of' the Sacred Writings. 77 



what is now called cotton, than linen, however fine, because of 

 the shortness of the filaments of cotton, compared with those of 

 linen. At any rate, all linen, whether fine or not, is twined ; 

 and it seems rather singular, why such an epithet should be ap- 

 plied to fine rather than to coarse hnen. 



The hangings of Ahasuerus"* palace Esther i. and 8. are 

 said to be fastened with cords of fine linen. Perhaps cords of 

 linen may be stronger than those of cotton, but the latter would 

 be more flexible when the hangings were drawn, and certainly 

 more agreeable to handle ; and these circumstances are pre- 

 sumptions that cotton was the substance of which they were 

 made. 



In the reign of James the Sixth, when the common transla- 

 tion of the Bible was printed, the term cotton was unknown, and 

 it was not introduced into the English language till about the 

 beginning of the last century, though the manufacture of cot- 

 ton, on a small scale, had been attempted during the civil wars, 

 but failed from want of capital or encouragement. 



If our translators knew the thing, in all probability they 

 thought they could not better express what is now called cotton, 

 than by using the phrase fine linen, a phrase which all used in 

 their day, and which, as we have seen, had descended to them 

 from the Greeks and Romans, as well as the later Jews. 



But though our translators had the authority and example 

 of almost all writers before their time, and in their day, for 

 translating shesh and buts, sindon and byssos, fine hnen ; yet 

 the phrase must be counted unfortunate, as we believe ^ew 

 persons, even of good understanding, ever dreamt, that any 

 other thing is meant, than an exquisite kind of manufacture 

 from the rind of the flax plant. 



From all these details, then, it is plaiu; that byssos, or what- 

 ever term of the same meaning is used, is not to be translated 

 fine linen, which is a manufacture from flax ; nor silk, which is 

 the product of a worm ; nor wool, which is the covering of a 

 four-footed beast ; but cotton, the substance contained in the pod 

 of the cotton plant. 



Byssus, in modern botany, denotes a downy powdery sub- 

 stance, connected together by fine filaments, and growing on the 

 surface of water, rotten wood, or old pillars, being a genus 

 comprehending several species, order Algce, and class Crypto- 

 gamia ; but among the ancients, it was the filamentous matter 



