BOMBICIDiE — SILK- WORM MOTHS. ' 241 



simply stating that it contained the eggs of the wild Silk- 

 worm Moth, was couched in the following manner by the 

 Trench savant who forwarded them : " Must be kept far from 

 the engines ; this box contains savage worms. "^ 



About twenty-five years ago, during a mania for rearing 

 Silk-worms, to meet the demand for the eggs of these in- 

 sects, fish-spawn was distributed throughout the country. 

 The humbug was quite as successful as it was curious. 



It has been said that the search after the " Golden Fleece" 

 may be ascribed to the desire to obtain silk.'^ 



As a protection against rifle-balls, the Chinese, who were 

 engaged in the rebellion of 1853, state that they wore 

 dresses thickly padded with floss silk ; they said that while 

 the ball had a twist in it, revolving in its course, it caught 

 up the silk and fastened itself in the garment. One man 

 declared that he took out six so caught, in one day, after a 

 severe fight. They said the dress was of more use within a 

 hundred yards than at long range, when the ball had lost 

 its revolving motion.^ 



Yaucanson, the inventor of the famous " automaton duck," 

 to revenge himself upon the silk-weavers of Lyons, who had 

 stoned him because he attempted to simplify the ordinary 

 loom, is said to have invented a loom on which a donkey 

 worked silken cloth.* 



The following curious Welsh epigram on the Silk-worm 

 is composed entirely of vowels, and can be recited without 

 closing or moving lips or teeth ; 



O'i wiw wy i e a, a'i weuaw 

 O'i wyau y weua ; 

 E' weua ei wi aia', 

 A'i weuau yw ieuau ia. 



I perish by my art ; dig mine own grave; 

 I spin the thread of life ; my death I weave. ^ 



1 Twelve Years in China, p. 14. 2 md^ 



3 Ihid., p. 194. 



* Memoires of Roht. Iloudin, p. 161, 



^ Mag. of Nat. Hist, vi. 9. 



