THE HISTORY OF SILK CULTURE. 9 



where they lived, they did not know; and indeed the name simply 

 means the " silkworm people," the Greek name for silkworm being 

 " ser" Apparently under the name Seres the Chinese were 

 referred to, the name for the insect among that people being see, 

 from which, no doubt, the Greek name was taken ; and the pre- 

 valent idea was that silk was in some way or other yielded by the 

 woods in the districts inhabited by that people. 



Pliny, the Roman naturalist, who flourished during the earlier 

 part of the first century A.D., gives in his account of the silkworm 

 a curious mixture of zoological and botanical rubbish, which we 

 will quote in the quaint words of an old translator, as being, in 

 consideration of the extreme antiquity of the notions expressed, 

 a more appropriate clothing for the Latin than a modern English 

 rendering would be. The passage runs thus : " They build their 

 nests of earth or clay, close sticking to some stone or rock, in 

 manner of salt ; and withall so hard, that scarcely a man may 

 enter them with the point of a spear. In which they make also 

 wax, but in more plenty than bees ; and after that, bring forth a 

 greater worme than all the rest before rehearsed. These flies 

 engender also after another sort, namely, of a greater worme or 

 grub, putting forth two homes after that kind : and these be certain 

 canker-wormes. Then these grow afterwards to be Bombilii, and 

 so forward to Necydali : of which in six months after come the 

 silke-wormes Bombyces. . . . It is commonly said, that in the Isle 

 Cos there be certain silkwormes engendered of flowers ; which by 

 the meanes of rain-showers, are beaten downe and fall from the 

 Cypres tree, Terebinth, Oke and Ash ; and they soon after doe 

 quicken and take life by the vapor arising out of the earth. And 

 men say, that in the beginning they are like unto little Butterflies 

 naked, but after a while (being impatient of the cold) are over- 

 growne with haire ; and against the winter, arme themselves with 

 good thick clothes ; for being rough-footed, as they are, they 

 gather all the cotton downe of the leaves which they can come by, 

 for to make their fleece. After this, they fal to beat, to felt and 

 thicken it close with their feet, then to card it with their nailes ; 

 which done they draw it out at length, and hang it betweene 

 branches of trees, and so kembe it in the end to make it thin and 

 subtill. When al is brought to this passe, they enwrap and enfold 

 themselves (as it were) in a round bal and clew of thread, and so 

 nestle within it. Then are they taken up by men, put in earthen 

 pots, kept there warme, and nourished with bran, untill such 

 time as they have wings according to their kind ; and being thus 

 well-clad and appointed, they be let go to do other businesse.'' 



Such was the outlandish explanation given to the western world 



