Chap. 20.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 3? 



ing the threads afresh. So manifold is the labour, and so dis- 

 tant are the regions which are thus ransacked to supply a dress 

 through which our ladies may in public display^ their charms. 

 The Seres are of inofieusive manners, but, bearing a strong re- 

 semblance therein to all savage nations, they shun all inter- 

 course with the rest of mankind, and await the approach^'' of 

 those who wish to traffic Avith them. The jS.rst river that is 

 known in their territory is the Psitharas,^^ next to that the 

 Cambari, and the third the Laros ; after which we come to the 

 Promontory of Chryse,^- the Gulf of Cynaba, the river Atianos, 

 and the nation of the Attacori on the gulf of that name, a people 

 protected by their sunny hills from all noxious blasts, and living 

 in a climate of the same temperature as that of the Hyper- 

 borei. Amometus has written a work entirely devoted to the 

 history of these people, just as Hecatfeus has done in his treatise 

 on the Hyperborei. After the Attacori, we find the nations 

 of the Phruri and the Tochari, and, in the interior, the Casiri, 

 a people of India, who look toward the Scythians, and feed 



this passage to allude to some peculiarity in the texture, which was perliaps 

 so close, that when brought to the Western world it was the custom to draw 

 out a portion of the threads. In such case it perhaps strongly resembled 

 the Chinese crapes of the present day. Speaking of Cleopatra in B. x. 

 141, of the Pharsalia, Lucan says, " Her white breasts are resplendent 

 through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by the sley 

 of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has separated, and has 

 loosened the warp by stretching out the web." 



^ He either refers to dresses consisting of nothing but open work, or 

 what we may call fine lace, and made from the closely woven material im- 

 ported from China, or else to the ' Coan vestments ' which were so much 

 worn by the Roman women, especially those of light character, in the 

 Augustan age. This Coan tissue was remarkable for its extreme trans- 

 parency. It has been supposed that these dresses were made of silk, as in 

 the island of Cos silk was spun and woven at an early period, so mfech so 

 as to obtain a high celebrity for the manufactures of that island. Seneca, 

 B. vii. De Benef. severely censures the practice of wearing these thin g-ar- 

 ments. For further information on this subject, see B. xi. c. 26, 27, and 

 B. xii. c. 22. 



^" Meaning that they do not actively seek intercourse with the rest of 

 the world, but do not refuse to trade wifli tliose Avho will take the trouble 

 of resorting to them. This coincides wonderfully with the character of 

 the Chinese even at the present day. 



^^ Ptolemy speaks of it as the (Echordas. 



^2 The headland of Malacca, in the Aiu'ea Chersonnesns, was also 

 called by this name, but it is hardly probable that that is the place here 

 meant. 



