Bombycidae 
brought to the embarrassed imperial manufacturer when two 
Nestorian monks, who had lived long in China and had learned 
all the processes of silk-culture, were induced to go back to that 
far-away land and bring to Constantinople a stock of the eggs of 
the silk-worm. As it was among the Chinese a capital offense to 
reveal the secrets of the trade or to export the eggs from which 
the worms are hatched, the two priests had to proceed with the 
utmost caution. They concealed the eggs in the hollows of the 
bamboo staffs which they carried as pilgrims. From these eggs, 
thus transported to Constantinople in a.d. 555, all of the silk¬ 
worms in Europe, Africa, Asia Minor, and America until as 
recently as 1865 were descended. It was not until the last-men¬ 
tioned year that any importation of fresh eggs of the silk-worm 
from China took place. Those two bamboo sticks held within 
themselves the germ of a vast industry, countless costly ward¬ 
robes, the raiment of kings, queens, and emperors, and untold 
wealth. 
From the time of Justinian onward the growth of silk-culture 
in Greece and Asia Minor was rapid. It was introduced into 
Spain by the Saracens at the beginning of the eighth century. It 
found lodgment in Sicily and Naples in the twelfth century, and 
in the next century was taken up in Genoa and Venice. It was 
not begun in France until the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
but in the seventeenth century it made great progress in France, 
as well as in Belgium and Switzerland. The weaving of silk had 
begun at an earlier date than this in France, Germany, and Eng¬ 
land. Attempts made to introduce the culture of the mulberry- 
tree and of the silk-worm in Great Britain have always signally 
failed. The climate appears to be against the industry. James I, 
who had failed in his attempts to foster sericulture in England, 
undertook to plant the industry in Virginia m 1609. But the eggs 
and mulberry-trees he sent out were lost by shipwreck. In 1619 
and the years immediately following the attempt was renewed, 
and the raising of silk-worms was enjoined by statute and en¬ 
couraged by bounties. In spite of every effort, little came of the 
attempt, the colonists finding the growth of tobacco to be far 
more profitable. In Georgia and the Carolinas similar attempts 
were made, and from 1735 to 1766 there were exported to Eng¬ 
land considerable quantities of raw silk from these colonies. From 
3.8 
