BOMBICID^ — SILK- WORM MOTHS. 235 



The manufacture of silk has been known in India from 

 time immemorial, it being mentioned in the oldest Sanscrit 

 books.^ It is the opinion of modern writers, however, that 

 the culture of the Silk- worm passed from China into India, 

 thence through Persia, and then, after the lapse of several 

 centuries, into Europe. But long before this, wrought silk 

 had been introduced into Greece from Persia. This was 

 effected by the army of Alexander the Great, about the 

 year 323 before Christ. 



The Greeks fabled silk to have first been woven in the 

 Island of Cos by Pamphila, the daughter of Plateos.^ Of 

 its true origin they were, in a great measure, ignorant, but 

 seem to have been positive that it was the work of an in- 

 sect. Pausanias thus describes the animal and its culture: 

 "But the thread, from which the Ceres (an Ethiopian race) 

 make garments, is not produced from a tree, but is procured 

 by the following method : A worm is found in their country 

 which the Greeks call Seer, but the Ceres themselves, by a dif- 

 ferent name. This worm is twice as large as a beetle, and, in 

 other respects, resembles spiders which weave under trees. 

 It has, likewise, eight feet as well as the spider. The 

 Ceres rear these insects in houses adapted for this purpose 

 both to summer and winter. What these insects produce 

 is a slender thread, which is rolled round their feet. They 

 feed them for four years on oatmeal ; and on the fifth (for 

 'they do not live beyond five years) they give them a green 

 reed to feed on : for this is the sweetest of all food to this 

 insect. It feeds, therefore, on this till it bursts through 

 fullness, and dies : after which, they draw from its bowels 

 a great quantity of thread."^ 



Aristotle seems to have had a much clearer idea of the 

 origin of silk, for he says it was unwound from the pupa 

 (he does not expressly say the pupa, but this we must 

 suppose) of a large horned caterpillar.* The larva he means 

 could not, however, be the common Silk-worm, since it is 

 rather small and without horns. 



Pliny, who, most probably, obtained the most of his ideas 

 from Pausanias and Aristotle, was of opinion that silk was 



1 Colebrook, Asiat. RcsPMrch., v. Gl. 



2 Aristotle, v. 17-9. Pliny, ix. 20. 



3 Paus. Hist, of Greece, B. 6, c. 26. 

 * Aristot. Hist. An., v. 19. 



