Tyre
(five hundred years before the Christian era); others fix it in that
of Minos, who reigned 939 years earlier or, 1439 B. C. The honor of
the invention of dyeing purple, is however, generally awarded to the
Tyrian Hercules, who presented his discovery to the king of Phœnicia;
and the latter was so jealous of the beauties of this new color, that
he forbade the use of it to all his subjects, reserving it for the
garments of royalty alone. Some authors relate the story differently:
Hercules’ dog having stained his mouth with a shell, which he had
broken on the seashore, Tysus, a nymph of whom Hercules was enamored,
was so charmed with the beauty of the color, that she declared she
would see her lover no more until he had brought garments dyed of the
same. Hercules, in order to gratify his mistress, collected a great
number of the shells, and succeeded in staining a robe of the color
she had demanded. “Colored dresses,” says Pliny[65], “were known in
the time of Homer (900 B. C.), from which the robes of triumph were
borrowed.” Purple habits are mentioned among the presents made to
Gideon, by the Israelites, from the spoils of the kings of Midan.
Ovid, in his description of the contest in weaving between Minerva and
Arachne, dwells not only on the beauty of the figures which the rivals
wove, but also mentions the delicacy of shading by which the various
colors were made to harmonize together:
[65] Plin. viii. 48.
Then both their mantles button’d to their breast,
Their skilful fingers ply with willing haste,
And work with pleasure, while they cheer the eye
With glowing purple of the Tyrian dye:
Or justly intermixing shades with light,
Their colorings insensibly unite
As when a shower, transpierced with sunny rays,
Its mighty arch along the heaven displays;
From whence a thousand different colors rise
Whose fine transition cheats the clearest eyes;
So like the intermingled shading seems
And only differs in the last extremes.
Their threads of gold both artfully dispose,
And, as each part in just proportion rose,
Some antic fable in their work disclose.--_Metam._ vi.
The Tyrian purple was communicated by means of several species of
univalve shell-fish. Pliny gives us an account of two kinds of
shell-fish from which the purple was obtained. The first of these was
called _buccinum_, the other _purpura_[66]. A single drop of the liquid
dye was obtained from a small vessel or sac, in their throats, to the
amount of only _one drop_ from _each_ animal! A certain quantity of the
juice thus collected being heated with sea salt, was allowed to ripen
for three days, after which it was diluted with five times its bulk of
water, kept at a moderate heat for six days more, occasionally skimmed,
to separate the animal membranes, and when thus clarified, was applied
directly as a dye to white wool, previously prepared for this purpose,
by the action of lime-water, or of a species of lichen called fucus.
Two operations were requisite to communicate the finest Tyrian purple;
the first consisted in plunging the wool into the juice of the purpura,
the second into that of the buccinum. Fifty drachms of wool required
one hundred of the former liquor, and two hundred of the latter.
Sometimes a preliminary tint was given with cocus, the kermes of the
present day, and the cloth received merely a finish from the precious
animal juice. The color appears to have been very durable; for Plutarch
observes in his life of Alexander[67], that, at the taking of Susa,
the Greeks found in the royal treasury of Darius a quantity of purple
stuffs of the value of five thousand talents, which still retained its
beauty, though it had lain there for one hundred and ninety years[68].
[66] Plin. Lib. vi. c. 36.
[67] Plutarch, chap. 36.
[68] The true value of the talent cannot well be ascertained, but it is
known that it was different among different nations. The Attic
talent, the weight, contained 60 Attic minæ, or 6000 Attic drachmæ,
equal to 56 pounds, 11 ounces, English troy weight. The mina being
reckoned equal to £3 4_s._ 7_d._ sterling, or $14 33 cents; the
talent was of the value of £193 15_s._ sterling, about $861. Other
computations make it £225 sterling.
The Romans had the great talent and the little talent; the great
talent is computed to be equal to £99 6_s._ 8_d._ sterling, and the
little talent to £75 sterling.
2. _Talent_, among the Hebrews, was also a gold coin, the same
with a shekel of gold; called also stater, and weighing only four
drachmas. But the Hebrew talent of silver, called _cicar_, was
equivalent to three thousand shekels, or one hundred and thirteen
pounds, ten ounces, and a fraction, troy weight.--_Arbuthnot._
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE CONTINUED FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF
SILK-WORMS INTO EUROPE, A.D. 530, TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
A. D. 530.--Introduction of silk-worms into Europe--Mode by which
it was effected--The Serinda of Procopius the same with the modern
Khotan--The silk-worm never bred in Sir-hind--Silk shawls of Tyre
and Berytus--Tyrannical conduct of Justinian--Ruin of the silk
manufactures--Oppressive conduct of Peter Barsames--Menander
Protector--Surprise of Maniak the Sogdian ambassador--Conduct of
Chosroes, king of Persia--Union of the Chinese and Persians against
the Turks--The Turks in self-defence seek an alliance with the
Romans--Mortification of the Turkish ambassador--Reception of the
Byzantine ambassador by Disabul, king of the Sogdiani--Display of silk
textures--Paul the Silentiary’s account of silk--Isidorus Hispalensis.
Mention of silk by authors in the seventh century--Dorotheus,
Archimandrite of Palestine--Introduction of silk-worms into Chubdan,
or Khotan--Theophylactus Simocatta--Silk manufactures of Turfan--Silk
known in England in this century--First worn by Ethelbert, king of
Kent--Use of by the French kings--Aldhelmus’s beautiful description of
the silk-worm--Simile between weaving and virtue. Silk in the eighth
century--Bede. In the tenth century--Use of silk by the English,
Welsh, and Scotch kings. Twelfth century--Theodorus Prodromus--Figured
shawls of the Seres--Ingulphus describes vestments of silk
interwoven with eagles and flowers of gold--Great value of silk
about this time--Silk manufactures of Sicily--Its introduction into
Spain. Fourteenth century--Nicholas Tegrini--Extension of the Silk
manufacture through Europe, illustrated by etymology--Extraordinary
beauty of silk and golden textures used in the decoration of churches
in the middle ages--Silk rarely mentioned in the ninth, eleventh, or
thirteenth centuries.
We now come to the very interesting account of the first introduction
of silk-worms into Europe, which is given by Procopius in the following
terms. (_De Bello Gothico_, iv. 17.)
“About this time (A. D. 530.) two monks, having arrived from India,
and learnt that Justinian was desirous that his subjects should no
longer purchase raw silk from the Persians, went to him and offered
to contrive means, by which the Romans would no longer be under the
necessity of importing this article from their enemies the Persians or
any other nation. They said, that they had long resided in the country
called Serinda, one of those inhabited by the various Indian nations,
and had accurately informed themselves how raw silk might be produced
in the country of the Romans. In reply to the repeated and minute
inquiries of this Emperor, they stated, that the raw silk is made by
worms, which nature instructs and continually prompts to this labor;
but that to bring the worms alive to Byzantium would be impossible;
that the breeding of them is quite easy; that each parent animal
produces numberless eggs, which long after their birth are covered with
manure by persons who have the care of them, and being thus warmed a
sufficient time, are hatched. The Emperor having promised the monks a
handsome reward, if they would put in execution what they had proposed,
they returned to India and brought the eggs to Byzantium, where, having
hatched them in the manner described, they fed them with the leaves of
the _Black Mulberry_, and thus enabled the Romans thenceforth to obtain
raw silk in their own country.”
The same narrative, abridged from Procopius, is found in Manuel Glycas
(_Annal. l._ iv. _p._ 209.), and Zonares (_Annal. l._ xiv. _p._ 69.
_ed. Du Cange._). In the abstract given by Photius (_Biblioth. p._ 80.
_ed. Rotham_) of the history of Theophanes Byzantinus, who was a writer
of nearly the same age with Procopius, we find a narrative, in which
the only variation is, that a Persian brought the eggs to Byzantium in
the hollow stem of a plant. The method now practised in transporting
the eggs from country to country is to place them in a bottle not more
than half full, so that by being tossed about, they may be kept cool
and fresh. If too close, they would probably be heated and hatch on the
journey[69].
[69] Transactions of the Society for encouraging Arts, Manufactures,
&c., vol. xliii. p. 236.
The authors who have hitherto treated of the history of the silk-worm,
have supposed the Serinda of Procopius to be the modern Sir-hind, a
city of Circar in the North of Hindostan[70]. Notwithstanding the
striking similarity of names, we think it more likely that Serinda was
adopted by Procopius as another name for Khotan in Little Bucharia. The
ancients included Khotan among the Indian nations[71]: and that they
were right in so doing is established from the facts, that Sanscrit
was the ancient language of the inhabitants of Khotan; that their
alphabetical characters, their laws, and their literature resembled
those of the Hindoos; and that they had a tradition of being Indian
in their origin[72]. Since, therefore, Khotan was also included in
the ancient Serica, a term probably of wide and rather indefinite
extent[73]; the name _Serinda_ would exactly denote the origin and
connexions of the race which occupied Khotan.
[70] In this they have followed D’Anville, Antiquité Géographique de
l’Inde, Paris, 1775, p. 63.
[71] In proof of this we refer to Heeren, Ideen, i. l. p. 358-387, on
the Indian tribes which constituted one of the Persian Satrapies,
and in which the inhabitants of Khotan appear to have been
included; and also to Cellarii Antiqui Orbis Notitia, l. iii. c.
23. § 2.
[72] Rémusat, Hist. de la Ville de Khotan, p. 32. Note 1. and p. 37.
[73] De Guignes (Hist. Gen. des Huns, tome i. p. v.) expresses his
opinion, that Serica, besides the North of China, included the
countries towards the West, which were conquered by the Chinese,
viz. Hami, Turfan, and other neighboring territories. Rennell (Mem.
of a map of Hindostan) agrees with D’Anville, _that Serica was at
the Northwest angle of the present empire of China_. Heeren decides
in favor of the same opinion, supposing Serica to be identical with
the modern Tongut. Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gottingensis, vol.
xi. p. 106. 111. Gottingæ, 1793.
Pausanias observes that the Seres, in order to breed the insects
which produced silk, had houses adapted both for summer and winter,
which implies that there was a vast difference between the summer
and winter temperature of their country. A late oriental traveller
says of the climate of Khotan, “In the summer, when melons ripen,
it is very hot in these countries; but, during winter, extremely
cold.”--Wathen’s Memoir on Chinese Tartary and Khotan, in Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, December 1835, p. 659.
On referring to the map, Plate VII., the reader will see the
position of Serica indicated at its Eastern extremity. As that map
is limited to the _Orbis Veteribus Cognitus_, only a small space on
its border is marked as the country of silk indicated by the yellow
color. It is, nevertheless, pretty certain that silk may be justly
placed next in order to wool.
On the other hand, although Sir-hind is termed “an ancient city” by
Major Rennell[74], we cannot find any evidence that the silk-worm was
ever bred there. So far is this from being the case, that it appears to
be a country very ill adapted for the production of silk[75]. It may
indeed be true, as stated by Latreille, that Sir-hind was colonized
from Khotan, and it may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance in
confirmation of this supposition, that there is a town called Kotana a
little way to the North East of the City of Sir-hind. But, supposing
this account to be correct, it is highly probable that the settlement
of Sir-hind as a colony of Khotan did not take place till after the
year 530, when the breeding of silk-worms was according to Procopius
introduced into Europe from “Serinda.” Rather more than 120 years
before this time India was visited by the Chinese traveller, Fa Hian,
who on his way passed some months with great delight and admiration in
Khotan; and the special object of whose journey was to see and describe
all the cities of India where Buddhism was professed. The inhabitants
of Khotan being wholly devoted to that delusion, the same system must
have been established in its colony; and, since this zealous pilgrim
crossed India at no great distance from the spot where Sir-hind
afterwards stood, we cannot doubt that he would have mentioned it, if
it had existed in his age. He says not a word about it; and the time is
comparatively so short between his visit to India and the date of the
introduction of silk-worms into Europe, that we can scarcely suppose
Sir-hind, the colony of Khotan and consequently the seat of Buddhism,
to have been in existence either at the former or latter period[76].
[74] Memoir of a Map of Hindostan.
[75] “The S. W. portion of the Circar Sir-hind is extremely barren,
being covered with low scrubby wood, and in many places destitute
of water. About A. D. 1357 Feroze the Third cut several canals from
the Jumna and the Sutlege in order to fertilize this naturally arid
country.”--Walter Hamilton’s Description of Hindostan, vol. i. p.
465.
[76]Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, ou Relation des royaumes bouddhiques: Voyage dans la
Tartarie, dans l’Afghanistan, et dans l’Inde; traduit du Chinois et
commenté par Rémusat, Klaproth, et Landresse. Paris, 1836, 4to.
In another passage of his history (_Bell. Pers._ 1. 20.) Procopius
throws some light upon our subject by stating that in consequence
of the monopoly of the trade in raw silk by the Persians, Justinian
attempted to obtain it through the Æthiopians of Arabia, but found this
to be impracticable, as the Persian merchants frequented the ports to
which the Indians resorted, and from them purchased all their cargoes.
Procopius further states (_Hist. Arcana, c._ 25.), that _silk shawls_
had long been manufactured in the Phœnician cities Tyre and Berytus (to
which all who were concerned in the silk trade, either as merchants
or manufacturers, consequently resorted, and from whence goods were
carried to every part of the earth); but that in the reign of Justinian
the manufacturers in Byzantium and other Greek cities raised the
prices of their goods, alleging that the Persians had also advanced
theirs, while the imposts were increased among the Romans. Justinian,
pretending to be much concerned at the high prices, forbade any one
in his dominions to sell silk for more than eight _aurei_ per pound,
threatening confiscation of goods against any one who transgressed
the law. To comply was impossible, since they were required to sell
their goods at a price lower than that for which they bought them.
They therefore abandoned the trade, and secretly sold the remnant
of their goods for what they could get. The Empress Theodora, on
being apprised of this, immediately seized the goods and fined the
proprietors a hundred _aurei_ besides. It was then determined, that the
silk manufacture should be carried on solely by the Imperial Treasurer.
PETER BARSAMES held the office, and conducted himself in
relation to this business in the most unjust and oppressive manner, so
that the silk-trade was ruined not only in Byzantium but also at Tyre
and Berytus, while the Emperor, Empress and their Treasurer amassed
great wealth by the monopoly.
MENANDER PROTECTOR, A. D. 560-570.
In an account of an embassy sent to Constantinople by the Avars of
Sarmatia, this author states, that the Emperor Justinian endeavored to
excite their admiration by a display of splendid couches, gold chains,
and garments of silk[77].
[77] Corp. Hist. Byzant. ed. 1729. tom. i. p. 67.
The establishment of the Turkish power in Asia, about the middle of the
sixth century, together with subsequent wars, had greatly interrupted
the caravan trade between China and Persia. On the return of peace,
the Sogdians, an Asiatic people, who had the greatest interest in the
revival of the trade, persuaded the Turkish sovereign, whose subjects
they were become, to send an embassy to Chosroes, king of Persia, to
open a negotiation for this purpose. Maniak, a Sogdian prince, who was
ambassador, being instructed to request that the Sogdians might be
allowed to supply the Persians with silk; presented himself before the
Persian monarch in the double character of merchant and envoy, carrying
with him many bales of silken merchandise, for which he hoped to find
purchasers among the Persians. But Chosroes, who thought the conveyance
by sea to the Persian Gulf more advantageous to his subjects than this
proposed traffic, was not disposed to lend a favorable ear to the
legation, and rather uncourteously showed his contempt for the Sogdian
traders. He bought up all the silk which the ambassador had carried
with him, and immediately burned it before them; thus giving the most
convincing proof of the little value which it had in his estimation.
After this the Persians and Chinese united against the Turks, who,
to strengthen themselves, sought an alliance with the Emperor Justin.
Maniak was again appointed ambassador, and sent to negotiate the terms
of the alliance; but disappointment, though from a dissimilar cause,
attended this his second embassy. The sight of silk-worms, and the
establishment for manufacturing their produce, in Constantinople,
were to him as unwelcome as unexpected; he however concealed
his mortification, and, with perhaps an overstrained civility,
acknowledged, that the Romans were already become as expert as the
Chinese in both the management of silk-worms and manufacture of their
silk[78]; and when in the fourth year of Justin II. (_i. e._ A. D.
569.) they went on the same mission to Byzantium, they found that here
also there was no demand, since silk-worms were bred there already.
Soon after this we learn· that the Byzantines sent an embassy to
Disabul, King of the Sogdiani, who received the ambassadors in tents
covered with variously-colored silks.
[78] Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlii.
PAUL, THE SILENTIARY, A. D. 562,
mentions silk thread, used in adorning the vestments in the church of
St. Sophia at Constantinople. (P. ii. l. 368.) The note of the Editor,
Du Cange, on the description of the pall, (577.), contains various
quotations from ecclesiastical writers, which mention “vela rubea
Serica;” “vela alba holoserica rasata;” “vela serica de blattin.” These
quotations show, that silk had been introduced into general use for the
churches.
ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS, CL., A. D. 575.
The etymological work of Isidore of Seville may be regarded as a kind
of encyclopedia, exhibiting the general state of knowledge and art at
the time when he wrote. Hence the following descriptive extracts are
well deserving of attention.
Bombyx frondium vermis, ex cujus texturâ Bombycinum conficitur.
Appellatur autem hoc nomine ab eo quod evacuetur dum fila generat, et
aer solus in eo remanet.--_Origin. l._ xii. _c._ 5.
Bombyx, a worm which lives upon the leaves of trees, and from whose
web silk is made. It is called Bombyx, because it empties itself in
producing threads, and nothing but air remains within it.
The cloth called _Bombycina_, derives its name from the silk-worm
(_Bombyx_), which emits very long threads; the web woven from them is
called Bombycinum, and is made in the island of Cos.
That called _Serica_ derives its name from silk (_sericum_), or from
the circumstance, that is was first obtained from the Seres.
_Holoserica_ is all of silk: for _Holon_ means _all_.
_Tramoserica_ has a warp of linen; and a woof (_trama_) of silk.--L.
xix. c. 22.
Touching these extracts we would remark, that the testimony of Isidore
must not be considered as proving, that the silk manufacture still
existed in Cos. His statement was no doubt merely copied from Varro or
Pliny, or founded upon the authority of other writers long anterior to
his own age. It is indeed probable that silk-worms had by this time
been brought into Greece, but that he was ignorant of the fact.
SEVENTH CENTURY.
DOROTHEUS, ARCHIMANDRITE OF PALESTINE, A. D. 601.
Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐνδεδυμένος ὁλοσήρικον.--_Doctr._ 2, _as quoted in Cod.
Theodos. Gothofredi. L. Bat._ 1665.
For as a man wearing a tunic entirely of silk.
THEOPHYLACTUS SIMOCATTA, A. D. 629.
This author, in his Universal History (_l._ vii. c. 9.), informs us
that the silk manufacture was carried on at Chubdan, with the greatest
skill and activity, which was probably the same as Khotan, or, as it
was called in his time, Ku-tan[79].
[79] Itinéraire de Hiuan Thsang, Appendice ii. à Foe Koue Ki, p. 399.
We have, moreover, the following account of the origin of the growth
and manufacture of silk in that country (p. 55, 56.).
“The monastery of Lou-che (_occupied by Buddhists_) is to the
south-west of the royal city. Formerly the inhabitants of this kingdom
had neither mulberries nor silk-worms. They heard of them in the
East country, and sent an embassy to ask for them. The King of the
East refused the request, and issued the strictest injunctions to
prevent either mulberries or silk-worms’ eggs from being conveyed
across the border. Then the King of Kiu-sa-tan-na (_i. e._ _Koustana_,
or _Khotan_) asked of him a princess in marriage. This having been
granted, the king charged the officer of his court who went to escort
her, to say, that in his country there were neither mulberry-trees
nor cocoons, and that she must introduce them, _or be without silk
dresses_. The princess, having received this information, obtained the
seed both of mulberries, and silk-worms, which she concealed in her
head-dress. On arriving at the frontier, the officers searched every
where, but dare not touch the turban of the princess. Having arrived
at the spot, where the monastery of Lou-che was afterwards erected,
she deposited the seed both of the mulberries and worms. The trees
were planted in the spring, and she afterwards went herself to assist
in gathering the leaves. At first the worms were fed upon the leaves
of other plants, and a law was enacted, that no worms were to be
destroyed or sacrificed until their quantity was sufficiently great.
The monastery was founded to commemorate so great a benefit, and some
trunks of the original mulberry-trees can yet be seen there[80].”
[80] It may be observed, that the folds of the turban are not
unfrequently used in the East to convey articles of value. See
Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, by Charles Fellows, London, 1839,
p. 216.
In the following passage (_Règne Animal, par Cuvier, tom._ v. _p._
402.,) Latreille mentions Turfan as an important city as far as it
affected the early silk-trade. In other respects his account coincides
with that already given.
“La ville de Turfan, dans la petite Bucharie, fut long-temps le
rendez-vous des caravanes venant de l’Ouest, et l’entrepôt principal
des soieries de la Chine. Elle était la métropole des Sères de l’Asie
supérieure, ou de la Sérique de Ptolémée. Expulsés de leurs pays par
les Huns, les Sères s’établirent dans la grande Bucharie et dans
l’Inde. C’est d’une de leurs colonies, du Ser-hend (_Ser-indi_), que
des missionaires Grecs transportèrent, du temps
de Justinien, les œufs du ver à soie à Constantinople.”
The City of Turfan in Little Bucharia was for a long time the
rendezvous of the caravans coming from the West, and the principal
market for Chinese silks. It was the metropolis of the Seres of Upper
Asia, or the Serica of Ptolemy. The Seres having been expelled their
country by the Huns, established themselves in Great Bucharia and
in India. It is from one of their colonies (of Ser-indi), that the
Grecian Missionaries, in the time of Justinian, brought the eggs of
the silk-worm to Constantinople.
A diploma of ETHELBERT, King of Kent, mentions “Armilausia
holoserica,” proving that silk was known in England at the end of the
sixth century[81]. The usual dress of the earliest French kings seems
to have been a linen shirt and drawers of the same material next to the
skin; over these a tunic, probably of fine wool, which had a border
of silk, ornamented sometimes with gold or precious stones; and upon
this a sagum, which was fastened with a fibula on the right shoulder.
Eginhart informs us, that Charlemagne wore a tunic, or vest, with a
silken border (_limbo serico_)[82].
[81] Dugdale’s Monasticon, vol. i. p. 24. Adelung’s Glossarium Manuale,
v. Armilausia.
[82] Examples of it may be seen, I. in the two figures of Charlemagne,
executed in mosaic during his life-time, one of which is preserved
in the Penitentiary of St. John Lateran at Rome, and both of these
are described by Spon in his Miscellanea Eruditæ Antiquitatus (p.
284.); II. in the figure of Charles the Bald, the grandson of
Charlemagne, which is in the splendid copy of the Latin Gospels
made for his use, now preserved in the library at Munich, and
which may be seen engraved in Sanft’s Dissertation on that MS. (p.
42.); III. in the figure of an early French king engraved from a
MS. by Baluzius in his Capitularia Regum Francorum (tom. ii. p.
1308.); and IV. in the first volume of Montfaucon’s Monumens de la
Monarchie Française.
ALDHELMUS, CL., A. D. 680.
This author, who died Abbot of Sherburn, was among the most learned men
of his age. In his Ænigmas, which are written in tetrastics, we find
the following description of the silk-worm. As it is scarcely possible
that he could have seen this creature, we have cause to admire both the
ingenuity and general accuracy of his lines. The ascending to the tops
of thorns or shrubs, such as “genistæ,” to which the animal may attach
its cocoon (_globulum_), has not been noticed by any earlier author.
De Bombycibus.
Annua dum redeunt texendi tempora telas,
Lurida setigeris replentur viscera filis;
Moxque genistarum frondosa cacumina scando,
Ut globulus fabricans cum fati sorte quiescam.
_Maxima Bibl. Vet. Patrum, tom._ xiii. _p._ 25.
Soon as the year brings round the time to spin,
My entrails dark with hairy threads are fill’d:
Then to the leafy lops of shrubs I climb,
Make my cocoon, and rest by fate’s decree.
In a book written by this author, in praise of virginity, he observes,
That chastity alone did not form an amiable and perfect character,
but required to be accompanied and adorned by many other virtues; and
this observation he further illustrates by the following simile taken
from the art of weaving: “As it is not a web of one uniform color and
texture, without any variety of figures, that pleaseth the eye and
appears beautiful, _but one that is woven by shuttles, filled with
threads of purple, and many other colors, flying from side to side, and
forming a variety of figures and images_, in different compartments,
with admirable art.”--_Bibliotheca Patrum, tom._ xiii.
EIGHTH CENTURY.
BEDE, CL., A. D. 701.
Joseph autem mercatus est sindonem, et deponens eum involvit sindone.
(_Marc._ xv. 46.)--Et ex simplici sepultura domini ambitio divitum
condemnatur, qui ne in tumulis quidem possunt carere divitiis.
Possumus autem juxta intelligentiam spiritalem hoc sentire, quod
corpus domini non auro, non gemmis et serico, sed linteamine puro
obvolvendum sit, quanquam et hoc significet, quod ille in sindone
munda involvat Jesum, qui pura eum mente susceperit. Hinc ecclesiæ mos
obtinuit, ut sacrificium altaris non in serico, neque in panno tincto,
sed in lino terreno celebretur, sicut corpus est domini in sindone
munda sepultum, juxta quod in gestis pontificalibus a beato Papâ
Silvestro legimus esse statutum.--_Expos. in Marcum, tom._ v. _p._
207. _Col. Agrip._ 1688.
But Joseph bought a linen cloth, and, taking him down, wrapped him
in the linen cloth. (Mark xv. 46.)--The simple burial of our Lord
condemns the ambition of rich men, who cannot be without wealth even
in their tombs. That his body is to be wrapped not in gold, not in
silk and precious stones, but in pure linen, may be understood by us
spiritually. It also intimates, that he incloses Jesus in a clean
linen cloth, who receives him with a pure mind. Hence the custom of
the church has obtained, to celebrate the sacrifice of the altar,
not in silk, nor in dyed cloth, but in earthy flax, as the body of
our Lord was buried in a clean linen cloth; for so we read in the
pontifical acts, that it was decreed by the blessed Pope Silvester.
The latter portion of this extract, wherein we are informed of the
origin of the practice, universally adopted, of covering the Eucharist
with a white linen cloth, must be a _later_ addition. Pope Silvester
lived, as the reader will perceive, long _after_ the time of Bede.
Bede, in his History of the Abbots of Wearmouth, states that the first
abbot and founder of the monastery, Biscop, surnamed Benedict, went a
fifth time to Rome for ornaments and books to enrich it, and on this
occasion (A. D. 685.) brought two _scarfs_, or palls, of incomparable
workmanship, composed entirely of silk, with which he afterwards
purchased the land of three families situated at the mouth of the
Wear[83]. This shows the high value of silken articles at that period.
[83] Bedæ Hist. Eccles. &c. cura Jo. Smith. Cantab. 1722. p. 297.
Mr. Sharon Turner, speaking of Bede, says, “His own remains were
inclosed in silk. Mag. Bib. xvi. p. 88. It often adorned the altars
of the church; and we read of a present to a West-Saxon bishop of a
casula, not entirely of silk, but mixed with goat’s wool.” Ibid. p.
50. He refers to p. 97. of the same volume, as mentioning “pallia
holoserica.”--History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii. book vii.
chap. 4. p. 48, 49.
TENTH CENTURY.
About the year 970 Kenneth, king of Scotland, paid a visit in London
to Edgar, king of England. The latter sovereign, to evince at once his
friendship and munificence, bestowed upon his illustrious guest silks,
rings, and gems, together with one hundred ounces of pure gold[84].
[84] Lingard’s Hist. of England, vol. i. 241. London, 1819, 4to.
Perhaps we may refer to the same date the composition of the “Lady of
the Fountain,” a Welsh tale, recently translated by Lady Charlotte
Guest[85]. At the opening of this poem King Arthur is represented
sitting in his chamber at Caer-leon upon Usk. It is said,
In the centre of the chamber, King Arthur sat upon a seat of green
rushes, over which was spread a covering of flame-colored satin, and a
cushion covered with the same material was under his elbow.
The mention of silk and satin is frequent in this tale.
[85] The Mabinogion, from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest and other ancient
Welsh manuscripts; with an English translation and notes. By Lady
Charlotte Guest. Part I. The Lady of the Fountain. Llandovery, 1838.
GERBERT, CL., A. D. 970.
This author, who became Pope Silvester, mentions garments of silk
(sericas vestes) in a passage which has been already quoted (see Part
II. chap. V.).
TWELFTH CENTURY.
THEODORUS PRODROMUS,
a romance writer in the twelfth century, mentions the _figured shawls_
(πέπλα) manufactured by the Seres.
The breeding of silk-worms in Europe appears to have been confined
to Greece from the time of the Emperor Justinian until the middle of
the twelfth century. The manufacture of silk was also very rare in
other parts of Europe, being probably practised only as a recreation
and accomplishment for ladies. But in the year 1148 Roger I., King of
Sicily, having taken the cities of Corinth, Thebes, and Athens, thus
got into his power a great number of silk-weavers, took them away
with the implements and materials necessary for the exercise of their
art, and forced them to reside at Palermo[86]. Nicetas Choniates[87],
referring to the same event, speaks of these artisans as of both sexes,
and remarks that in his time those who went to Sicily might see the
sons of Thebans and Corinthians employed in weaving velvet stoles
_interwoven with gold_, and serving like the Eretrians of old among the
Persians[88].
[86] Otto Frisingen, Hist. Imp. Freder. l. i. c. 33. in Muratori, Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores, tom. vi. p. 668.
[87] In Manuel Comnenus, l. ii. c. 8., tom. xii. of the Scriptores
Hist. Byzantinæ, p. 51. ed. Ven.
[88] Hugo Falcandus, who visited this manufactory A. D. 1169,
represents it as being then in the most flourishing condition,
producing great quantities of silks, both plain and figured, of
many different colors, and enriched with gold.
We find in the writings of Ingulphus several curious accounts of
vestments of silk, interwoven with eagles and flowers of gold. This
author, in his history, mentions that among other gifts made by Witlaf,
king of Mercia, to the abbey of Croyland, he presented _a golden
curtain, embroidered with the siege of Troy_, to be hung up in the
church on his birth-day[89]. At a later period, 1155, a pair of richly
worked sandals, and three mitres, the work of Christina, abbess of
Markgate, were among the valuable souvenirs presented by Robert, abbot
of St. Albans, to Pope Adrian IV.[90].
[89] Ingulphus, p. 487, edit. 1596.
[90] Adrian IV., was the only Englishman that ever sat in St. Peters
chair. His name was Nicolas Breakspear: he was born of poor parents
at Langley, near St. Albans. Henry II., on his promotion to the
papal chair, sent a deputation of an abbot and three bishops to
congratulate him on his election; upon which occasion he granted
considerable privileges to the abbey of St. Albans. With the
exception of the presents named above, he refused all the other
valuable ones which were offered him, saying jocosely,--“I will
not accept your gifts, because when I wished to take the habit of
your monastery you refused me.” To which the abbot pertinently
and smartly replied,--“It was not for us to oppose the will of
Providence, which had destined you for greater things.”
Without digressing from our subject to question the right of the royal
marauder thus tyrannously to sever these unoffending artisans from
the ties of country and of kindred, we may yet be allowed to express
some satisfaction at the consequences of his cruelty. It is well
for the interests of humanity that blessings, although unsought and
remote, do sometimes follow in the train of conquest; that wars are not
always limited in their results to the exaltation of one individual,
the downfall of another, the slaughter of thousands, and misery of
millions, but occasionally prove the harbingers of peaceful arts,
heralds of science, and in short deliverers from the yoke of slavery or
superstition.
In twenty years from this forcible establishment of the manufacture,
the silks of Sicily are described as having attained a decided
excellence; as being of diversified patterns and colors; some
fancifully interwoven with gold tastefully embellished with figures;
and others richly adorned with pearls. The industry and ingenuity thus
called forth, could not fail to exercise a beneficial influence over
the character and condition of the Sicilians.
From Palermo the manufacture of silk extended itself through all parts
of Italy and into Spain. We learn from Roger de Hoveden, that the
manufacture flourished at Almeria in Grenada about A. D. 1190[91].
[91] “Deinde per nobilem civitatem, quæ dicitur Almaria, ubi fit nobile
sericum et delicatum, quod dicitur sericum de Almaria.” Scriptores
post Bedam, p. 671.
FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
According to Nicholas Tegrini[92], the silk manufacture afterwards
flourished in Lucca; and the weavers, having been ejected from that
city in the earlier part of the fourteenth century, carried their art
to Venice, Florence, Milan, Bologna, and even to Germany, France, and
Britain.
[92] Vita Castruccii, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scriptores, t. xi. p.
1320.
We have seen from different historical testimonies, that silk was
known to the inhabitants of France and England as early as the sixth
century. The fact of its introduction into all parts of the North of
Europe is manifest from the use of words for silk in several northern
languages. These words appear, according to the inquiries of the
learned orientalists, Klaproth and Abel Rémusat[93], to
have been derived from those Asiatic countries, in which silk was
originally produced. In the language of Corea silk is called _Sir_; in
Chinese _Se_, which may have been produced by the usual omission of
the final _r_. In the Mongol language silk is called _Sirkek_, in the
Mandchou _Sirghè_. In the Armenian the silk-worm is called _Chèram_. In
Arabic, Chaldee, and Syriac, silk was called Seric[94]. From the same
source we have in Greek and Latin Σηρικὸν, Sericum.
[93] Journal Asiatique, 1823, tom. ii. p. 246. Julius Klaproth (Tableau
Historique de l’Asie, Paris, 1826, p. 57, 58.) says, that in
the year 165 B. C. the inhabitants of the country called by us
Tangut, who constituted a powerful kingdom, were attacked by the
Hioung Nou, and driven to the West, where they fixed themselves
in Transoxiana, and that these events led to an uninterrupted
communication with Persia and India, especially in regard to the
silk trade. Klaproth considers that the Seres of the ancients were
the Chinese; but he appears to include under that term all the
nations which were brought into subjection to the Chinese.
Professor Karl Ritter (Erdkunde, Asien, Band iv. 2 te Auflage,
Berlin, 1835, p. 437.) observes, in allusion to the authority just
quoted, that all the names of the silk-worm and its products are to
be accounted for on the supposition (which he considers the true
one) that they were first known and cultivated in China, and from
thence extended through central Asia into Europe.
[94] See Schindler’s Pentaglott, p. 1951, D.
In the more modern European languages we find two sets of terms for
silk, the first evidently derived from the oriental Seric, but with the
common substitution of _l_ for _r_, the second of an uncertain origin.
To the first set belong,
_Chelk_, silk, in Slavonian.
_Silke_, ---- in Suio-Gothic and Icelandic[95].
_Silcke_, ---- in Danish.
Siolc or Seolc, ---- in Anglo-Saxon. Also Siolcen or Seolcen,
silken; Eal, reolcen, _Holosericus_;
Seolcpynm, silk-worm[96].
_Silk_, ---- in English[97]
_Sirig_, ---- in Welsh[98].
To the second set belong,
_Seda_, silk, in the Latin of the middle ages.
_Seta_, ---- in Italian.
_Seide_, ---- in German.
_Side_, ---- in Anglo-Saxon.
Also Sidene, silken, Ælfric as quoted by
Lye; Sidpypm, silk-worm, Junius, l. c.
_Sidan_, ---- in Welsh.
_Satin_, ---- in French and English[99].
[95] _Silki trojo ermalausa_, a silk tunic without sleeves. Knitlynga
Saga, p. 114, as quoted by Ihre, Glossar. Suio-Goth. v. Armalausa.
[96] Ælfric’s Glossary (made in the tenth century), p. 68. Appendix to
Sumner’s Dictionary.
[97] Nicholas Fuller (Miscellanea, p. 248.) justly observes, Vocabulum
Anglicanum Selk non nisi Sericum authorem generis sui agnoscit.
Selk enim nuncupatum est quasi Selik pro Serik, literæ r in l
facili commutatione factâ.
Minshew and Skinner give the same etymology.
[98] Junius, Etymologicum, v. _Silk_. It appears doubtful, however,
whether Junius is here to be depended on.
[99] Ménage, Diction. Etym. de la Langue Française, tom. ii. p. 457,
ed. Joult.
According to Abel Rémusat (_Journal Asiat. l. c._) the merchandise
of Eastern Asia passed through Slavonia to the North of Europe in
the middle ages, even without the mediation of Greece or Italy. This
may account for the use of the terms of the first class, while it is
possible that those of the second have been derived from the South of
Europe, from whence we have seen that silken commodities were also
occasionally transported to the North.
To the evidence now produced from _authors_ and _printed documents_
respecting the history of silk from the earliest times to the period
of its universal extension throughout Europe, another species of proof
may be added, viz. that afforded by Relics preserved in churches, and
by other remains of the antiquities of the middle ages. As examples of
this method for illustrating the subject, the following articles may be
enumerated.
I. The relics of St. Regnobert, Bishop of Bayeux in the seventh
century. These consist of a _Casula_, or _Chasuble_, a _Stole_, and a
_Maniple_. They are yet preserved in the cathedral of Bayeux, and worn
by the Bishop on certain annual festivals. They are of silk _interwoven
with gold_, and _adorned with pearls_[100].
[100] See John Spencer Smythe’s Description de la Chasuble de Saint
Regnobert, in the Procès Verbal de l’Académie Royale des Sciences,
Arts, et Belles Lettres, de la Ville de Caen, Séance d’Avril 14,
1820.
II. Portions of garments of the same description with those of St.
Regnobert were discovered A. D. 1827 on opening the tomb of St.
Cuthbert in the Cathedral of Durham. They are preserved in the library
of that church, and accurately described by the Rev. James Raine, the
librarian, in a quarto volume.
III. The scull-cap of St. Simon, said to have been made in the tenth
century, and now preserved in the Cathedral of Treves. Its border is
_interwoven with gold_.
In regard to these interesting relics, they may with confidence be
looked upon as specimens of the manufacture of silk from the _seventh_
to the _twelfth_ century.
IV. In the Cathedral at Hereford is a charter of one of the Popes with
the bull (the leaden seal), attached to it by silken threads. Silk was
early used for this purpose in the South of Europe[101]. The Danish
kings began to use silk to append the waxen seals to their charters
about the year 1000[102].
[101] Mabillon, de Re Diplomaticâ, l. ii. cap. 19. § 6.
[102] Diplomatarium Arna-Magnæanum, a Thorkelin, tom. i. p. xliv.
V. Silk, in the form of velvet, may be seen on some of the ancient
armor in the Tower of London.
VI. The binding of ancient manuscripts affords specimens of silk. A
French translation of Ludolphus Saxo’s Life of Christ in four folio
volumes, among Dr. William Hunter’s MSS. at Glasgow, still has its
original binding covered with red velvet, which is probably as old as
the _fourteenth_ century. A curious source of information on the art
of book-binding at that period is the Inventory, or Catalogue of the
library collected by that ardent lover of books, Charles V. of France.
As this catalogue particularly describes the bindings of about 1200
volumes, many of which were very elaborate and splendid, it enables us
to judge of the use made of all the most valuable stuffs and materials
which could be employed for this purpose, and under the head of silk we
find the following: “soie,” silk; “veluyau,” velvet; “satanin,” satin;
“damas,” damask; “taffetas,” taffetas; “camocas;” “cendal;” and “drap
d’or,” cloth of gold, having probably a basis or ground of silk[103].
From the few examples of ancient Catholic vestments that have escaped
destruction, the generality of persons are but little acquainted with
the extreme beauty of the embroidery worked for ecclesiastical purposes
during the Middle Ages. The countenances of the images were executed
with perfect expression, like miniatures in illuminated manuscripts.
Every parochial church, previous to the Reformation, was furnished with
complete sets of frontals and hangings for the altars. One of the great
beauties of the ancient embroidery was its appropriate design; each
flower, leaf, and device having a significant meaning with reference
to the festival to which the vestment belonged. Such was the extreme
beauty of the English vestments in the reign of Henry III., that
Innocent IV. forwarded bulls to many English bishops, enjoining them to
send a certain quantity of embroidered vestments to Rome, for the use
of the clergy[104].
[103] See Inventaire de l’Ancienne Bibliothèque du
Louvre, fait en l’année 1373. Paris, 1836, 8vo.
[104] The art of embroidery seems to have attained a higher degree of
perfection in France, than any other country in Europe;--it is not,
however, so much practised now. Embroiderers formerly composed
a great portion of the working population of the largest towns;
laws were specially framed for their protection, some of which
would astonish the working people of the present day. They were
formed into a company as early as 1272, by Etienne Boileau, Prévot
de Paris, under their respective names of “Brodeurs, Découpeurs,
Egratigneurs, and Chasubliers.”
In the last and preceding centuries, when embroidery, as an
article of dress both for men and women, was an object of
considerable importance, the Germans, and more particularly those
of Vienna, disputed the palm of excellence with the French. At
the same period, Milan and Venice were also celebrated for their
embroidery; but the prices were so extravagantly high, that
according to Lamarre, its use was forbidden by sumptuary laws.
CHAPTER V.
SILK AND GOLDEN TEXTURES OF THE ANCIENTS.
HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THIS MANUFACTURE.
Manufacture of golden textures in the time of Moses--Homer--Golden
tunics of the Lydians--Their use by the Indians and
Arabians--Extraordinary display of scarlet robes, purple, striped with
silver, golden textures, &c., by Darius, king of Persia--Purple and
scarlet cloths interwoven with gold--Tunics and shawls variegated with
gold--Purple garments with borders of gold--Golden chlamys--Attalus,
king of Pergamus, _not_ the inventor of gold thread--Bostick--Golden
robe worn by Agrippina--Caligula and Heliogabalus--Sheets interwoven
with gold used at the obsequies of Nero--Babylonian shawls intermixed
with gold--Silk shawls interwoven with gold--Figured cloths of gold
and Tyrean purple--Use of gold in the manufacture of shawls by the
Greeks--4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000) paid by the Emperor Nero
for a Babylonish coverlet--Portrait of Constantius II.--Magnificence
of Babylonian carpets, mantles, &c.--Median sindones.
The use of gold in _weaving_ may be traced to the earliest times, but
seems to be particularly characteristic of oriental manners.
It was employed in connexion with woollen and linen thread of the
finest colors to enrich the ephod, girdle, and breast-plate of
Aaron[105]. The sacred historian goes so far as to describe the mode
of preparing the gold to be used in weaving: “And they did beat the
gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue,
and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with
cunning work.”--Ex. xxxix. 2-8. The historian certainly does not intend
to describe the process of wire-drawing, nor probably the art of
making gold thread. It seems likely, that neither of these ingenious
manufactures were invented in his time. The queen described in Ps.
xiv., wears “clothing of wrought gold[106].” Homer mentions a golden
girdle, (Od. ε. 232. κ. 543.). He also describes an upper garment,
which Penelope made for Ulysses before going to Illium. On the front
part of it a beautiful hunting piece was wrought in gold. It is thus
described. “A dog holds a fawn with its fore feet, looking at it as it
pants with fear and strives to make its escape.” This, he says, was
the subject of universal admiration[107].
[105] “And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and
fine linen. And they shall make the ephod _of gold_, _of blue_, and
_of purple_, _of scarlet_, and _fine twined linen_, with _cunning
work_. It shall have the two shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the
two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the
curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the
same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and
purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two
onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel:
six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the
rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of
an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet shalt thou
engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel:
thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt
put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of
memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their
names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And
thou shalt make ouches of gold; and two chains of pure gold at
the ends; of _wreathen work_ shalt thou make them, and fasten the
wreathen chains to the ouches. And thou shalt make the breast-plate
of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod shalt
thou make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and
of fine twined linen shalt thou make it.”--Ex. xxviii. 5-15.
[106] “The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of
wrought gold.”--Ps. xlv. 13.
[107] Od. τ. 225-235.
Pisander, who probably lived at the same period with Homer, speaks
of the Lydians as wearing tunics adorned with gold. Lydus, who has
preserved this expression of the ancient cyclic poet, observes that the
Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the
Hermus[108].
[108] De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64.
Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed
in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was made by Dido, the
Sidonian, another by Andromache, and a third was in the possession of
Anchises[109]. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of
Phœnice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia.
[109] Æin. iii. 483.; iv. 264.; viii. 167.; xi. 75.
Among all the Asiatics, none were more remarkable than the Persians
for the display of textures of gold, as well as every other kind of
luxury in dress. A tiara interwoven with gold was one of the presents
which Xerxes gave as an expression of his gratitude to the citizens of
Abdera (_Herod._ viii. 120.). The Indians also employed the same kind
of ornament (_Strabo_, L. xv. _c._ i. § 69.); and the Periegesis (_l._
881.) of Priscian attributes the use of it to the Arabians[110].
[110] In Europe the nearest approach to oriental habits in regard
to dress was made by the Gauls. Their principal men wore collars,
armlets, and bracelets of gold, and clothes enriched with the same
metal.--_Strabo_, L. iv. cap. 4. § 5.
The history of Alexander the Great affords frequent traces of the use
of cloth _interwoven with gold_ in Persia. Garments made of such cloth
were among the most splendid of the spoils of Persepolis[111].
[111] _Diod. Sic._ L. xvii. 70. _p._ 214. _Wessel._
Justin (L. xii.) says that Alexander, to avoid offending the Persians,
ordered his principal attendants to adopt for their dress “longam
vestem auream purpureamque.” The dress prescribed was therefore of fine
woollen cloth, or probably of silk, dyed purple, and _interwoven with
gold_. Among the vast multitudes which preceded the King of Persia
when he advanced to oppose Alexander, was the band of ten thousand
called the Immortals, whose dress was carried to the ‘ne plus ultra’
of barbaric splendor, some wearing golden collars, others “cloth
variegated with gold.” Some idea of the extravagance and pomp of the
Persians on this occasion may be formed from the following passage,
taken from Rollin’s “Ancient History.”
“The order Darius observed in his march was as follows. Before the
army were carried silver altars, on which burned the fire, called by
them sacred and eternal; and these were followed by the magi, singing
hymns, and 365 youths _in scarlet robes_. After these proceeded a
consecrated car, drawn by white horses and followed by one of an
extraordinary size, which they called “The horse of the sun.” The
equerries were dressed in white, each bearing in his hand a golden
rod. Next appeared ten sumptuous chariots, enriched with curious
sculptures in gold and silver; and then the vanguard of the horse,
composed of twelve different nations, in various armor. This body
was succeeded by those of the Persians, called “The Immortals,”
amounting to 10,000, who surpassed the rest of the barbarians in the
extravagant richness and splendor of their dress; for they all wore
_collars of gold_, and were clothed in robes _of gold tissue_, having
large sleeves, garnished with precious stones. About thirty paces from
them came the king’s relations or cousins, to the number of 15,000,
apparelled like women, and more remarkable for the pomp of their
dress than the glitter of their arms; and after these Darius attended
by his guards, seated on a chariot, as on a throne. The chariot was
enriched, on both sides, with images of the gods in gold and silver;
and from the middle of the yoke, which was covered with jewels, rose
two statues, a cubit in height; the one representing War, the other
Peace, having between them a golden eagle with wings extended. The
king was attired in _a garment of purple striped with silver_; over
which was a long robe, glittering with gold and precious stones, and
whereon two falcons were represented as if rushing from the clouds at
each other. Around his waist he wore _a golden girdle_, from whence
hung scimitar, the scabbard of which was covered with gems. On each
side of Darius walked 200 of his nearest relations, followed by 10,000
horsemen, whose lances were plated with silver, and tipped with gold.
After these marched 30,000 foot, the rear of the army, and, lastly,
400 horses belonging to the king.
“About 100 paces from the royal divisions of the army came Sisygambis,
the mother of Darius, seated on a chariot, and his consort on another,
with female attendants of both queens riding on horseback. Afterwards
came fifteen chariots, in which were the king’s children, and their
tutors. Next to these were the royal concubines, to the number of 360,
all attired like so many queens. These were followed by 600 mules,
and 300 camels, carrying the king’s treasure, and guarded by a body
of bowmen. After these came the wives of the crown officers, and the
lords of the court; then the suttlers, servants; and, lastly, a body
of light armed troops, with their commanders.”
At the nuptials of Alexander purple and scarlet cloths, _interwoven
with gold_, were expanded over the guests: and a pall of the same
description covered the golden sarcophagus made to contain his body.
Among the splendid ornaments of the tent erected not long after at
Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus, there were tunics interwoven with
gold: and in the procession on the same occasion, the colossal statues
of Bacchus and his nurse Nysa were attired; the former in a shawl; the
latter in a tunic variegated with gold. Probably we may refer to the
same country and age the “golden tunic” mentioned in one of the Arundle
marbles (No. xxii. 2.). Also the tent pitched by Arsace with hangings
of gold and purple tissues, and the robe of similar materials worn by
Arsace herself, as described by Heliodorus (_Æthiop._ vii.), relate to
the customs of the same country.
Another of the successors of Alexander, viz. Demetrius Poliorcetes,
wore purple garments with _borders of gold_[112].
[112] Plutarch, Demet. 41.
Themistius describes a portrait of one of the kings of Persia, who
wore, together with the tiara and the collar or necklace, _a purple
shawl interwoven with gold_ (_Orat._ 24. _p._ 369. _ed._ Dindorf.).
During the periods to which the preceding evidence has allusion, it is
not probable that cloth of gold was in use among the Greeks and Romans
except to a very limited extent. Nevertheless it does not appear to
have escaped the avidity for every species of excellence, which in
early times distinguished the inhabitants of Magna Græcia. For, when
Pythagoras became a teacher of wisdom and philosophy at Crotona, among
other lessons of frugality he persuaded the matrons to put off their
“golden garments” with other fashionable ornaments, and deposit them
in the temple of Juno as offerings to the goddess[113]. In a passage
attributed to Menander we meet with the mention of a “golden or purple
chlamys” as a suitable offering to the gods[114]. Hedylus of Samos,
a writer of the same age, describes a woman of loose morals, by name
Niconoe, as wearing a tunic striped with gold (_Brunck’s Analecta_, i.
483.).
[113] Justin, L. XX. c. 4.
[114] Menandri Reliquiæ, à Meineke, p. 306. Böckh, Gr. Trag. Principes,
p. 157.
Attalus, king of Pergamus, is said by Pliny (L. viii. cap. 48.) to have
invented the art of embroidering with gold thread[115]. Nevertheless
we have seen, that gold was thus used long before the time of Attalus.
But there can be no doubt, that he established and maintained a great
manufacture of these stuffs at Pergamus; thus contributing greatly to
improve the art, and bring these cloths into more general use.
[115] See Appendix A.
The next passage is from Dr. Bostock’s translation of the 33rd Book,
ch. xix. “Gold may be spun or woven like wool, without the latter being
mixed with it. We are informed by Verrius, that Tarquinius Priscus rode
in triumph in a tunic of gold; and we have seen Agrippina, the wife
of the Emperor Claudius, when he exhibited the spectacle of a naval
combat, sitting by him covered with a robe made _entirely_ of _woven
gold_. In what are called the Attalic stuffs, the gold is woven with
some other substance. This art was the invention of one of the kings of
Asia.”
In Book xxxv. c. 36. Pliny says that Zeuxis, to display his wealth at
Olympia, caused his name to be woven _in gold_ in the compartments of
his outer garment.
Caligula once wore a tunic interwoven with gold. Heliogabalus was
far more profuse in regard to this kind of splendor. White sheets,
_interwoven with gold_, were used at the funeral obsequies of
Nero[116]. We may here observe, that the use of gold in dress almost
invariably accompanied that of silk. The same Emperors who took delight
in the one, indulged themselves with the other also. On the contrary,
Alexander Severus, as we shall show when treating of linen in Part IV.,
was economical in both these respects.
[116] Suetonius, Nero, 50.
In Chapters II. and III., we quoted several passages which make mention
of cloth of gold, from Tibullus, Ovid, Seneca the Tragedian, Lucan, Dio
Cassius, Claudian, Virgil, Gregorius Nazienzenus, and Basil, all of
which speak of cloth of gold. Ovid mentions purple garments variously
colored and interwoven with gold, as belonging to Bacchus.--_Met._ iii.
556.
Publius Syrus was a writer of the same period. In the following
fragment preserved by Petronius Arbiter, he compares the train of the
peacock to Babylonian stuffs enriched with gold and various colors:
Thy food the peacock, which displays his spotted train,
As shines a Babylonian shawl with feather’d gold!
Shawls, interwoven with gold, are mentioned by Galen[117], and by
Valerius Flaccus[118]; also by Lucan in the following passage, where he
is describing the furniture of Cleopatra’s palace (x. 125, 126.):
Part shines with feather’d gold, part sheds a blaze
Of scarlet, _intermixed_ by _Pharian looms_!
[117] Quoted in Chapter II.
[118] Auro depicta chlamys.
The following passages also contain evidence on the same subject.
SENECA, THE PHILOSOPHER.
As yet figured cloths did not exist: gold was not woven, it was not
even extracted from the ground.--_Epist._ 91.
LUCIAN
describes the tragic actors, when they performed the part of kings, as
wearing a chlamys interwoven with gold[119].
[119] Somnium, vol. ii. p. 742. ed. Hemsterhusii.
APULEIUS.
They carefully spread over the couches, cloths figured with gold and
Tyrian purple.--_Met._
PHILOSTRATUS
depicts Midas wearing a golden robe[120].
[120] Imag. i. 22.
NEMESIANUS.
In thy scarf’s woof much sportive gold display.--_Cyneg._ 91.
The poet is addressing Diana and describing her attire.
AUSONIUS.
Weave flexile gold within thy shawls, O Greece[121].
This is the _first_ passage since the time of Homer, which mentions
Greece as concerned in weaving with gold. But Ausonius probably alluded
to the Greeks of Asia Minor, as, besides the evidence produced from
Basil, we have seen that Pergamus was one of the most noted places
for these productions, which were on that account called “Attalicæ
vestes[122].”
When Ausonius was appointed Consul at Rome A. D. 379, his friend
and former pupil, the Emperor Gratian, sent him as a present a toga
in which was inserted a figure of Constantius II., _wrought in
gold_.--Ausonii Gratiarum Actio, § 53.
[121] Epigram 37.
[122] “I find evidence that kings wore the _striped toga_; that
figured cloths were in use even in the days of Homer; and that
these gave rise to the _triumphal_. To produce this effect with
the needle was the invention of the Phrygians, on which account
cloths so embroidered have been called _Phrygionic_. In the same
part of Asia king Attalus discovered the art of inserting a woof
of gold(?); from which circumstance the _Attalic_ cloths received
their name(?). Babylon first obtained celebrity by its method of
_diversifying the picture with different colors_, and gave its name
to textures of this description. But to weave with _a great number
of leashes_, so as to produce the cloths called _polymita_ (the
polymita were damask cloths), was _first_ taught in Alexandria; to
divide by squares (_plaids_) in Gaul. Metellus Scipio brought it
as an accusation against Cato, that even in his time Babylonian
_coverlets_ for triclinia were sold for 800,000 sesterces (about
$30,000), although the emperor Nero lately gave for them no less
than 4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000). The _prætextæ_ of
Servius Tullius, covering the statue of Fortune which he dedicated,
remained until the death of Sejanus, and it is wonderful that they
had neither decayed of themselves nor been injured by moths during
the space of 560 years.”--_Plin. H. N._ viii. 64. (See Appendix A.)
CLAUDIAN
mentions with delight the use of gold in dress as well as of silk. His
testimony has been given in chapter III. of this Part.
SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS
mentions the gold in the dress of Prince Sigismer. His testimony is
also given in chapter III.
CORIPPUS,
describing the accession of Justin II. to the Empire (A. D. 565),
mentions (L. ii.) his tunic enriched with gold as part of his imperial
costume.
PAULINUS.
Misceturque ostro mollitum in fila metellum.
_De Vita Martini_, L. iii.
We find the following law in the Codex Justinianus:
Nemo vir auratas in tunicis aut in lincis habeat paragaudas: nisi hi
tantummodo, quibus hoc propter Imperiale ministerium concessum est.
_Corpus Juris Civilis_, tom. v. tit. viii. leg. 2.
The “aurata paragauda” was a border of gold lace or thread. It
appears that ladies might wear it on their tunics, while men were
only permitted to use it in token of their official character as
being in the service of the emperor. In allusion to these or similar
regulations, Ælius Lampridius (34) says of the emperor Alexander
Severus,
Auratam vestem ministerium nullus vel in publico convivio habuit.
The testimony of Ambrose, Jerome, and Basil has been given in Chapter
III., which see.
From the book of Joshua we learn that the woven stuffs of Babylon were
not confined to domestic use, but exported into foreign countries. The
two chief productions of Babylonian looms were _carpets_ and _shawls_.
One of the principal objects of luxury in Asia from the remotest ages,
were nowhere so finely woven, and in such rich colors as at Babylon.
On the Babylonian carpets were woven or depicted representations of
those fabulous animals the dragon and griffin, together with other
unnatural combinations of form, probably originating in India, and with
which we have become acquainted by the ruins of Persepolis. It was
by means of the Babylonian manufactures, that the knowledge of these
fanciful and imaginary beings, was conveyed to the Western world, and
from them transferred to the Greek vases. “A mantle of Shinar,” or as
our translators have rendered it, “A Babylonish garment,” was secreted
by Achan from the spoils of Jericho; and the delinquent speaks of this
as being the most valuable part of his plunder[123]. Next to carpets
and shawls, the Babylonian garments called _Sindones_ were held in the
highest estimation. The most costly _Sindones_, were so much valued for
their fineness of texture and brilliancy of color, as to be compared to
those of Media, and set apart for royal use; they were even to be found
at the tomb of Cyrus, which was profusely decorated with every species
of furniture in use among the Persian monarchs during their lives.
[123] “When I saw among the spoils _a goodly Babylonish garment_, and
two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels
weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold, they are
hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under
it.”--Joshua vii. 21.
[Illustration:
_Plate II_
_From Champollion_
EGYPTIAN LOOMS,
with the processes of Spinning and Winding.]