8 SILKWORMS. 



worked by the angelic messenger, he succeeded in producing new 

 goods which were so greatly superior to those that had hitherto 

 been known that his fortune was speedily assured, and, of course, 

 " he lived happy ever afterwards." 



For many hundreds of years the silk trade was confined to Asia ; 

 Europe did not become acquainted even with the manufactured 

 article, far less with the method of its production, until a com- 

 paratively late date. Aristotle, who flourished about 360 B.C., 

 is the earliest European writer from whom we learn anything 

 about it. In his time the south-east of Europe- was supplied with 

 silk fabrics from the island of Cos, off the west coast of Asia 

 Minor, and hence we may gather that the manufacture had 

 travelled thus far westward at least as early as 400 B.C. However, 

 the silk was in all probability not produced there ; but sub- 

 stantial silk fabrics were imported from China into the island, 

 where they were unwoven and respun in a much finer condition, 

 the compensation for the trouble of the operation being the in- 

 crease in quantity arising from the greater fineness of the thread. 

 The method of accomplishing this is said to have been invented 

 by a woman named Pamphila. 



The manufactory at Cos became highly celebrated, and the 

 fabrics made were remarkable not only for their extreme costli- 

 ness, but also for their extraordinary thinness and delicacy ; they 

 were so thin as to be almost transparent, so that when a person 

 was clothed in silk, it served but little as a protection or as a con- 

 cealment to the body. Such garments, called from the place of 

 their manufacture Coan vestments, were worth their weight in 

 gold, and none but the richest could indulge in so great a luxury. 

 The wealthiest Romans in the most luxurious times of the Empire, 

 spent vast sums of money on such adornments, the rage for silken 

 clothing not being confined to the ladies, but extending also to 

 the men of more effeminate type, though its use as a masculine 

 adornment was sternly condemned by the more sturdy Romans 

 of the period. 



But though they were familiar with the material they had the 

 most erroneous ideas as to its nature. It was a natural product, 

 indeed, but how it was produced or even whether it belonged to 

 the animal or to the vegetable kingdom, they were not by any 

 means agreed. It had some connection with insects, and some 

 with trees, but when the attempt was made to assign to each its 

 proper share in the production they got hopelessly at sea. Their 

 enquiries about it had shown them that its original source was 

 somewhat farther east than they had before supposed, and that 

 it came from a people called the Seres, but who these were, or 



