such cloth; but it may be doubted whether he took his description from
actual knowledge of the use of it, or only from the account in Matthew
of the dress of John the Baptist already quoted.
Camels’-hair of annual growth would vary in fineness according to
circumstances, and might be used either for the coarse raiment of
prophets and dervises, _or for the costly shawls_, to which Ctesias
alludes. Fine wool, adapted to the latter purpose, might also grow,
as in the goat and beaver, beneath the long hair of the camel. It has
been doubted whether cloth so fine and beautiful as Ctesias asserts,
could possibly be obtained from camels. The following accounts by
modern travellers illustrate and justify the statement of the suspected
ancient.
Marco Polo, who travelled in the 13th century, in his account of the
city of Kalaka, which was in the province of Tangut and subject to
the Great Kahn, says[408], “In this city they manufacture beautiful
camelots, the finest known in the world, of the hair of camels and
likewise of fine wool.” According to Pallas, (Travels, vol. ii. § 8.,)
“From the hair of the camel the Tartar women in the plains of the
Crimea manufacture a narrow cloth, which is used in its natural color,
and is extremely warm, soft, and light.” According to Prosper Alpinus,
(_Hist. Nat. Ægypti_, _l._ iv. _c._ 7. _p._ 225.) the Egyptians
manufactured from the hair of their camels not only coarse cloth for
their tents, but other kinds so fine as to be worn not only by princes
but even by the senators of Venice.
[408] Book i. ch. 52. p. 235. of Marsden’s Translation.
Elphinstone, in his account of Cabul (_p._ 295.), mentions, that
“Oormuck, a fine cloth made of camels’-wool,” is among the articles
imported into Cabul from the Bokhara country. This country lies North
of the Oxus, and East of the Southern extremity of the Caspian Sea, and
is probably the country, to which Ctesias more especially referred.
A still more recent authority is that of Moorcroft, who informs us,
that “Cloth is now made from the wool of the wild camels of Khoten in
Chinese Tartary,” and that “at Astrakhan a fine cloth is manufactured
from the wool of the camel foal of the first year[409].”
[409] Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. i. p. 241, 242.
It is customary in many parts of the East, as it was in Mexico in
the time of Cortes (See Part Third, Chapter I.) to use the hair of
various animals in embroidering garments. The Candian women even
embroider with their own hair, as well as that of animals, with
which they make splendid representations of flowers, foliage, &c.:
they also insert the skins of eels and serpents.
According to M. de Busson, the negresses of Senegal, embroider
the skins of various beasts, representing figures, flowers, and
animals, in every variety of color.
[Illustration:
Plate V.
Drawn from the life.
INDIAN LOOM with the process of Winding off the THREAD.]
PART THIRD.
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE.
CHAPTER I.
GREAT ANTIQUITY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN INDIA--UNRIVALLED SKILL
OF THE INDIAN WEAVER.
Superiority of Cotton for clothing, compared with linen, both in
hot and cold climates--Cotton characteristic of India--Account of
Cotton by Herodotus, Ctesias, Theophrastus, Aristobulus, Nearchus,
Pomponius Mela--Use of Cotton in India--Cotton known before silk
and called Carpasus, Carpasum, Carbasum, &c.--Cotton awnings
used by the Romans--Carbasus applied to linen--Last request of
Tibullus--Muslin fillet of the vestal virgin--Linen sails, &c. called
Carbasa--Valerius Flaccus introduces muslin among the elegancies
in the dress of a Phrygian from the river Rhyndacus--Prudentius’s
satire on pride--Apuleius’s testimony--Testimony of Sidonius
Apollinaris, and Avienus--Pliny and Julius Pollux--Their testimony
considered--Testimony of Tertullian and Philostratus--Of Martianus
Capella--Cotton paper mentioned by Theophylus Presbyter--Use of Cotton
by the Arabians--Cotton not common anciently in Europe--Marco Polo
and Sir John Mandeville’s testimony of the Cotton of India--Forbes’s
description of the herbaceous Cotton of Guzerat--Testimony of Malte
Brun--Beautiful Cotton textures of the ancient Mexicans--Testimony
of the Abbé Clavigero--Fishing nets made from Cotton by the
inhabitants of the West India Islands, and on the continent of
South America--Columbus’s testimony--Cotton used for bedding by the
Brazilians.
Among all the materials which the skill of man converts into
comfortable and elegant clothing, that which appears likely to be
the most extensively useful, though it was the last to be generally
diffused, is the beautiful produce of the cotton-plant.
The properties of cotton strongly recommend it for clothing,
especially in comparison with linen, both in hot and cold countries.
Linen has, indeed, in some respects the advantage; it forms a smooth,
firm, and beautiful cloth, and is very agreeable wear in temperate
climates; but it is less comfortable than cotton, and less conducive
to health, either in heat or in cold. Cotton, being a bad conductor
of heat, as compared with linen, preserves the body at a more
equable temperature. The functions of the skin, through the medium
of perspiration, are the great means of maintaining the body at an
equable temperature amidst the vicissitudes of the atmosphere. But
linen, like all good conductors of heat, freely condenses the vapor
of perspiration, and accumulates moisture upon the skin: the wetted
linen becomes cold, chills the body, and checks perspiration, thus
not only producing discomfort, but endangering health. Calico, on the
other hand, like all bad conductors of heat, condenses little of the
perspiration, but allows it to pass off in the form of vapor. Moreover,
when the perspiration is so copious as to accumulate moisture, calico
will absorb a greater quantity of that moisture than linen. It has
therefore a double advantage,--it accumulates less moisture, and
absorbs more.
From the above considerations, it is evident that in cold climates, or
in the nocturnal cold of tropical climates, cotton clothing is much
better calculated to preserve the warmth of the body than linen. In
hot climates, also, it is more conducive to health and comfort, by
admitting of freer perspiration[410].
[410] Bains’s “History of the Cotton Manufacture,” p. 12.
Wool, as we have seen, was principally used for weaving in Palestine
and Syria, in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and Spain; hemp in the Northern
countries of Europe; flax in Egypt (The history of the two last, hemp
and flax, is given in Part IV. to which the reader is referred.); silk
in the central regions of Asia[411]. In like manner cotton has _always_
been characteristic of India. We find this circumstance distinctly
noticed by Herodotus[412]. Among the valuable products, for which
India was remarkable, he states, that “the wild trees in that country
bear fleeces as their fruit, surpassing those of sheep in beauty and
excellence; and the Indians use cloth made from these trees.” In the
same book (c. 47.) Herodotus says, that the thorax or cuirass sent
by Amasis, king of Egypt, to Sparta, was “adorned with gold and with
fleeces from trees.” These substances were perhaps used in the weft to
form the figures (ζῶα), which were woven into the thorax; but it
appears equally probable that the gold only was thus employed, the
cotton being used as an inside lining or stuffing: and in this case
it is possible, that the down of the Bombax Ceiba, a tree allied to
the Cotton-plant (_Gossypium_), may have been used, since, though not
fitted for spinning or weaving, it has long been used in India for
the stuffing of pillows and similar purposes, and would be included
under the phrase employed by Herodotus, “_wool_” or “_fleeces from
trees_.” The thorax may have been made in Egypt; but the materials,
used to enrich it, were probably imported: for we have no proof, that
either gold or cotton of any kind was found in that country as a native
product in the time of Amasis.
[411] See Map Plate VII. at the end of Part IV.
[412] L. iii. c. 106.
Ctesias, the contemporary of Herodotus, seems also to have known the
fact of the use of a kind of wool, the produce of trees, for spinning
and weaving among the Indians. It is evident that Ctesias referred
exclusively to cotton cloths, as may be inferred from the testimony
of Varro, as we find it in Servius (_Comm. in Virgilii Æn._ i. 649.).
“Ctesias ait in Indiâ esse arbores, quæ lanam ferant.”
The expedition of Alexander the Great into India contributed to make
the Greeks better acquainted than before with cotton. Hence it is
distinctly mentioned by Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle. He
says, “The trees, from which the Indians make cloths, have a leaf like
that of the Black Mulberry; but the whole plant resembles the dog-rose.
They set them in the plains arranged in rows, so as to look like vines
at a distance[413].” In a succeeding part of the same book (_c._ 7.
_p._ 143, 144. _ed. Schneider_) he notices the growth of cotton, not
only in India, but in _Arabia_, and in the island called Tylos, which
he places in the Arabian Gulf, although it was probably in the Persian
Gulf, near the Arabian coast[414]. According to his account in the
latter passage, “The wool-bearing trees, which grew abundantly in this
island, had a leaf like that of the vine, but smaller; they bore no
fruit, but the capsule containing the wool, was, when closed, about the
size of a quince, when ripe, it expanded so as to emit the wool, which
was woven into cloths, either cheap, or of great value.”
[413] Hist. Pl. iv. c. 4. p. 132. ed. Schneider.
[414] See the Map,--Plate vii. at the end of Part iv. Bochart, Geogr.
Sacra, p. 766. Cadomi, 1651. Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. p. 214-219.
Sprengel in his German translation (_p._ 150. _vol._ ii.) supposes
the Broussonetia Papyrifera to be meant in the former passage. But he
gives no good reason for this supposition, and he admits, that the
Broussonetia Papyrifera grows in China, not in India. The expression of
Theophrastus, ὥσπερ ἐλέχθη, which he employs in the latter passage
(_c._ 9. _p._ 144. _ed. Schneider_), clearly proves, that he is
speaking of the same plant in both passages, and Sprengel himself (_p._
164.) supposes the Gossypium Arboreum of Linnæus, the Cotton Tree, to
be meant in the latter, though not in the former. The description of
Theophrastus is remarkably exact, if we consider it as applying, not to
the Cotton Tree (_Gossypium Arboreum_), but to the Cotton Plant (_G.
Herbaceum_), from which the chief supply of cotton for spinning and
weaving into cloth has always been obtained.
Aristobulus, one of Alexander’s generals, made mention of the
cotton-plant under the name of the Wool-bearing Tree, and stated that
its capsule contained seeds, which were taken out, and that what
remained was combed like wool[415].
[415] Strabo, L. xv. c. 1. vol. vi. p. 43. ed. Siebenkees.
The testimony of Nearchus, who was the admiral of Alexander, is also
preserved to the following effect; “that there were in India trees
bearing, as it were, flocks or bunches of wool; that the natives made
linen garments of it, wearing a shirt, which reached to the middle of
the leg, a sheet folded about the shoulders, and a turban rolled round
the head; and that the linen made by them from this substance was fine
and whiter than any other.” It is to be observed, that Nearchus, or
rather the two later authors who quote him, viz. Arrian and Strabo, use
the terms for linen in a general sense, as including all fine light
cloths made of vegetable substances[416].
[416] Arriani Rer. Indic. p. 522. 539. ed. Blancardi. Strabo, L. xv. c.
1. vol. vi. p. 40. ed. Sieb.
We read in the account of India by Pomponius Mela (L. iii. _c._ 7.),
that the woods produced wool, used by the natives for clothing. He
distinctly mentions the use of flax likewise. It has been conjectured,
that he may have taken his account from Nearchus, or some other Greek
writer, and that he may have intended to speak only of the use of
cotton. But in reply to this it is to be observed, that Pomponius Mela
here mentions flax in opposition to cotton, and that his assertion, so
understood, was probably true, since we have other evidence to show
that flax grows in India as well as cotton. (See Part IV.) Nevertheless
it seems necessary to understand other authors of the same period as
meaning cotton by the term λίνον, or _linum_. Thus Dyonisius Periegetes
(_l._ 1116), speaking of the employments of the Indians, says, Οἱ δὲ
ἱστοὺς ὑφόωσι λινεργέας, which probably meant “some weave muslins”. In
the same manner we must interpret the assertion of Quintus Curtius,
“Terra _lini_ ferax, unde plerisque sunt vestes” i. e., The land
produces flax, from which the greater part obtain garments. Soon after
this Curtius says in terms more strictly proper,
Corpora usque pedes _carbaso_ velant, soleis pedes, capita linteis
vinciunt.
They cover their bodies from head to foot with _carbasus_; they bind
shoes about their feet, linen cloths about their heads.
Again, speaking of the dress of the King, he says,
Distincta sunt auro et purpurâ _carbasa_, quæ indutus est. L. viii. 9.
The _carbasa_ which he wore, were spotted with purple and gold.
In like manner, Lucan, describing the Indian nations, says,
Who drink sweet juices from the tender cane,
With dyes of crocus stain their hair, and fix
With color’d gems the flowing carbasus.
L. iii. _v._ 239.
Strabo says, (L. xv. _c._ 1. _vol._ vi. _p._ 153. ed. Sieb.)
That the Indians use white raiment, and fine white cloths and
_carpasa_.
Also the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea states, that the region about
the Gulf of Barygaza in India was productive “of _Carpasus_ and of the
fine Indian cloths made of it[417].” These were what we now call _India
muslins_. These muslins we are informed by Dr. Vincent, were imported
into Egypt, and accordingly Pacatus[418] represents Antony’s army as
wearing cotton in that country.
[417] Arriani Opp. v. ii. p. 165. ed. Blancard.
[418] Paneg. Theodosii, c. 33.
The term _Carbasus_, is evidently used by the five last-cited authors
to signify cotton; for they employ it in describing the common dress
of the Indians. As the Greeks and Romans became acquainted with cotton
much earlier than with silk, we find that _Carpas_, the proper Oriental
name for cotton, was also in use among them at a comparatively early
period; and we shall now endeavor to trace the progress of this term
from India, Westward. With little variation it is found in the same
sense in the Sanscrit, Arabic, and Persic languages[419].
[419] Celsii Hierobot. vol. ii. p. 159. Sir W. Jones, in As.
Researches, vol. iv. p. 226. London Edition. Schlegel, Indische
Bibliotek, ii. p. 393. E. F. K. Rosenmüller, Biblische
Alterthumskunde, 4. 1. p. 173.
This word occurs once in the Hebrew Scriptures, viz. Esther, i. 6.,
and there evidently as a foreign term. The hangings, used to decorate
the court of the royal palace at Susa on occasion of the great feast
given by Ahasuerus, are thus described in the common version of the
Scriptures:--
“Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of
fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds
were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and
black marble.”
The word, corresponding to “_green_” in the original is _Carpas_
(כרפס). It has been translated “green”
by the authors of the common version on the authority of the Chaldee
Paraphrase.
The earliest instance of the use of the oriental name in any classical
author is the line from Statius Cæcilius, who died 169 B. C. as quoted
by Nonius Marcellus (_l._ xvi.) from the _Pausimachus_ of Statius:
Carbasina, molochina, ampelina[420].
As these words are all three Greek, and the play, in which the verse
occurred, was also called by a Greek name, we cannot doubt, that
Statius translated it according to his usual custom from one of the
writers of the New Comedy. We may therefore infer with some confidence
from this expression, that the Greeks made use of muslins or calicoes,
or at least of cotton cloths of some kind, which were brought from
India as early as 200 years B. C.
[420] See C. C. Statii Fragmenta, a Leonhardo Spengel, Monachii 1829,
p. 35.
Statius chiefly copied from Menander (_Gellius_ ii. _c._ 16.); but
we cannot find, that Menander wrote any play called _Pausimachus_.
After some time the oriental custom of using cotton as a protection
from the sun’s rays was adopted also by the Romans. Cotton was not
only a cheaper and commoner article than silk, but it was particularly
adapted for this purpose on account of its lightness, as well as
its beauty and fineness; and, besides the instance already cited
from the book of Esther, we may observe also, that where the _Latin_
authors mention the use of “Carbasa,” it is sometimes for purposes
of this kind. “Tabernacula carbaseis intenta velis,” _i. e._ “Tents
with coverings of cotton,” were among the expensive novelties which
contributed to the luxury of Verres, when Prætor in Sicily[421]. The
same species of ornament was first displayed at Rome in the magnificent
ædileship of P. Lentulus Spinther, at the Apollinarian games and in the
year 63 B. C.
“At a later period awnings of linen were used to keep out the sun,
but originally in the theatres only, which contrivance was first
adopted by Q. Catulus, when he dedicated the capitol. After this
Lentulus Spinther is said to have first introduced cotton awnings in
the theatre at the Apollinarian games. By and by Cæsar the Dictator
covered with awnings the whole Roman forum, and the sacred way, from
his own house even to the ascent of the Capitoline hill, which is
said to have appeared more wonderful than the gladiatorial exhibition
itself. Afterwards, without exhibiting games, Marcellus the son of
Octavia, sister of Augustus, when he was Ædile and his uncle consul
the eleventh time[422], on the day before the Kalends of August,
protected the forum from the rays of the sun, that the persons engaged
in lawsuits might stand with less injury to their health. What a
change from the manners which prevailed under Cato the Censor, who
thought that the forum should even be strewed with caltrops! Of late
sky-blue awnings, spotted with stars, have been extended by means
of strong ropes, even in the amphitheatre of the Emperor Nero. Red
awnings are used to cover the atria of houses, and they defend the
moss from the sun. As for the rest, white linen has always remained
in favor. This plant was honored in the Trojan war. _For why should
it not perform its part in battles as well as in shipwrecks?_ Homer
testifies, that a few of his warriors fought in linen cuirasses. The
tackle of his ships was also of flax, according to some of his more
learned interpreters, who argue that by the term _sparta_ he meant
_sata_, or things that are sown.”--_Pliny_, Lib. xix. chap. vi.
[421] This was about the year 70 B. C. Cic. in Verrem, Act. ii. l. v.
c. 12.
[422] The following are the dates of the display of awnings on the
several occasions referred to:--
_Linen_ awnings first used in the theatre at the dedication of the
temple of Jupiter by Catulus 69 B. C.
_Cotton_ awnings first used in the theatre by Lentulus Spinther,
July 6th, 63 B. C.
Linen used to cover the forum and Via Sacra at the gladiatorial
show by Julius Caesar 46 B. C.
Linen awnings extended over the forum by Marcellus,
July 31st 23 B. C.
Lucretius apparently refers to the introduction by Lentulus Spinther of
the cotton awnings above mentioned (vi. 108.), when he is theorising
on the cause of thunder, and compares the clouds spread over the sky
to the awnings of calico, which veiled the theatres and sheltered the
spectators from the sun:
Carbasus ut quondam magnis intenta theatris
Dat crepitum, malos inter jactata trabeisque.
As flaps the cotton, spread above our heads
In the vast theatres from mast to beam.
We now find frequent mention of cotton by the poets of the Augustan
age and by many subsequent writers. As in the case of silk, these
authors introduce cotton, not only historically, but for the purpose
of embellishment; and, considering _Carbasus_ as a poetical term, they
often by a _catachresis_ employ it where they mean to speak of linen.
Also as was before observed in regard to silk (Part I. chapter II.), it
may likewise be noticed here, that the wars against Mithridates and the
Parthians may have contributed to make the Romans familiar with the use
of cotton, although their chief supply of it was more probably through
Egypt, than through Persia and Babylonia.
Catullus (64.), speaking of the black sail which Ægeus furnished for
the ships of his son Theseus, calls it “_Carbasus Ibera_,” “an Iberian
sail.” As, on the one hand, he here uses the proper term for cotton,
without intending to describe the sail as cotton, so on the other hand
he calls the sail Iberian merely because Iberia was a country adjoining
Colchis, and from Colchis (as will be shown in Part IV.) the Greeks and
Romans obtained a great supply of flax and sail-cloth.
Tibullus, or Lygdamus, entreats (iii. 2. 17.), in the contemplation of
his death and funeral, that after his bones have been washed, first
with wine, and then with milk, they may be dried “carbaseis veils,”
with linen napkins. Although he uses the proper term for cotton, he
probably did not intend to denote any preference for cotton rather than
linen. His bones, after being wiped, were to be deposited in a marble
urn.
Propertius seems to have aimed at a display of knowledge on these
subjects (see Part First, chapter II.); and in the following passage
(iv. 3.) he probably used _Carbasa_ in its proper sense, as he is
referring to Eastern habits:
Raptave odorata carbasa lina duci.
Muslins taken among the spoils from a scented general.
In the last Elegy of the same Book he refers to the story of the young
Vestal virgin, who, when the flame was extinguished upon the altar
committed to her care, and when the scourge appeared to await her for
her neglect, threw upon the ashes a fillet of muslin from her head, and
saved her life by its ignition, which was supposed to be effected by
the favor of the goddess:
Vel cui, commissos cum Vesta reposceret ignes,
Exhibuit vivos carbasus alba focos.
The fire had died, and Vesta urged her claim,
When the white cotton show’d a living flame.
The story is related by Valerius Maximus (i. 7.). Although we are not
informed of the date of the event, it appears from his language that
the fillet was of fine muslin: “Cum _carbasum, quam optimum habebat_,
foculo imposuisset, subito ignis emicuit.” This description is well
suited to the nature of cotton, than which nothing was more easily
ignited.
The passage in Virgil’s Georgics, which mentions cotton, has been
already quoted (See Part I. chapter II. p. 24.). By the Æthiopians,
whose groves were “white with soft wool,” he probably intended those
of Arabia; and we may suppose him to have referred to accounts, not so
much of the Gossypium Herbaceum, to which the word “groves” (_nemora_)
would not apply, as to groves of Gossypium Arboreum and Bombyx Ceiba.
In the following passages of Æneid he mentions cotton under its proper
name, though probably not intending to distinguish accurately between
cotton and linen, and only using the term for the sake of ornament:--
Jamque dies, alterque dies processit, et auræ
Vela vocunt, tumidoque inflatur carbasus austro. iii. 356.
Two days were past, and now the southern gales
Call us aboard, and stretch the swelling sails.
_Pitt’s Translation._
Vocat jam carbasus auras;
Puppibus et læti nautæ imposuere coronas. iv. 417.
The flapping sail invites the gales; the poops
By the glad seamen are already crown’d.
Eum (_fluvium Tiberim_) tenuis glauco velabat amictu
Carbasus, et crines umbrosa tegebat arundo. viii. 33.
Thin muslin veils him with its sea-green folds;
His head a copious shade of reeds sustains.
Tum croceam chlamydem, sinusque crepantes
Carbaseos fulvo in nodum collegerat auro. xi. 775.
His saffron chlamys, and each rustling fold
Of muslin was confined with glittering gold.
This last passage is part of the description of the attire of Chloreus,
the Phrygian, whose muslin chlamys may have rustled in consequence of
being interwoven with gold.
OVID.
Totaque malo
Carbasa deducit, venientesque excipit auras.--_Met._ xi. 477.
The active seamen now unfurl the sails,
And spread them wide to catch the coming gales.
Carbasa mota sonant, jubet uti navita ventis. xiii. 420.
The flapping sails resound; the captain bids advance.
Cum dabit aura viam, præbebis carbasa ventis.--_Epist._ vii. 171.
When the gale favors, give the wind your sails.
Sed non, quo dederas a litore carbasa, vento
Utendum, medio cum potiare freto.--_Art. Am._ ii. 357.
The wind to which you give your sails on shore,
In the mid ocean will assist no more.
Dumque parant torto subducere carbasa lino.--_Fast._ iii. 587.
They now with twisted ropes let down the sails.
In all these passages Ovid uses _carbasa_ in the improper sense: it was
an easy transition from the idea of a cotton awning, with which the
Romans had become familiar, to apply the term to the sail of a ship. To
these examples we may add the following:
Et sequitur curvus fugienta carbasa delphin.
_Seneca, Œd._ ii. _prope fin._
The dolphin curved pursues the flying sails.
Strictaque pendentes deducunt carbasa nautæ.--_Lucan_, ii. 697.
The mariners confine the sails with cords,
And, clinging to the mast, they take them down.
Recto deprendit carbasa malo. ix. 324.
The mast stands upright; he takes down the sails.
Jamque adeo egressi steterant in littore primo,
Et promota, ratis pendentibus arbore nautis,
Aptabant sensim pulsanti carbasa vento.
_Silius Italicus. Pun._ iii. 128.
They leave the port and reach the shore: aloft
They hang upon the mast, and by degrees
They fit the sails to catch the beating wind.
Festinant trepidi substringere carbasa nautæ.
_Martial_, _l._ xii. _ep._ 29.
The trembling seamen haste to reef their sails.
Primæ, carbasa ventilantis, auræ.--_Statius, Sylv._ iv. 3. 106.
Of the first gale, which breathes upon the sails.
Statius also mentions “Carbasei sinus,” the folds of cotton in the
chlamys of a Bacchanal (_Theb._ vii. 658.).
Æstivos penetrent oneraria carbasa fluctus.--_Rutilius_, i. 221.
Postquam tua carbasa vexit--Oceanus.--_Val. Flaccus_, i.
Necdum aliæ viderunt carbasa terræ.--_Ibid._
Valerius Flaccus also introduces muslin among the elegances in the
dress of a Phrygian from the river Rhyndacus.
Tenuai non illum candentis carbasa lini,
Non auro depicta chlamys, non flava galeri
Cæsaries, pictoque juvant subtemine braccæ. vi. 228.
No aid to him his chlamys white as snow,
Muslin with gold enrich’d, his yellow curls
Of artificial hair, and _figured_ pantaloons.
(See Part 1, chap. iii. p. 59.)
Also Prudentius, the Christian poet (See Part 1, chap. iii. p. 59.),
in an elaborate account of Pride, depicts her in a garment of the same
kind:
Carbasea ex humeris summo collecta coibat
Palla sinu, teretem nectens a pectore nodum.--_Psychom._ 186.
A muslin kerchief by a knot compress’d,
Pass’d o’er her shoulders, and adorn’d her breast.
Tantâ tamque multiplici fertilitate abundat rerum omnium Cyprus, ut
nullius externi indigens adminiculi, indigenis viribus, a fundamento
ipso carinæ ad supremos usque carbasos ædificet onerarium navem,
omnibusque armamentis instructam mari committat.--_Amm. Marcellinus_,
xiv. 8.
Apuleius mentions _carbasina_ in conjunction with _bombycina_ and other
kinds of cloth[423]. He may consequently be presumed to use the word
in its proper sense, to wit, as denoting calico or muslin. In the same
manner cotton is distinguished from silk by Sidonius Apollinaris[424].
Also we may presume that cotton and not linen sails are to be
understood in the following line of Avienus:
Si tamen in Boream flectantur carbasa cymbæ.
_Descr. Orbis_, 799.
[423] Metamorphoseon l. viii. p. 579, 580. ed. Oudendorpii. (Quoted in
Part First, Chapter ii. p. 35.)
[424] L. ii. _Epist._ 2. (Quoted in Part First, Chapter iii. p. 61.).
Here the writer not only professes to give geographical information,
but he is describing the Indian seas and islands; and as in the present
day, so also in ancient times, the sails used in the navigation of
those seas were probably made of cotton.
Strabo uses the word καρπασίναι in describing the official dress of a
certain class of priestesses among the Cimbri[425]. Although it is
possible, that muslin may have been conveyed to them to be used on
solemn occasions, it appears more probable that fine linen or cambric,
which was manufactured at no great distance among the Atrebates, ought
here to be understood.
[425] L. vii. cap. 2. § 3. p. 336. ed. Siebenkees.
Pliny mentions cotton in four different passages of his Natural
History. Two of them are translated with some inaccuracies from the
passages of Theophrastus. To his translation of one of these passages
Pliny annexes the remark, derived perhaps from some other source, that
the inhabitants of Tylos called their Cotton Trees _gossympins_, and
that an island which was called the smaller Tylos, distant ten miles,
was still more fertile in cotton than the larger island of the same
name.
The third passage introduces cotton under its proper name, Carbasa.
It would imply that cotton was first grown or manufactured at Tarraco
in Spain, than which assertion nothing can be more inaccurate and
groundless.
The fourth passage is also contrary to all previous evidence, inasmuch
as it represents cotton to be the native growth of Egypt. It calls
the Cotton Plant _gossypion_, and hence the name has been given to it
by modern botanists. Supposing this last passage to be genuine, still
we know not on what authority Pliny depended, or from what source he
derived his information, nor can we tell to what extent he allowed
himself to be inaccurate in transcribing or translating. Taken by
itself, therefore, it appears to us that this passage is no better
proof of the growth of cotton anciently in Egypt than the third passage
is of its first discovery in Spain.
In Upper Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub, which some call
_gossypium_, and others _xylon_, from which the stuffs are made which
we call _xylina_. It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the
filbert, within which is a downy wool, which is spun into thread.
There is nothing to be preferred to these stuffs for whiteness or
softness: beautiful garments are made from them for the priests of
Egypt.[426]
[426] Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xix. c. 1. (Delph. Ed. c. 2.)
This passage seems however deserving of more consideration, when taken
in conjunction with the following from the Onomastícon of Julius
Pollux, who wrote 100 years later than Pliny:--
There are also Byssina; and Byssus, a kind of flax. But among the
Indians, and now also among the Egyptians, a sort of wool is obtained
from a tree. The cloth made from this wool may be compared to linen,
except that it is thicker. The tree produces a fruit most nearly
resembling a walnut, but three-cleft. After the outer covering, which
is like a walnut, has divided and become dry, the substance resembling
wool is extracted and is used in the manufacture of cloth for woof,
the warp being linen.
The description here given of the Cotton Tree or Cotton Plant,
whichever was meant, is remarkably correct; indeed more correct than
any account obtained since the time of the expedition of Alexander.
The circumstance of the pericarp being three-cleft is agreeable to the
fact, _and is not noticed by any earlier writer_. The comparison of
it to a walnut in regard to size and form is also accurate. From this
account, and from those of Theophrastus, Aristobulus, and Nearchus, we
gather the following particulars, which are agreeable to the fact: that
the cotton-plants are set in the plains, and in rows like vines; that
the plant is three or four feet high, and is branched, spreading, and
flexible, like a dog-rose; that the leaf is palmated like that of the
vine; that the capsule is three-valved, about the size of a walnut,
and, when it bursts, emits the cotton, resembling flocks of wool, in
which the seeds are imbedded.
On the other hand, we have had no previous evidence respecting the use
of cotton in the manufacture of cloth _for the woof only_, and it is
doubtful whether this piece of information is correct, _because we have
no reason to suppose that cotton was used for weaving in any country in
which flax was also spun and woven_.
Tertullian in the third Chapter of his treatise De Pallio, enumerates
nearly all the raw materials which were spun for weaving. He mentions
the class of vegetable substances (cotton and flax) in the following
terms:
Et arbusta vestiunt, et lini herbida post virorem lavacro nivescunt.
Both thickets supply clothing; and crops of flax, after being green,
are rendered by washing white as snow.
Philostratus, who wrote in the third century, makes distinct mention
of cotton in two passages[427].
[427] Vita _Appollonii_, _l._ ii. _cap._ 20. Ibid. _l._ iii. _cap._ 15.
Martianus Capella (_l._ ii. § 4. _p._ 99. _ed._ Goetz.) makes distinct
reference to a tunic and shawl white as milk, and made either of cotton
or fine linen.
Theophilus Presbyter, who wrote probably about A. D. 800, describes the
use of cotton-paper for making gold-leaf. He calls it Greek parchment,
made of tree-wool, _Pergamena_, or _Parcamena Græca, quæ fit ex lanâ
ligni_[428].
[428] De Omni Scientiâ Picturæ Artis, c. 21. quoted in Lessing’s
Schriften, vol. iv. p. 63. ed. 1825, 12mo., and in Wehr’s vom
Papier, p. 132. (See Appendix B.)
From the travels of the two Arabians who visited China in the ninth
century, we learn that at that time the ordinary dress of their
countrymen was cotton: for they remark, that “the Chinese dressed,
not in cotton, as the Arabians did, but in silk[429].” Probably the
use of imported cotton might by this time have become not uncommon in
Egypt, Syria, and other oriental countries; but we apprehend, that it
was never generally employed in Europe either for clothing, or for any
other purpose, until very lately.
[429] See the Travels as published by Renaudot, and translated from his
French into English.
It is unnecessary to further discuss the question as to whether cotton
was or was not cultivated in Egypt in ancient times. This vexed
question having been lately set at rest, by a discovery which reduces
a great deal of the learning that has been expended upon it _to the
character of old lumber_. The difficulty of ascertaining whether the
mummy-cloths (of which the specimens are exceedingly numerous) were
made of linen or cotton, has at length been overcome; and though no
chemical test could be found out to settle the question, it has been
decided by that important aid to scientific scrutiny, the microscope.
(See Chapters I. and II. Part IV.)
The following observations of Dr. Robertson in his “Historical
Disquisition concerning the knowledge which the Ancients had of
India[430],” appear very just and important.
If the use of the cotton manufactures of India had been common among
the Romans, the various kinds of them would have been enumerated in
the Law _De Publicanis et Vectigalibus_, in the same manner as the
different kinds of spices and precious stones. Such a specification
would have been equally necessary for the direction both of the
merchant and of the tax-gatherer.
[430] _Note_ xxv. p. 370. _Second ed._ 1794.
In confirmation of these remarks it may be observed, that the passages
collected in this chapter represent cotton cloth as an expensive and
curious production rather than as an article of common use among the
Greeks and Romans. Among the ancients linen must have been far cheaper
than cotton, whereas the improvements in navigation, the discovery
of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and still more the
discovery of America, have now made cotton the cheaper article among
us, and have thus brought it into general use.
India produces several varieties of cotton, both of the herbaceous
and the tree kinds. Marco Polo mentions that “cotton is produced in
Guzerat in large quantities from a tree that is about six yards in
height, and bears during twenty years; but the cotton taken from trees
of this age is not adapted for spinning, but only _quilting_. Such, on
the contrary, as is taken from trees of twelve years old, is suitable
for muslins and other manufactures of extraordinary fineness[431].” Sir
John Mandeville, on the other hand, who travelled in the fourteenth
century, fifty years later than Polo, mentions the annual herbaceous
cotton as cultivated in India: he says--“In many places the seed of
the cotton, (cothon,) which we call tree-wool, is sown every year, and
there springs up from its copses of low shrubs, on which this wool
grows[432].” Forbes also, in his Oriental Memoirs, thus describes the
herbaceous cotton of Guzerat:--“The cotton shrub, which grows to the
height of three or four feet, and in verdure resembles the currant
bush, requires a longer time than rice (which grows up and is reaped
in three months) to bring its delicate produce to perfection. The
shrubs are planted between the rows of rice, but do not impede its
growth, or prevent its being reaped. Soon after the rice harvest is
over, the cotton bushes put forth a beautiful yellow flower, with a
crimson eye in each petal; this is succeeded by a green pod, filled
with a white stringy pulp; the pod turns brown and hard as it ripens,
and then separates into two or three divisions containing the cotton. A
luxuriant field, exhibiting at the same time the expanding blossom, the
bursting capsule, and the snowy flakes of ripe cotton, is one of the
most beautiful objects in the agriculture of Hindostan[433].”
[431] Book iii. chap. 29.
[432] Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 169.
[433] Forbes’s Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 405.
The following general statement concerning the cotton of India, is
from the geographical work of Malte Brun:--“The cotton-tree grows on
all the Indian mountains, but its produce is coarse in quality: the
herbaceous cotton prospers chiefly in Bengal and on the Coromandel
coast, and there the best cotton goods are manufactured. Next to these
two provinces, Maduré, Marawar, Pescaria, and the coast of Malabar,
produce the finest cotton[434].” He elsewhere says--“Cotton is
cultivated in every part of India: the finest grows in the light rocky
soil of Guzerat, Bengal, Dude, and Agra. The cultivation of this plant
is very lucrative, an acre producing about nine quintals of cotton in
the year[435].”
[434] Malte Brun, vol. iii. p. 30.
[435] Ibid. vol. iii. p. 303.
On the discovery of this continent by Columbus, Cotton formed the
principal article of clothing among the Mexicans.
We are informed by the Abbé Clavigero that “of cotton the Mexicans
made _large webs_, and as delicate and fine as those of Holland, which
were, with much reason, highly esteemed in Europe. They wove their
cloths _of different figures_ and _colors_, representing _different
animals_ and _flowers_. Of feathers interwoven with cotton, they made
_mantles_ and _bed-curtains_, _carpets_, _gowns_, and other things,
not less soft than beautiful. With cotton also they _interwove the
finest hair of the belly of rabbits and hares, after having spun
it into thread_: of this they made most beautiful cloths, and in
particular winter waistcoats for their lords[436].” Among the presents
sent by Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, to Charles V., were “cotton
mantles, some all white, others mixed with white and black, or red,
green, yellow, and blue; waistcoats, handkerchiefs, counterpanes,
tapestries, and carpets of cotton; and the colors of the cotton were
extremely fine[437].” That the Mexicans should have understood the art
of dyeing those beautiful colors referred to in the above extract, is
not to be wondered at when we consider that they had both _indigo_ and
_cochineal_ among their native productions.
[436] Clavigero’s History of Mexico, book vii. sect. 57, 66.
[437] Clavigero’s History of Mexico, book vii. sect. 58.
Columbus also found the cotton plant growing wild, and in great
abundance, in Hispaniola, and other West India islands, and on
the continent of South America, where the inhabitants wore cotton
dresses, and made their fishing nets of the same material[438]; and
when Magellan went on his circumnavigation of the globe, in 1519,
the Brazilians were accustomed to make their beds of this vegetable
down[439].
[438] Sommario dell’Indie Occidentali del S. Don Pietro Martire, in
Ramusio’s Collection, tom. ii. pp. 2, 4, 16, 50. (See Appendix D.)
[439] Vincentino’s Viaggio atorno il Mondo, (with Ferd. Magellan,) in
Ramusio, tom. i. p. 353.
CHAPTER II.
SPINNING AND WEAVING--MARVELLOUS SKILL DISPLAYED IN THESE ARTS.
Unrivalled excellence of India muslins--Testimony of the two Arabian
travellers--Marco Polo, and Odoardo Barbosa’s accounts of the
beautiful Cotton textures of Bengal--Cæsar Frederick, Tavernier,
and Forbes’s testimony--Extraordinary fineness and transparency of
Dacca muslins--Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins; compared
with English muslins--Sir Joseph Banks’s experiments--Extraordinary
fineness of Cotton yarn spun by machinery in England--Fineness of
India Cotton yarn--Cotton textures of Soonergong--Testimony of R.
Fitch--Hamilton’s account--Decline of the manufactures of Dacca
accounted for--Orme’s testimony of the universal diffusion of the
Cotton manufacture in India--Processes of the manufacture--Rude
implements--Roller gin--Bowing. (Eli Whitney inventor of the Cotton
gin--Tribute of respect paid to his memory--Immense value of Mr.
Whitney’s invention to growers and manufacturers of Cotton throughout
the world.) Spinning wheel--Spinning without a wheel--Loom--Mode of
weaving--Forbes’s description--Habits and remuneration of Spinners,
Weavers, &c.--Factories of the East India Company--Marvellous skill
of the Indian workman accounted for--Mills’s testimony--Principal
Cotton fabrics of India, and where made--Indian commerce in Cotton
goods--Alarm created in the woollen and silk manufacturing districts
of Great Britain--Extracts from publications of the day--Testimony
of Daniel De Foe (Author of _Robinson Crusoe_.)--Indian fabrics
prohibited in England, and most other countries of Europe--Petition
from Calcutta merchants--Present condition of the City of Dacca--Mode
of spinning fine yarns--Tables showing the comparative prices of Dacca
and British manufactured goods of the same quality.
The antiquity of the cotton manufacture in India having been noticed
in the last chapter, the present one will give some account of the
remarkable excellence of the Indian fabrics,--the processes and
machines by which they are wrought,--the condition of the population
engaged in this department of industry,--the extensive commerce
formerly carried on in these productions to every quarter of the globe,
and the causes that have tended to destroy it.
The Indians have in all ages maintained an unapproached and almost
incredible perfection in their fabrics of cotton. Indeed some of their
muslins might be thought the work of fairies or insects, rather than of
men; but these are produced in small quantities, and have seldom been
exported. In the same province from which the ancient Greeks obtained
the finest muslins then known, namely, the province of Bengal, these
astonishing fabrics are manufactured to the present day[440].
[440] Bains’s “History of the Cotton Manufacture,” p. 55.
We learn from two Arabian travellers of the ninth century, that
“in this country (India) they make garments of such extraordinary
perfection, that nowhere else are the like to be seen. These garments
are for the most part round, and wove to that degree of fineness that
they may be drawn through a ring of moderate size[441].” Marco Polo,
in the thirteenth century, mentions the coast of Coromandel, and
especially Masulipatam, as producing “the finest and most beautiful
cottons that are to be found in any part of the world[442];” and
this is still the case as to the flowered and glazed cottons, called
chintzes, though the muslins of the Coromandel coast are inferior to
those of Bengal.
[441] Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs
Mahometans, qui y allerent dans le neuviéme siecle, p. 21.
[442] Travels of Marco Polo, book iii. c. 21, 28.
Odoardo Barbosa, one of the Portuguese adventurers who visited India
immediately after the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good
Hope, celebrates “the great quantities of cotton cloths admirably
painted, also some white and some striped, held in the highest
estimation,” which were made in Bengal[443]. Cæsar Frederick, a
Venetian merchant, who travelled in India in 1563, and whose narrative
is translated by Hakluyt, describes the extensive traffic carried
on between St. Thomé (a port 150 miles from Negapatam) and Pegu, in
“_bumbast_ (cotton) cloth of every sort, painted, which is a rare
thing, because this kind of cloths show as if they were gilded with
divers colors, and the more they are washed, the livelier the colors
will become; and there is made such account of this kind of cloth, that
a small bale of it will cost 1000 or 2000 ducats[444].”
[443] Ramusio’s “Raccolto delle Navigationi et Viaggi,” tom. i. p. 315.
[444] Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 366. Edition of 1809.
Tavernier, who, like Marco Polo, Barbosa, and Frederick, was a
merchant as well as a traveller, and therefore accustomed to judge
of the qualities of goods, and who travelled in the middle of the
seventeenth century, says--“The white calicuts,” (calicoes, or rather
muslins, so called from the great commercial city of Calicut, whence
the Portuguese and Dutch first brought them) “are woven in several
places in Bengal and Mogulistan, and are carried to Raioxsary and
Baroche[445] to be whitened, because of the large meadows and plenty
of lemons that grow thereabouts, for they are never so white as they
should be till they are dipped in _lemon-water_. Some calicuts are made
so fine, _you can hardly feel them in your hand_, and the thread, when
spun, is scarce discernible[446].” The same writer says, “There is
made at Seconge (in the province of Malwa) a sort of calicut so fine
that when a man puts it on, _his skin shall appear as plainly through
it, as if he was quite naked_; but the merchants are not permitted
to transport it, for the governor is obliged to send it all to the
Great Mogul’s seraglio and the principal lords of the court, to make
the sultanesses and noblemen’s wives shifts and garments for the hot
weather; and the king and the lords take great pleasure to behold them
in these shifts, and see them dance with nothing else upon them[447].”
Speaking of the turbans of the Mohammedan Indians, Tavernier says, “The
rich have them of so fine cloth, that twenty-five or thirty ells of it
put into a turban will not weigh four ounces[448].”
[445] “At the town of Baroche, in Guzerat, Forbes describes the
manufacture as being now in nearly the same state as when Arrian’s
Periplus was written (about A. D. 100.). He says--”The cotton trade
at Baroche is very considerable, and the manufactures of this
valuable plant, from the finest muslin to the coarsest sail-cloth,
employ thousands of men, women, and children, in the metropolis
and the adjacent villages. The cotton clearers and spinners
generally reside in the suburbs, or poorahs, of Baroche, which are
very extensive. The weavers’ houses are mostly near the shade of
tamarind and mango trees, under which, at sun-rise, they fix their
looms, and weave a variety of cotton cloth, with very fine baftas
and muslins (See Plate V.). Surat is more famous for its colored
chintzes and piece goods. The Baroche muslins are inferior to those
of Bengal and Madras, nor do the painted chintzes of Guzerat equal
those of the Coromandel coast.”--Forbes’s Oriental Memoirs, vol.
ii. p. 222.
[446] Tavernier’s Travels, contained in Dr. Harris’s Collection of
Voyages and Travels, vol. i. p. 811.
[447] Ibid. vol. i. p. 829.
[448] Tavernier’s Travels, Harris’s Collection, vol. i. p. 833.
An English writer, at the end of the seventeenth century, in a
remonstrance against the admission of India muslins, for which,
he says, the high price of thirty shillings a yard was paid,
unintentionally compliments the delicacy of the fabric by stigmatizing
it as “only the _shadow_ of a commodity[449].”
[449] The Naked Truth, in an Essay upon Trade, p. 11.
The late Rev. William Ward, a missionary at Serampore, informs us
that “at Shantee-pooru and Dhaka, muslins are made which sell at a
hundred rupees a piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of
manufacture is wonderful. Persons with whom I have conversed on this
subject say, that at two places in Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vilkrum-pooru,
muslins are made by a few families so exceedingly fine, that four
months are required to weave one piece, which sells at five hundred
rupees. When this muslin is laid on the grass, and the dew has fallen
upon it, _it is no longer discernible_[450].”
[450] View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, by
William Ward; vol. iii. p. 127. 3d edition.
After such statements as the above, from sober and creditable
witnesses, the Oriental hyperbole which designates the Dacca muslins as
“_webs of woven wind_,” seems only moderately poetical.
Sir Charles Wilkins brought a specimen of Dacca muslin from India
in the year 1786, which was presented to him by the principal of the
East India Company’s factory at Dacca, as the finest then made there.
Like all Indian muslins, it has a yellowish hue, caused by imperfect
bleaching. Though the worse for many years’ exposure in a glass case,
and the handling of visitors, it is of exquisite delicacy, softness,
and transparency; yet the yarn of which it is woven, and of which Mr.
Wilkins also brought a specimen, is not so fine as some which has been
spun by machinery in England. The following minute, made by Sir Joseph
Banks on a portion of this yarn, thirty or forty years since, appears
at the India House in his own writing, together with a specimen of the
muslin:--
“The portion of skein which Mr. Wilkins gave to me weighed 34-3/10
grains: its length was 5 yards 7 inches, and it consisted of 196
threads. Consequently, its whole length was 1018 yards and 7 inches.
This, with a small allowance for fractions, gives 29 yards to a grain,
203,000 to a pound avoirdupoise of 7000 grains; that is, 115 miles, 2
furlongs, and 60 yards.”
Cotton yarn has been spun in England, making _three hundred and fifty
hanks_ to the _lb. weight_, each hank measuring 840 yards, and the
whole forming a thread of 167 miles in length[451]. This, however,
must be regarded merely as showing how fine the cotton can possibly
be spun by machinery, since no such yarn is or could be used in the
making of muslins, or for any other purpose. The extreme of fineness
to which yarns for muslins are ever spun in Great Britain is 250 hanks
to the lb., which would form a thread measuring 119⅓ miles; but
it is very rarely indeed that finer yarn is used than 220 hanks to
the lb., which is less fine than the specimen of Dacca muslin above
mentioned. The Indian hand-spun yarn is softer than mule-yarn, and the
muslins made of the former are much more durable than those made of the
latter. In point of appearance, however, the book-muslin of Glasgow
is very superior to the Indian muslin, not only because it is better
bleached, but because it is more evenly woven, and from yarn of uniform
thickness, whereas the threads in the Indian fabric vary considerably.
[451] Pliny, in speaking of linen yarn, gives us an account (L. xix.
cap. 2.) of the cuirass of the Egyptian king Amasis, which is
preserved in the temple of Minerva in Rhodes. “Each thread,” says
he, “is shown to consist of 365 fibres, which fact Mucianus, being
a third time Consul, lately asserted at Rome.”--Mucianus was Consul
the third time A. D. 75.
It is probable that the specimens brought by Wilkins, though the
finest then made at the city of Dacca, is not equal to the most
delicate muslins made in that neighborhood in former times, or even in
the present. The place called by the Rev. Mr. Ward Sonar-ga, and, by
Mr. Walter Hamilton, Sooner-gong, a decayed city near Dacca, has been
said to be unrivalled in its muslins. Mr. Ward’s testimony has been
quoted above. Mr. Ralph Fitch, an English traveller, in 1583, spoke
of the same place when he said--“Sinnergan is a town six leagues from
Serrapore, where there is the best and finest cloth made of cotton
that is in all India[452].” Mr. Hamilton says--“Soonergong is now
dwindled down to an inconsiderable village. By Abul Fazel, in 1582, it
is celebrated for the manufacture of a beautiful cloth, named _cassas_
(cossaes,) and the fabrics it still produces justify to the present
generation its ancient renown[453]”. But it seems that there has been a
great decline in the manufacture of the finest muslins, which is both
stated and accounted for by Mr. Hamilton in the following passage on
the district of Dacca Jelulpoor:--
[452] Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 390; edit. 1809.
[453] A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of
Hindostan, by Walter Hamilton, Esq. vol. i. p. 187--(1820.)
“Plain muslins, are distinguished by different names, according to the
fineness or closeness of the texture, as well as _flowered_, _striped_,
or _chequered_ muslins, are fabricated chiefly in this district, where
a species of cotton named the banga grows, necessary, although not of a
very superior quality, to form the stripes of the finest muslins, for
which the city of Dacca has been so long celebrated. The northern parts
of Benares furnish both plain and flowered muslins, which are not ill
adapted for common use, though incapable of sustaining any competition
with the beautiful and inimitable fabrics of Dacca.
“The export of the above staple articles has much decreased, and
the art of manufacturing some of the finest species of muslins is in
danger of being lost, the orders for them being so few that many of the
families who possess by _hereditary_ instruction the art of fabricating
them have desisted, on account of the difficulty they afterwards
experience in disposing of them. This decline may partly be accounted
for from the utter stagnation of demand in the upper provinces since
the downfall of the imperial government, prior to which these delicate
and beautiful fabrics were in such estimation, not only at the court
of Delhi, but among all classes of the high nobility in India, as to
render it difficult to supply the demand. Among more recent causes also
may be adduced the French revolution, the degree of perfection to which
this peculiar manufacture has lately been brought in Great Britain, the
great diminution in the Company’s investment, and the advance in the
price of cotton.”
With respect to the peculiar species of cotton of which the Dacca
muslins are made, the following statement was given to a committee of
the House of Commons, in 1830-31, by Mr. John Crawfurd, for many years
in the service of the East India Company, and author of the “History of
the Indian Archipelago:”
“There is a fine variety of cotton in the neighborhood of Dacca, from
which I have reason to believe the fine muslins of Dacca are produced,
and probably to the accidental discovery of it is to be attributed the
rise of this singular manufacture; it is cultivated by the natives
alone, not at all known in the English market, nor, as far as I am
aware, in that of Calcutta. Its growth extends about forty miles along
the banks of the Megna, and about three miles inland. I consulted
Mr. Colebrook respecting the Dacca cotton, and had an opportunity of
perusing the manuscripts of the late Dr. Roxburgh, which contain an
account of it; he calls it a variety of the common herbaceous annual
cotton of India, and states that it is longer in the staple, and
affords the material from which the Dacca muslins have been always
made.”
The cotton manufacture in India is not carried on in a few large
towns, or in one or two districts; it is universal. The growth of
cotton is nearly as general as the growth of food; everywhere the women
spend a portion of their time in spinning; and almost every village
contains its weavers, and supplies its own inhabitants with the scanty
clothing they require[454]. Being a domestic manufacture, and carried
on with the rudest and cheapest apparatus, it requires neither capital,
mills, or an assemblage of various trades. The cotton is separated from
the seeds by a small rude hand-mill, or gin, turned by women.
[454] Orme, in his Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, says, “On
the coast of Coromandel and in the province of Bengal, when at some
distance from the high road or a principal town, it is difficult to
find a village in which every man, woman, and child is not employed
in making a piece of cloth. At present, much the greatest part of
the whole provinces are employed in this single manufacture.” (p.
409.) “The progress of the cotton manufacture includes no less than
a description of the lives of half the inhabitants of Indostan.”
(p. 413.)
The mill consists of two rollers of teak wood, fluted longitudinally
with five or six grooves, and revolving nearly in contact. The upper
roller is turned by a handle, the lower being carried along with it by
means of a perpetual screw at the axis. The cotton is put in at one
side, and drawn through by the revolving rollers; but the seeds, being
too large to pass through the opening, are torn off and fall down on
the opposite side from the cotton[455].
[455] To the efforts of Eli Whitney, America is indebted for the value
of her great staple. While the invention of the cotton gin has been
the chief source of the prosperity of the Southern planter, the
Northern manufacturer comes in for a large share of the benefits
derived from this most important offspring of American ingenuity.
Eli Whitney, who may with justice be considered one of the most
ingenious and extraordinary men that ever lived, was born in
Westborough, Worcester County, Massachusetts, December 8th, 1765.
His parents belonged to that respectable class in society, who, by
the labors of husbandry, manage, _by uniform industry_, to provide
well for a rising family,--a class from whom have risen most of
those who, in New England, have attained to high eminence and
usefulness.
Although Mr. Whitney’s machines have benefited the people of this
country, and the world at large, millions upon millions, yet,
it is to be lamented that he did not reap that reward which his
ingenuity and industry, as well as virtuous course of conduct so
richly merited, but died much involved in debt, while thousands who
had conspired to defraud him of his just and lawful rights, were
enriched by the use of his machines.
“If we should assert,” said Judge William Johnson, “that the
benefits of this invention (the Cotton gin) exceed $100,000,000, we
can prove the assertion by correct calculation.”
Who is there that, like him, has given his country and the world a
machine--the product of his own skill--which has furnished a large
part of its population, from childhood to age, with a lucrative
employment; by which their debts have been paid off; their capitals
increased; their lands trebled in value?
Mr. Whitney died on the 8th of January 1825, and is buried in the
cemetery of New Haven, Connecticut. His tomb is after the model
of Scipio’s at Rome. It is simple and beautiful, and promises to
endure for years. It bears the following inscription.
=ELI WHITNEY.=
THE INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN.
OF USEFUL SCIENCE AND ARTS, THE EFFICIENT PATRON AND IMPROVER.
IN THE SOCIAL RELATIONS OF LIFE, A MODEL OF EXCELLENCE.
WHILE PRIVATE AFFECTION WEEPS AT HIS TOMB, HIS COUNTRY HONORS HIS
MEMORY.
BORN DECEMBER 8TH, 1765.--DIED JAN. 8TH, 1825.
The convention of American Geologists and Naturalists who met at
New Haven in May last (1845.), were invited, together with their
ladies, by Mrs. Whitney, the _widow of the inventor of the Cotton
gin_, to attend an evening party at her house, which was accepted,
where they had an elegant supper and conversazione.
“It is melancholy,” says Mr. Bains in his History of the Cotton
Manufacture, p. 114, “to contrast with the sanguine eagerness
of inventors, the slowness of mankind to acknowledge and reward
their merits,--to observe how, on many occasions, genius, instead
of realizing fame and fortune, has been pursued by disaster and
opposition,--how trifling difficulties have frustrated the success
of splendid discoveries,--and how those discoveries, snatched from
the grasp of their broken-hearted authors, have brought princely
fortunes to men whose _only_ talent was in making money. When
inventors fail in their projects, no one pities them; when they
succeed, persecution, envy, and jealousy are their reward. Their
means are generally exhausted before their discoveries become
productive. They plant a vineyard, and either starve, or are driven
from their inheritance, before they can gather the fruit.”
Would it not be greatly to the credit of the cotton manufacturing
interest in this country and in Europe, to present Mrs. Whitney
with some token of their respect and veneration for the memory of
the inventor of the Cotton gin?
The next operation is that of bowing the cotton, to clear it from dirt
and knots. A large bow, made elastic by a complication of strings, is
used; this being put in contact with a heap of cotton, the workman
strikes the string with a heavy wooden mallet, and its vibrations open
the knots of the cotton, shake from it the dust and dirt, and raise it
to a downy fleece. The hand-mill and bow have been used immemorially
throughout all the countries of Asia, and have their appropriate names
in the Arabic and other languages: they were formerly used in America,
whence the term, still applied in commerce, “_bowed Georgia cotton_.”
The hatters of Great Britain still raise their wool by the bow. The
cotton being thus prepared, without any carding, it is spun by the
women; the coarse yarn is spun on a one-thread wheel, and very much
resembling those used at the present day by the peasantry in the west
of Ireland.
The finer yarn is spun with a metallic spindle, and sometimes without
a distaff; a bit of clay is attached as a weight to one end of the
spindle, which is turned round with the left hand, whilst the cotton
is supplied with the right; the thread is wound upon a small piece of
wood. The spinster keeps her fingers dry by the use of a chalky powder.
(See Part First, Chapter I, pp. 17 and 18.)
The yarn, having been reeled and warped in the simplest possible
manner, is given to the weaver whose loom is as rude a piece of
apparatus as can be imagined. It consists merely of two bamboo rollers,
one for the warp and the other for the web, and a pair of headles. The
shuttle performs the double office of shuttle and lay, and for this
purpose is made like a large netting needle, and of a length rather
more than the breadth of the web[456]. This apparatus the weaver
carries to a tree, under which he digs a hole (which may be called the
_treadle-hole_) large enough to contain his legs and the lower tackle.
He then stretches his warp by fastening his bamboo rollers at a proper
distance from each other by means of wooden pins. The headle-jacks
he fastens to some convenient branch of the tree over his head (See
Plate V.): two loops underneath, _in which he inserts his great toes_,
serve instead of treadles; and his long shuttle, which also performs
the office of lay, draws the weft through the warp, and afterwards
strikes it home to the fell. “There is not so much as an expedient for
rolling up the warp: it is stretched out to the full length of the web,
which makes the house of the weaver insufficient to contain him. He is
therefore obliged to work continually in the open air; and every return
of inclement weather interrupts him[457].”
[456] The shuttle is not always of this length. Hoole, in his “Mission
to India,” represents it as requiring to be _thrown_, in which
case it must be short; and a drawing of a Candyan weaver, in the
Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,
shows the shuttle of the same size as our modern shawl shuttle.
Indeed we have abundant evidence that the Indians employed shuttles
of this latter description from time immemorial. The Chinese also
use shuttles of the same description. (See Chinese loom, Plate I.)
[457] Mill’s History of British India, book ii. ch. 8.
Forbes describes the weavers in Guzerat, near Baroche, as fixing their
looms at sun-rise under the shade of tamarind and mango trees. In some
parts of India, however, as on the banks of the Ganges, the weavers
work under the cover of their sheds, fixing the geer of their looms
to a bamboo in the roof (See Plate V.). They size their warps with a
starch made from the root called _kandri_. When chequered muslins are
wrought, three persons are employed at each loom.
Some authentic particulars concerning the habits and remuneration
of the Hindoos engaged in the making of cotton cloth, are contained
in an unpublished account of the districts of Puraniya (Purneah,)
Patna, and Dinajpur, by Dr. Francis Hamilton, better known as Dr. F.
Buchanan, (he having taken the name of Hamilton,) the author of the
“Journey from Madras to Mysore, Canara, and Malabar.” This account of
the above-named provinces near the Ganges is in several manuscript
volumes in the library of the India House, in London. We learn from
his elaborate survey that the spinning and weaving of cotton prevails
throughout these provinces. The fine yarns are spun with an iron
spindle, and without distaff, generally by women of rank; no caste is
disgraced here by spinning, as in the south of India; the women do not
employ all their time at this work, but only so much as is allowed by
their domestic occupations. The coarse yarns are spun on a small wheel
turned by the hand. The hand-mill is used to free the cotton from its
seeds, and the bow to tease it. The following capital is required for
the weaver’s business: a loom, 2½ rupees; sticks for warping and
a wheel for winding, 2 anas; a shop, 4 rupees; thread for two ready
money pieces, worth 6 rupees each, 5 rupees;--total 11 rupees 10 anas;
to which must be added a month’s subsistence. The man and his wife
warp, wind, and weave two pieces of this kind in a month, and he has
7 rupees (14 shillings stg.) profit, deducting, however, the tear and
wear of his apparatus, which is a trifle. A person hired to weave can
in a month make three pieces of this kind, and is allowed 2 anas in
the rupee of their value, which is 2¼ rupees (4_s._ 6_d._) a month.
The finest goods cost 2 rupees a piece for weaving. Dr. Hamilton, in
his observations on another district, states the average profit of a
loom engaged in weaving coarse goods to be 28 rupees (£2. 16_s._) a
year, or something less than 13_d._ a week. At Puraniya and Dinajpur
the journeymen cotton-weavers usually made from 2 to 2½ rupees (from
4_s._ to 5_s._) a month. At Patna a man and his wife made from 3 to 4
rupees (from 6_s._ to 8_s._) a month by beating and cleaning cotton;
and each loom employed in making chequered muslins, has a profit of
108½ rupees a year (£10. 16_s._), that is, 1_s._ 4_d._ a week for
each of the three persons who work the loom. The average earnings of a
journeyman weaver, therefore, appear to be from 1_s._ to 1_s._ 4_d._
per week. At Bangalore, and in some other parts of southern India, this
author states that weavers earn from 3_d._ to 8_d._ a day, according
as they are employed on coarse or fine goods[458]; but this is so much
above the usual remuneration for labor in India, that, if the statement
is not erroneous, it must be of extremely limited application. On the
same authority, a woman spinning coarse yarn can earn 1⅔_d._ per
day[459].
[458] Buchanan’s Journey through Mysore, vol. i. pp. 216-218.
[459] Ibid. vol. iii. p. 317.
A fact is mentioned by Dr. Hamilton, in his unpublished account of
Patna, which affords a striking indication as to the national character
of the Hindoos--“All Indian weavers, who work for the common market,
make the woof of one end of the cloth coarser than that of the other,
and attempt to sell to the unwary by the fine end, although every one
almost, who deals with them, is perfectly aware of the circumstance,
and although in the course of his life any weaver may not ever have an
opportunity of gaining by this means, yet he continues the practice,
with the hope of being able at some time or other to take advantage of
the purchaser of his goods.”
The East India Company has a factory at Dacca, and also in other
parts of India,--not, as the American use of the word “factory” might
seem to imply, a mill, for the manufacture is entirely domestic--but
a commercial establishment in a manufacturing district, where the
spinners, weavers, and other workmen are chiefly employed in providing
the goods which the Company export to Europe. This establishment is
under the management of a commercial resident, who agrees for the
kinds of goods that may be required, and superintends the execution
of the orders received from the presidencies. Such is the poverty
of the workmen, and even of the manufacturers who employ them, that
the resident has to advance beforehand the funds necessary in order
to produce the goods. The consequence of this system is, that the
manufacturers and their men are in a state of dependence almost
amounting to servitude. The resident obtains their labor at his own
price, and, being supported by the civil and military power, he
establishes a monopoly of the worst kind, and productive of the most
prejudicial effects to industry. The Act of 1833, which put an end to
the commercial character of the Company, will of course abolish all the
absurd and oppressive monopolies it exercised.
It cannot but seem astonishing, that in a department of industry,
where the raw material has been so grossly neglected, where the
machinery is so rude, and where there is so little division of labor,
the results should be fabrics of the most exquisite delicacy and
beauty, _unrivalled by the products of any other nation, even those
best skilled in the mechanic arts_. This anomaly is explained by the
remarkably fine sense of touch possessed by that effeminate people,
by their patience and gentleness, and by the hereditary continuance
of a particular species of manufacture in families through many
generations, which leads to the training of children from their very
infancy in the processes of the art. Mr. Orme observes--“The women spin
the thread destined for the cloth, and then deliver it to the men,
who have fingers to model it as exquisitely as these have prepared
it. The rigid, clumsy fingers of a European would scarcely be able to
make a piece of canvass with the instruments which are all that an
Indian employs in making a piece of cambric (muslin). It is further
remarkable, that every distinct kind of cloth is the production of a
particular district, in which the fabric has been transmitted perhaps
for centuries from father to son,--_a custom which must have conduced
to the perfection of the manufacture_[460].” The last mentioned fact
may be considered as a kind of division of labor.
[460] Ormes’s Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, p. 413.
Mr. Mill thus explains the unequalled manual skill of the Indian
weaver:--“It is a sedentary occupation, and thus in harmony with his
predominant inclination. It requires patience, of which he has an
inexhaustible fund. It requires little bodily exertion, of which he
is always exceedingly sparing; and the finer the production, the more
slender the force which he is called upon to apply. But this is not
all. The weak and delicate frame of the Hindu is accompanied with an
acuteness of external sense, particularly of touch, which is altogether
unrivalled; and the flexibility of his fingers is equally remarkable.
The hand of the Hindu, therefore, constitutes an organ adapted to
the finest operations of the loom, in a degree which is almost or
altogether peculiar to himself[461].”
[461] Mill’s History of British India, book ii. c. 8.
It is, then, to a physical organization in the natives, admirably
suited to the processes of spinning and weaving; to the possession of
the raw material in the greatest abundance; to the possession also of
the _most brilliant dyes_ for _staining_ and _printing_ the cloth;
to a climate which renders the colors lively and durable; and to the
hereditary practice, by particular castes, classes, and families,
both of the manual operations and chemical processes required in the
manufacture;--it is to these causes, with very little aid from science,
and in an almost barbarous state of the mechanical arts, that India
owes her long supremacy in the manufacture of cotton.
Bengal is celebrated for the production of the finest muslins; the
Coromandel coast, for the best chintzes and calicoes; and Surat, for
strong and inferior goods of every kind. The cottons of Bengal go under
the names of _casses_, _amâns_, and _garats_; and the handkerchiefs are
called Burgoses and Steinkirkes. _Table cloths_ of superior quality are
made at _Patna_. The _basins_, or _basinets_, come from the Northern
Circars. Condaver furnishes the beautiful handkerchiefs of Masulipatam,
the fine colors of which are partly obtained from a plant called
_chage_, which grows on the banks of the Krishna, and on the coast
of the Bay of Bengal. The chintzes and ginghams are chiefly made at
Masulipatam, Madras, St. Thomé, and Paliamcotta. The long cloths and
fine pullicats are produced in the presidency of Madras. The coarse
piece-goods, under the name of baftas, doutis, and pullicats, as well
as common muslins and chintzes, are extensively manufactured in the
district of which Surat is the port. Besides all these, there is an
endless variety of fabrics, many of which are known in the markets of
Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The commerce of the Indians in these fabrics has been extensive, from
the Christian era to the end of the last century. For many hundred
years, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, and all the eastern
parts of Africa, were supplied with a considerable portion of their
cottons and muslins, and with all which they consumed of the finest
qualities, from the marts of India. This commerce existed in the last
age, and is described by the Abbé Raynal[462] and Legoux de Flaix. The
blue calicoes of Guzerat were long bought by the English and Dutch for
their trade with Guinea. The great marts of this commerce on the west
coast of India were Surat and Calicut, the former of which is near to
Baroche, the manufacturing capital of Guzerat, in which province a
considerable part of the exported cottons of India were made; and on
the east coast, Masulipatam, Madras, and St. Thomé, whence the varied
and extensive products of the Coromandel coast are exported.
[462] Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Etablissements du
Commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, tom. ii. liv. iv. ch. 4.
Owing to the beauty and cheapness of Indian muslins, chintzes,
and calicoes, there was a period when the manufacturers of all the
countries of Europe were apprehensive of being ruined by their
competition. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch and English East
India Companies imported these goods in large quantities; they became
highly fashionable for ladies’ and children’s dresses, as well as
for drapery and furniture, and the coarse calicoes were used to line
garments. To such an extent did this proceed, that as early as 1678 a
loud outcry was made in England against the admission of Indian goods,
which, it was maintained, were ruining the woollen manufacture,--a
branch of industry which for centuries was regarded with an almost
superstitious veneration, as a kind of palladium of the national
prosperity, and which was incomparably the most extensive branch of
manufactures till the close of the eighteenth century. A few extracts
from pamphlets published in the seventeenth and at the beginning of
the eighteenth century, will not only afford amusement, but will show
the wonderful commercial revolution which has since been effected
by machinery. In the year 1678, a pamphlet was issued under the
title--“The Ancient Trades Decayed and Repaired again,” in which the
author thus bewails the interference of cotton with woollen fabrics.
“This trade (the woollen) is very much hindered by our own people,
who do wear many foreign commodities instead of our own; as may be
instanced in many particulars; viz. instead of green _sey_, that
was wont to be used for children’s frocks, is now used painted and
Indian-stained and striped calico; and instead of a perpetuana or
shalloon to line men’s coats with, is used sometimes a glazed calico,
which in the whole is not above 12_d._ cheaper, and abundantly worse.
And sometimes is used a _Bangale_ that is brought from India, both
for linings to coats, and for petticoats too; yet our English ware is
better and cheaper than this, only it is thinner for the summer. To
remedy this, it would be necessary to lay a very high impost upon all
such commodities as these are, and that no calicoes or other sort of
linen be suffered to be glazed.”--pp. 16, 17.
The writer, with equal wisdom, recommends the prohibition of _stage
coaches_, on account of their injuring the proprietors of the inns on
the road, by conveying the passengers too quickly, and at too little
expense to themselves. A pamphlet entitled “The Naked Truth, in an
Essay upon Trade,” published in 1696, informs us that--
“The commodities that we chiefly receive from the East Indies are
calicoes, muslins, Indian wrought silks, pepper, saltpetre, indigo, &c.
The advantage of the Company is chiefly in their muslins and Indian
silks, (a great value in these commodities being comprehended in a
small bulk,) and these becoming the general wear in England.”--p. 4.
“Fashion is truly termed a witch; the dearer and scarcer any commodity,
the more the mode; 30_s._ a yard for muslins, and only the shadow of a
commodity when procured.”--p. 11.
So sagacious and far-sighted an author as Daniel de Foe (Author of
Robinson Crusoe) did not escape the general notion, that it was not
merely injurious to the woollen and silk manufactures, a but also a
national evil, TO HAVE CLOTHING CHEAP FROM ABROAD RATHER THAN
TO MANUFACTURE IT DEAR AT HOME. In his _Weekly Review_, which
contains so many opinions on trade, credit, and currency far beyond the
age, he thus laments the large importations of Indian goods.
“The general fancy of the people runs upon East India goods to that
degree, that the _chintz_ and _painted calicoes_, which before were
only made use of for carpets, quilts, &c., and to clothe children and
ordinary people, become now the dress of our ladies; and such is the
power of a mode as we saw our persons of quality dressed in stuffs
which but a few years before their chambermaids would have thought
too ordinary for them: the chintz was advanced from lying upon their
floors to their backs, from the foot-cloth to the petticoat; and even
the queen herself at this time was pleased to appear in China silks and
calico. Nor was this all, but it crept into our houses, closets, and
bed-chambers; curtains, cushions, chairs, and at last beds themselves,
were nothing but calicoes or Indian stuffs; and in short, almost
everything that used to be made of wool or silk, relating either to the
dress of the women or the furniture of our houses, was supplied by the
Indian trade.”
“Above half of the (woollen) manufacture was entirely lost, half of the
people scattered and ruined, and all this by the intercourse of the
East India trade.”--_Weekly Review_, _January_ 31st, 1708.
However exaggerated and absurd De Foe’s estimate of the injury caused
to the woollen manufacture, as manifested by the small value of the
whole importations of Indian fabrics, at that time, as well as (much
more decisively) by the experience of recent times, when the woollen
manufacture has sustained the incomparably more formidable competition
of the English cotton manufacture, it is evident from his testimony,
and that of other writers, that Indian calicoes, muslins, and chintzes,
had become common in England at the close of the seventeenth century.
De Foe’s complaint was not of an evil existing in 1708, when he wrote,
but of one a few years earlier; for he says in another place, that
the “PROHIBITION OF INDIAN GOODS” had “AVERTED THE RUIN OF ENGLISH
MANUFACTURES, AND REVIVED THEIR PROSPERITY.” This prohibition took
place by the Act 11 and 12 William III. cap. 10., (1700,) which forbid
the introduction of Indian silks and printed calicoes for domestic use,
either as apparel or furniture, under a penalty of £200 on the wearer
or seller, and as this Act did not prevent the continued use of the
goods, which were probably smuggled from the continent of Europe, other
Acts for the same purpose were passed at a later date.
A volume published in the year 1728, entitled “A Plan of the English
Commerce,” shows that the evil of a consumption of Indian manufactures
still prevailed, and that it was ascribed to a cause for which the
writer saw no remedy, namely, the _will of the ladies_, or, in his own
words, their “_passion for their fashion_.” The other countries of
Europe are represented as equally suffering from Indian competition
and _female perverseness_, and as attempting in the same way to find a
remedy in legislative prohibition. Holland was an honorable exception.
The author says--
“The calicoes are sent from the Indies by land into Turkey, by land and
inland seas into Muscovy and Tartary, and about by long-sea into Europe
and America, till in general they are become a grievance, and almost
all the European nations but the Dutch restrain and prohibit them.”--p.
180.
“Two things,” says the writer, “among us are too ungovernable, viz. our
_passions_ and our _fashions_.
“Should I ask the ladies whether they would dress by law, or clothe by
act of parliament, they would ask me _whether they were to be statute
fools_, and to be made pageants and pictures of?--whether the sex was
to be set up for our jest, and the parliament had nothing to do but
make Indian queens of them?--that they claim liberty as well as the
men, and as they expect to do what they please, and say what they
please, so they will wear what they please, and dress how they please.
“It is true that the liberty of the ladies, their _passion_ for their
_fashion_, has been frequently injurious to the manufactures of Great
Britain, and is so still in some cases; but I do not see so easy a
remedy for that, as for some other things of the like nature. The
ladies have suffered some little restraint that way, as in the wearing
East India silks, instead of English; and calicoes and other things
instead of worsted stuffs and the like; and we do not see they are
pleased with it.”--p. 253.
It appears, then, that not more than a century ago, the cotton fabrics
of India were so beautiful and cheap, that nearly all the governments
of Europe thought it necessary to prohibit them, or to load them with
heavy duties, IN ORDER TO PROTECT THEIR OWN MANUFACTURES.
How surprising a revolution has since taken place! The Indians have
not lost their former skill; but a power has arisen, which has robbed
them of their ancient ascendancy. The following document furnishes
superabundant proof how a manufacture which has existed without a rival
for thousands of years, is withering under the competition of a power
which is as it were but of yesterday: it would be well if it did not
also illustrate the very different measure of protection and justice
which governments usually afford to their subjects at home, and to
those of their remote dependencies.
PETITION OF NATIVES OF BENGAL, RELATIVE TO DUTIES ON COTTON AND SILK.
“Calcutta, 1st. Sept. 1831.
“_To the Right Honorable the Lords of His Majesty’s Privy Council for
Trade, &c_.
“The humble Petition of the undersigned Manufacturers and Dealers in
_Cotton_ and _Silk Piece-goods_, the fabrics of Bengal;
“Sheweth--That of late years your Petitioners have found their
business nearly superseded by the introduction of the fabrics of Great
Britain into Bengal, the importation of which augments every year, to
the great prejudice of the native manufactures.
“That the fabrics of Great Britain are consumed in Bengal, without
any duties being levied thereon to protect the native fabrics.
“That the fabrics of Bengal are charged with the following duties when
they are used in Great Britain--
“On manufactured cottons, 10 per cent.
“On manufactured silks, 24 per cent.
“Your Petitioners most humbly implore your Lordships’ consideration
of these circumstances, and they feel confident that no disposition
exists in England to shut the door against the industry of any part of
the inhabitants of this great empire.
“They therefore pray to be admitted to the privilege of British
subjects, and humbly entreat your Lordships to allow the cotton and
silk fabrics of Bengal to be used in Great Britain free of duty, _or
at the same rate which may be charged on British fabrics consumed in
Bengal_[463].
“Your Lordships must be aware of the immense advantages the
British manufacturers derive from their skill in constructing and
using machinery, which enables them to undersell the unscientific
manufacturers of Bengal in their own country: and, although your
Petitioners are not sanguine in expecting to derive any great
advantage from having their prayer granted, their minds would feel
gratified by such a manifestation of your Lordships’ good will towards
them; and such an instance of justice to the natives of India would
not fail to endear the British government to them.
“They therefore confidently trust, that your Lordships’ righteous
consideration will be extended to them as British subjects, without
exception of _sect_, _country_, or _color_.
“And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.”
[Signed by 117 natives of high respectability.]
[463] This reasonable request was not complied with, the duty on India
cotton being still 10 per cent. The extra duty of 3½_d._ per yard
on printed cottons was taken off when the excise duty on English
prints was repealed, in 1831. English cottons imported into India
only pay a duty of 2½ per cent.
Dacca, notwithstanding its present insignificance as compared with
its former grandeur, may nevertheless still be classed among second
rate cities. It has a population of 150,000 inhabitants, which is
nearly a third more than the city of Baltimore contains. Some new
brick dwellings have silently sprung up here and there, it may also be
observed, within the last few years; and this city can now boast an Oil
Mill driven by steam, and an Iron Suspension Bridge. Three more steam
engines are in the course of erection[464]. On the whole, an increase
may be looked for, rather than the contrary, in the wealth, population,
and importance of the city of Dacca.
[464] Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii.
It would be curious to compare the gradual decrease of the population,
with the falling off of the manufacture of those beautiful cotton
fabrics, for which this city was once without a rival in the
world[465]. The first falling off in the Dacca trade, took place so far
back as 1801, previous to which the yearly advances made by the East
India Company, and private traders, for Dacca muslins, were estimated
at upwards of twenty-five lacs of rupees[466]. In 1807, the Company
s investment had fallen to 595,900, and the private trade to about
560,200. In 1813, the private trade did not exceed 205,950, and that of
the Company was scarcely more considerable. And in 1817, the English
commercial residency was altogether discontinued. The French and Dutch
factories had been abandoned many years before. The division of labor
was carried to a great extent in the manufacture of fine muslins. In
spinning the very fine thread, more especially, a great degree of skill
was attained. It was spun with the fingers on a “_Takwa_,” or fine
steel spindle, by young women, who could only work during the early
part of the morning, while the dew was on the ground; for such was
the extreme tenuity of the fibre, that it would not bear manipulation
after the sun had risen. One retti of cotton could thus be spun into a
thread eighty cubits long; which was sold by the spinners at one rupee,
eight annas, per sicca weight. The “Raffugars,” or _Darners_, were also
particularly skilful. They could _remove an entire thread from a piece
of muslin_, and _replace it by one of a finer texture_. The cotton
used for the finest thread, was grown in the immediate neighborhood
of Dacca, more especially about Sunergong. Its fibre is too short,
however, to admit of its being worked up by any except that most
wonderful of all machines--the human hand. The art of making the very
fine muslin fabrics is now lost--and a pity it is that it should be so.
[465] If Providence should continue to bless the work of our hands, and
our life and health be preserved, we indulge the hope of being
able, at no very distant period, to investigate this subject more
fully.
[466] _Lac of rupees_ is one hundred thousand rupees, which at 55 cents
each amount to fifty-five thousand dollars, or at 2_s._ 6_d._
sterling, to £12,500.
In 1820, a resident of Dacca, on a special order received from China,
procured the manufacture of two pieces of muslin, each ten yards long
by one wide, and weighing ten and a half sicca rupees.--The price of
each piece was 100 sicca rupees. In 1822, the same individual received
a second commission for two similar pieces, from the same quarter; but
the parties who had supplied him on the former occasion had died in the
mean time, and he was unable to execute the commission.
The annual investment, called the “Malbus Khás,” for the royal wardrobe
at Delhi, absorbed a great part of the finest fabrics in former
times: the extreme beauty of some of these muslins, was sufficiently
indicated by the names they bore: such as, “_Abrowan_,” running water;
“_Siebnem_,” evening dew, &c. The cotton manufacture has not yet
arrived at anything like this perfection with us, and probably never
will.[467]
[467] The manufacture of fine muslin, was attempted both in Lancashire
and at Glasgow, about the year 1780, with weft spun by the jenny.
The attempt failed, owing to the coarseness of the yarn. Even with
Indian weft, muslins could not be made to compete with those of
the East. But when the mule was brought into general use, in 1785,
both weft and warp were produced sufficiently fine for muslins; and
so quickly did the weaver avail himself of the improvement in the
yarn, that no less than 500,000 pieces of muslin were manufactured
in Great Britain in the year 1787. In a “Report of the Select
Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company upon
the subject of the Cotton Manufacture of this Country,” made in the
year 1793, it is said, that “_every shop offers British muslins
for sale equal in appearance, and of more elegant patterns than
those of India, for one-fourth, or perhaps more than one-third,
less in price_.” “Muslin began to be made nearly at the same time
at Bolton, at Glasgow, and at Paisley, each place adopting the
peculiar description of fabric which resembled most those goods
it had been accustomed to manufacture; and, in consequence of
this judicious distribution at first, each place has continued
to maintain a superiority in the production of its own article.
Jaconets, both coarse and fine, but of a stout fabric, checked and
striped muslins, and other articles of the heavier description of
this branch, are manufactured in Bolton, and its neighborhood.
Book, mull, and leno muslins, and jaconets of a lighter fabric
than those made in Lancashire, are manufactured in Glasgow. Sewed
and tambored muslins are almost exclusively made there and in
Paisley.”--_Encyclopædia Britannica_.
Coarse cotton piece goods still continue to be manufactured at Dacca,
though from the extreme cheapness of English cloths, it is not
improbable that the native manufacture will be altogether superseded
ere long.
In 1823-4, cotton piece goods, mostly coarse, passed the Dacca Custom
House, to the value of 1,442,101. In 1829-30, the value of the same
export was 969,952 only. There was a similar falling off in _silk_ and
_embroidered_ goods during the same period.
In the export of the articles of cotton yarn again, there has been an
increase. In 1813, the value was 4,480 rupees only; whereas in 1821-22,
it amounted to 39,319 rupees. From that period it has, however,
decreased; and in 1829-30, the value of the native cotton yarn exported
from Dacca, amounted to 29,475 rupees only.
Annexed are two statements--one showing the comparative prices of
muslins now manufactured at Dacca, and of the same description of
cloth, the produce of British looms.--The other, the comparative prices
of Dacca cloths, manufactured from yarn spun in the country, and from
British cotton yarn. These cannot fail to be interesting at the present
moment, and their general accuracy may be relied on.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE PRICES OF MUSLINS MANUFACTURED AT DACCA,
AND THE PRODUCE OF THE BRITISH LOOMS.
+------------------------------------------+------------+------------+
|ASSORTMENTS. |Manufactured|Produce of |
| | at |the British |
| | Dacca. | Looms. |
+------------------------------------------+------------+------------+
|Jamdaní, with small spot, 1st sort | 25 | 8 |
|Jamdaní, with small spot 2nd ditto | 16 | 5 |
|Jamdaní, Mabíposh, | 27 to 28 | 6 |
|Jamdaní, Diagonal pattern, | 12 to 13 | 4 to 4½ |
|Jaconet Muslin, 40½, } 1st ditto | 38 to 40 |20 to 22 |
| corresponding } 2nd ditto | 24 to 25 | 9 to 10 |
| with Jungle Cossas, } | | |
|Nyansook, 40 to 2¼, | 8 to 9 | 5 to 6 |
|Cambric, corresponding with Camiz Cossas, | 13 to 14 | 6 to 9½ |
|Jamdaní blue or red sprigs, | 15 to 16 | 4 to 5 |
|Jamdaní Sarîs, | 12 to 13 | 5 to 5½ |
|Book Muslin, corresponding with Mulmulls, | 10 to 11 | 7 to 8 |
|Sahun, 48 by 3, | 28 to 30 |14 to 15 |
+------------------------------------------+------------+------------+
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE PRICES OF DACCA CLOTHS, MANUFACTURED WITH
COTTON YARN SPUN IN THE COUNTRY, AND FROM BRITISH COTTON YARN.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| | DACCA MUSLINS. |
| +----------------+--------------+
|ASSORTMENTS. | Manufactured | Manufactured |
| | with Country | with Europe |
| | Cotton Thread. | Cotton Yarn. |
+--------------------------------+----------------+--------------+
|Mulmuls, 40 by 2, 1st sort | 8 to 9 | 3 to 4 |
| 2nd ditto | 10 to 12 | 5 to 6 |
| 3rd ditto | 14 to 15 | 9 to 10 |
| | | |
|Sablams, 40 by 2, 1st ditto | 4 to 4½ | 2½ |
| 2nd ditto | 5½ to 6 | 3 |
| 3rd ditto | 11 to 12 | 6 |
| 4th ditto | 14 to 15 | 8 |
| 5th ditto | 17 to 18 | 10 to 11 |
| | | |
|Sarbans, 40 cubits, 1st ditto | 3 | 1½ |
| 2nd ditto | 3½ to 3¾ | 1¾ |
| | | |
|Allabalís Adí, 1st ditto | 5 to 5½ | 3 |
| 2nd ditto | 7 to 7½ | 4 |
| 3rd ditto | 8 to 9 | 5 to 5½ |
| 4th ditto | 9 to 10 | 6 to 6½ |
| | | |
|Tarindans, 40 cubits, 1st ditto | 4½ to 5 | 3 |
| 2nd ditto | 6½ to 7 | 4 |
| 3rd ditto | 11 to 12 | 7 to 8 |
| 4th ditto | 13 to 14 | 10 to 11 |
|Sarí, per pair, 1st ditto | 5 | 3 |
| 2nd ditto | 5 to 5½ | 3½ to 4 |
| 3rd ditto | 9 to 10 | 5½ to 6 |
| | | |
|Dhotis, per pair, 1st ditto | 5 | 3 |
| 2nd ditto | 6 to 6½ | 3½ |
| 3rd ditto | 7 to 7½ | 5 |
| 4th ditto | 8 to 8½ | 6 |
| 5th ditto |10½ to 11 | 8 to 8½ |
| 6th ditto | 9 to 11 | 7 to 7½ |
| | | |
|Sheraganj Cossas, 1st ditto | 4 | 2¾ |
| 40 cubits, 2nd ditto | 5 | 3¼ |
| 3rd ditto | 5½ to 6 | 4 |
| 4th ditto | 7 to 7½ | 5 |
| 5th ditto | 8 to 8½ | 6 |
| | | |
|Sheraganj Hamam, 1st ditto | 5 | 3½ |
| 40 by 3, 2nd ditto | 6 to 6½ | 4 |
| 3rd ditto | 7½ to 8 | 5 |
| 4th ditto | 9 to 9½ | 6 to 7 |
| 5th ditto | 11 to 12 | 8 to 9 |
| 6th ditto | 14 to 15 | 10 to 11 |
| | | |
|Jamdan Dhotis, 1st ditto | 5½ to 6 | 4 |
| 10 cubits, 2nd ditto | 6½ to 7 | 4½ |
| 3rd ditto | 7½ to 8 | 5 |
+--------------------------------+----------------+--------------+
The manufacture of cotton, as we have seen, was general in India and
had attained high excellence in the age of the first Greek historian,
_that is, in the fifth century before Christ_, at which time it had
already existed for an unknown period; yet eighteen centuries more
elapsed before it was introduced into Italy or Constantinople, or even
secured a footing in the neighboring empire of China. Though so well
suited to hot climates, we have seen that cottons were known rather
as a curiosity than as a common article of dress in Egypt and Persia,
five centuries after the Greeks had heard of the “wool-bearing trees”
of India: in Egypt, as has been shown, the manufacture never reached
any considerable degree of excellence, and the muslins worn by the
higher classes have always been imported from India[468]. In Spain the
manufacture, after flourishing to some degree, became nearly extinct.
In Italy, Germany, and Flanders, it had also a lingering and ignoble
existence.
[468] In Arabia and the neighboring countries, cottons and muslins came
gradually into use; and the manufacture was spread, by the
commercial activity and enterprise of the early followers of
Mohammed, throughout the extended territories subdued by their
arms. “It is recorded of the fanatical Omar, the immediate
successor of the Arabian impostor, that he preached in a tattered
cotton gown, torn in _twelve_ places; and of Ali, his contemporary,
who assumed the caliphate after him, that on the day of his
inauguration, he went to the mosque dressed in a thin cotton
gown, tied round him with a girdle, a coarse turban on his head,
his slippers in one hand, and his bow in the other, instead of a
walking staff.”--_Crichton’s History of Arabia_, _vol._ i. _pp._
397, 403.
PART FOURTH.
ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE LINEN MANUFACTURE.
CHAPTER I.
FLAX.
CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF FLAX BY THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF
THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.
Earliest mention of Flax--Linen manufactures of the Egyptians--Linen
worn by the priests of Isis--Flax grown extensively in Egypt--Flax
gathering--Envelopes of Linen found on Egyptian mummies--Examination
of mummy-cloth--Proved to be Linen--Flax still grown in
Egypt--Explanation of terms--Byssus--Reply to J. R. Forster--Hebrew
and Egyptian terms--Flax in North Africa, Colchis, Babylonia--Flax
cultivated in Palestine--Terms for flax and tow--Cultivation of
Flax in Palestine and Asia Minor--In Elis, Etruria, Cisalpine Gaul,
Campania, Spain--Flax of Germany, of the Atrebates, and of the
Franks--Progressive use of linen among the Greeks and Romans.
The earliest mention of flax by any author occurs in the account of the
plague of hail, which devastated Lower Egypt, Ex. ix. 31. The Hebrew
term for flax in this and various other passages of the old Testament
is פשתה; the corresponding word in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic
versions is כתנא Λίνον, LXX. Linum, _Jerome_.
In Isaiah xix. 9, according to King James’s Translators and Bishop
Lowth, mention is made of those that “_work in fine flax_,” and which
was one of the chief employments of the Egyptians. According to
Herodotus (ii. 37, 81.) the Egyptians universally wore linen shirts,
which were fringed at the bottom. The fringe consisted of the _thrums_,
or ends of the webs. Thrums used for this purpose may be seen in the
cloths which are found in Egyptian mummies.
[Illustration: _PLATE VI_ Egyptian flax-gathering.]
Besides the linen shirt the priests wore an upper garment of linen,
more especially when they officiated in the temples. This garment was
probably of the exact form of a modern linen sheet. The distinction
between the shirt and the sheet worn over it, as well as the reason why
linen was used for all sacred purposes, is clearly expressed in the two
following passages from Apuleius and Jerome.
Etiamnè cuiquam mirum videri potest, cui sit ulla memoria religionis,
hominem tot mysteriis Deûm conscium, quædam sacrorum crepundia domi
adversare, atque ea lineo texto involvere, quod purissimum est rebus
divinis velamentum? Quippe lana, segnissimi corporis excrementum,
pecori detracta, jam inde Orphei et Pythagoræ scitis, profanus
vestitus est. Sed enim mundissima lini seges, inter optimas fruges
terrâ exorta, non modò indutui et amictui sanctissimis Ægyptiorum
sacerdotibus, sed opertui quoque in rebus sacris usurpatur.
_Apuleii Apolog. p. 64. ed. Pricæi._
Can any one impressed with a sense of religion wonder, that a man who
has been made acquainted with so many mysteries of the gods, should
keep at home certain sacred emblems and wrap them in a linen cloth,
the purest covering for divine objects? For wool, the excretion
of a sluggish body, taken from sheep, was deemed a profane attire
even according to the early tenets of Orpheus and Pythagoras. But
flax, that cleanest and best production of the field, is used, not
only for the inner and outer clothing of the most holy priests of
the Egyptians, but also for covering sacred objects.--_Yates’s
Translation._
_Indutus_ was the putting on of the _inner_, amictus of the _outer_
garment.
Vestibus lineis utuntur Ægyptii sacerdotes non solum extrinsecus, sed
et intrinsecus.--_Hieron. in Ezek. 44. folio 257._
The Egyptian priests use linen garments, not only without, but also
within.
Plutarch says[469], that the priests of Isis wore linen on account of
its purity, and he remarks how absurd and inconsistent would have been
their conduct, if they had carefully plucked the hairs from their own
bodies, and yet clothed themselves in wool, which is the hair of sheep.
He also mentions the opinion of some who thought that flax was used
for clothing, because the _color of its blossom resembles the etherial
blue which surrounds the world_; and he states, that the priests of
Isis were also buried in their sacred vestments. According to Strabo,
Panopolis was an ancient seat of the linen manufacture[470].
[469] L. xvii. § 41. p. 586. ed. Siebenkees.
[470] De Iside et Osiride, prope init. Opp. ed. H. Stephani, Par. 1572,
tom. i p. 627, 628.
Celsius in his Hierobotanicon (_vol._ ii. _p._ 287-291.), and Forster
in his treatise De Bysso Antiquorum (_p._ 65-68.) have quoted other
passages from ancient authors, which concur to show the abundance
and excellence of the flax grown anciently in Lower Egypt, and more
particularly in the vicinity of Pelusium, the general employment
of it among the inhabitants for clothing, and the exclusive use of
linen cloth for the garments of the priesthood and for other sacred
purposes, and especially for the worship of Isis and Osiris. From
the same authorities we learn, that the Egyptian flax and the cloth
woven from it were shipped in great quantities to all the ports of the
Mediterranean[471].
[471] “Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and _linen yarn_”
(טקוח): 1 Kings x. 28. 2 Chron. i. 16.
In connection with these statements the reader is referred to what has
already been advanced (See Part Second, Chap. I.) on the use of wool
for clothing by the Egyptians; and it may be also observed, that when
we find it stated by ancient authors, that the priests wore linen only,
the term ought not to be so strictly understood as to exclude the use
of cotton, which would probably be considered equally pure and equally
adapted for sacred purposes with linen, and which was brought in
ancient times from India to Egypt; and the term _linum_ was undoubtedly
often employed in so general a sense as to include cotton.
These testimonies of ancient authors are confirmed in a very
remarkable manner by existing monuments. The paintings in the Grotto of
El Kab represent among other scenes a field of corn and a crop of flax,
the latter distinguished by its inferior height, by its round capsules,
and by being pulled up by the roots instead of being reaped. The mode
of binding the flax in bundles is also exhibited, and the separation
of the “bolls,” or capsules, containing the lin-seed, from the stalk,
by the use of a comb, or “ripple.” (_See Description de l’Egypte:
Antiquités; Planches, tome_ i. _pl._ 68. _and the Plates to Hamilton’s
Ægyptiaca_, xxiii.)
In Plate VI. is inserted so much of the painting as relates to our
present subject. Five persons are employed in plucking up the flax
by the roots, viz., four men and one woman. The woman wears a shift
reaching to her ancles, but _transparent_[472]. The four men wear
shirts which reach to their knees, and are not transparent. Another
man binds the flax into sheaves: a sixth carries it to a distance: and
a seventh separates the seed from the stem by means of a four-toothed
ripple. The back of the ripple rests on the ground; its teeth being
raised to the proper elevation by a prop, as shown in the drawing.
The man sets his foot upon the back to keep the instrument firm, and,
taking hold of a bunch of flax near the root, draws it through the
comb. This method is now employed in Europe. At the left-hand corner of
the Plate lies a bundle of flax stript of its capsules, and underneath
the ripple is the heap of seed which has been separated from the stem.
[472] This circumstance is adapted to illustrate the mention of
“transparent garments” in Isaiah iii. 23. Lowth’s Translation.
Evidence equally decisive is presented in the innumerable mummies,
the fabrication of successive ages through a period of more than two
thousand years, which are found in the catacombs of Egypt. It is indeed
disputed, whether the cloth in which they are enveloped is linen or
cotton.
It was believed to be linen by all writers previous to Rouelle. More
especially, this opinion was advanced by the learned traveller and
antiquary, Professor John Greaves, in his Pyramidographia, published A.
D. 1646. He speaks of the “linen shroud” of a mummy, which he opened,
and he says, “The ribbands” (_or fillets_) “by what I observed, were of
linen, which was the habit also of the Egyptian priests.” He adds, “of
these ribbands I have seen some so _strong_ and _perfect_ as if they
had been made but yesterday.”
Rouelle’s dissertation on Mummies is published in the _Mémoires de
l’Académie R. des Sciences_ for the year 1750. He there asserts (_p._
150), that the cloth of every mummy which he had an opportunity of
examining, even that of embalmed birds, was cotton.
Dr. Hadley, however, who wrote a few years after Rouelle (_Phil.
Transactions for 1764, vol. 54._), seems to adhere to the old opinion.
He calls the cloth of the mummy, which he examined, “linen.” He says,
it was in fillets of different breadths, but the greater part 1½
inches broad. “They were torn longitudinally; those few that had a
selvage, having it on one side only.”
But the opinion of Rouelle received a strong support from Dr. John
Reinhold Forster, to whom it appeared at first almost incredible,
although he afterwards supported it in the most decided manner. He
determined to take the first opportunity of settling the question by
the inspection of mummies, and examined those in the British Museum,
accompanied by Dr. Solander. Both of these learned and acute inquirers
were convinced, that the cloth was cotton, deriving this opinion from
the inspection of all those specimens, which were sufficiently free
from gum, paint, and resins, to enable them to judge[473]. Larcher
informs us, that he remarked the same thing in these mummies in 1752,
when he was accompanied by Dr. Maty[474]. It is to be observed,
however, that neither Larcher, Rouelle, nor Forster mentions the
criterion which he employed to distinguish linen from cotton. They
probably formed their opinion only from its apparent softness, its
want of lustre, or some other quality, which might belong to linen no
less than to cotton, and which therefore could be no certain mark of
distinction.
[473] Forster, De Bysso Antiquorum, London 1776, p. 70, 71.
[474] Herodote, par Larcher. Ed. 2nde, Par. 1802, livre ii. p. 357.
The opinion of Larcher, Rouelle, and Forster appears to have been
generally adopted. In particular we find it embraced by Blumenbach,
who in the Philosophical Transactions for 1794 speaks of the “cotton
bandages” of two of the small mummies, which he opened in London[475].
In his _Beiträge (i. e. Contributions to Natural History, 2nd part, p.
73, Göttingen_, 1811) he says, he is more firmly convinced than ever,
that the cloth is universally cotton. He assigns also his reasons in
the following terms. “I ground this my conviction far less on my own
views than on the assurance of such persons as I have questioned on the
subject, and whose judgment in this matter I deem incomparably superior
to my own or to that of any other scholar, namely, of ladies, dealers
in cotton and linen cloth, weavers and the like.” He also refers to
the cultivation of cotton in Egypt, which he assumes probably on the
authority of Forster; and to the fable of Isis enveloping in “cotton”
cloth the collected limbs of her husband Osiris, who had been torn in
pieces by Typhon. The latter arguments are founded on the supposition,
that the ancient term _Byssus_ meant cotton, and not linen. But the
question as to its meaning must in part be decided, as we shall see
hereafter, by previously settling the present question as to the
materials of the mummy cloth. The opinion of ladies, tradesmen, and
manufacturers, though it may be better than that of the most learned
man, if derived from mere touch and inspection, is quite insufficient
to decide the question. If those whom Blumenbach consulted thought
that the cloth was always cotton, many others of equal experience and
discernment have given an opposite judgment; and the fact is, that
linen cloth, which has been long worn and often washed, as is the case
with a great proportion of the mummy cloth, and which is either ragged
or loose in its texture, cannot be distinguished from cotton by the
unassisted use of the external senses.
[475] On the authority of this paper the mummy-cloth is supposed to be
cotton by Heeren, Ideen, i. 1. p. 128.
Relying, however, on the same evidence of ocular inspection, another
distinguished author, who travelled in Egypt and published his remarks
about the same time, says, “As to the circumstance of cotton cloths
having been exclusively used in the above process, an inspection of the
mummies is sufficient evidence of the fact[476].”
[476] Ægyptiaca, by William Hamilton, Esq. F. R. S. London, 1809. p.
320.
M. Jomard, one of the authors of the great French work on Egypt,
published about 1811, paid great attention to this subject. He
concluded, that both linen and cotton were employed in the bandages of
mummies, grounding his opinion partly on their appearance and touch,
and partly on the testimony of Herodotus, whom he misinterpreted in the
manner, which will hereafter be mentioned[477].
[477] Description de l’Egypte. Mémoires.--Sur les Hypogées, p. 35.
Another of these authors, M. Costaz, who contributed the memoir on the
grotto of El Kab, asserts that the mummy cloth is found on examination
to be cotton[478].
[478] Ibid. tom. i. p. 60.
An important paper on the same subject appeared in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1825. In this Dr. A. B. Granville describes a mummy,
which he opened. He dwells more particularly on the circumstances,
which have reference to anatomical and surgical considerations, and
expresses very strongly his admiration of the skill and neatness
employed in folding the cloth, so as to present an example of every
kind of bandage used by modern surgeons, and to exhibit it in the most
perfect manner.
The passages which are connected with the present inquiry, will be
quoted at length. Dr. Granville observes (_p. 272._),
The principal rollers appear to be made of a very compact, yet elastic
linen, some of them from four to five yards in length, without any
stitch or seam in any part of them. There were also some large square
pieces thrown around the head, thorax, and abdomen, of a less elastic
texture. These pieces were found to alternate with the complete
swathing of the whole body. They occurred four distinct times; while
the bandaging, with rollers and other fasciæ, was repeated, at least,
twenty times. The numerous bandages, by which the mummy was thus
enveloped, were themselves wholly covered by a roller 3½ inches
wide and 11 yards long, which after making a few turns around both
feet, ascended in graceful spirals to the head, whence descending
again as far as the breast, it was fixed there. The termination of
this outer roller is remarkable for the loose threads hanging from
it in the shape of a fringe and for certain traces of characters
imprinted on it similar to those described and delineated by Jomard
in the _Description de l’Egypte_. One or two of these characters have
corroded the linen, leaving the perforated traces of their form.
Dr. Granville gives a fac-simile of these characters, and in the same
Plate he represents the exact appearance of the external rolls of cloth
on the mummy. He then says (_p._ 274.),
I have satisfied myself, that both cotton and linen have been employed
in the preparation of our mummy, although Herodotus mentions only
cotton (_byssus_) as the material used for the purpose. Most mummies
have been described as wholly enveloped in linen cloth, and some
persons are disposed to doubt the existence of cotton cloth in any,
not excepting in the one now under consideration.
But with respect to the last point, a simple experiment has, I
think, set the question at rest. If the surface of old linen, and
of old cotton cloth be rubbed briskly and for some minutes with a
rounded piece of glass or ivory, after being washed and freed from
all extraneous matter, the former will be found to have acquired
considerable lustre; while the latter will present no other difference
than that of having the threads flattened by the operation. By means
of this test I selected several pieces of cotton cloth from among the
many bandages of our mummy, which I submitted to the inspection of an
experienced manufacturer, who declared them to be of that material.
Besides the appeal to the senses of “an experienced manufacturer,”
Dr. Granville here proposes a new test, that of rubbing in the manner
described. But, although cotton cloth in all circumstances has less
lustre than linen, still this cannot be considered a satisfactory
criterion.
The ingenious John Howell of Edinburgh[479] paid some attention to
this question, having a few years since obtained and opened a valuable
mummy. He and the friends, whom he consulted, and who were _weavers_
and other persons of _practical_ experience, most of them thought that
the cloth was altogether linen: some however thought that certain
specimens of it were cotton.
[479] Author of an Essay on the War Galleys of the Ancients, Edinburgh
1826, 8vo.