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child while on a trip to Sz-chwan Province. He was one of 

 five boys all sold by the parents to furnish funds for 

 opium and gambling, but he was the last one sold perhaps 

 because unsound. But what interested me was the errand 

 that took him a thousand miles or more from home. 



"He was peddling Chang-hiong kien, a sort of cloth 

 made from cocoons spun by the wild silk worm, the manufac- 

 ture of which is the most ancient industry of this region. 

 Chang -hioiig is the ancient name of this city, which has 

 been famed for many centuries as the place where alone 

 this fabric is made. It is a sort of khaki color and very 

 strong and little affected by exposure to moisture. It is 

 regarded as the best thing for shrouds and supposed to 

 last until bodies wrapped in it mold to dust. Of late 

 years, and especially since the establishment of the re- 

 public, it has become less popular and hard to sell. 



"The eggs are obtained from the Province of Honan (the 

 cradle of the Hokkas, as you will see in my 'Origin and 

 Migrations of the Hokkas') and the worms feed on a variety 

 of trees. The worms are larger, healthier, and spin larg- 

 er cocoons than the domestic variety. 



"Since the cloth declined in value quite a trade has 

 sprung up in the cocoons, which are bought by agents of 

 Japanese firms and shipped to that country, usually in 

 June and July. 



"It occurs to me that this material may be adapted to 

 some specialized use by its peculiar qualities. It comes 

 in pieces 8 or 9 yards long and about 15 inches wide, 

 selling at present for about $7 Mex. The cocoons are 

 boiled and sold partly by weight and partly by number. 

 They might be worth something in U. S. A. 



"The business has of late years been carried on main- 

 ly by one family or clan. The cocoons are furnished and 

 weavers are paid for making the cloth. Peddlers went in 

 every direction with the cloth and penetrated to distant 

 provinces . 



"This city was the center of the human hair industry 

 so prosperous six or eight years ago, and this family went 

 into it largely, collecting hair in a radius of a thousand 

 miles. That business was overdone, though fortunes were 

 made for a while, and this trade in cloth was neglected, 

 and I had supposed was about defunct. 



"I will look into this further, if you think it worth 

 while. I understand some hundreds of pieces are still 

 made every year, or can be if the cocoons are not other- 

 wise disposed of." 



