132 PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book XIX. 



than this ; sown in spring, 14 it is pulled up in summer, and is, 

 for this reason as well, productive of considerable injury to the 

 soil 15 There may be some, however, who would iorgive 

 Eypt for growing it, as it is by its aid that she imports the 

 merchandize of Arabia and India ; but why should the Gallic 

 provinces base any of their reputation upon this product : 

 it not enough, forsooth, for them to be separated by mountains 

 from the sea, and to have, upon the side on which they aro 

 bounded by the Ocean, that void and empty space, as it is 

 called ? 17 The Cadurci, 18 the Caleti, the Eutem, 19 the Bitu- 

 rio-es, 20 and the Morini, 21 those remotest of all mankind, as it is 

 supposed, the whole of the Gallic provinces, in fact, are in the 

 habit of weaving sail-cloth; and at the present day our ene- 

 mies even, who dwell beyond the Ehenus, have learned to do the 

 same ; indeed, there is no tissue that is more beautiful in the 

 eyes of their females than linen. I am here reminded of the 

 fact, that we find it stated by M. Yarro, that it is a custom 

 peculiar to the family of the Serrani 22 for the women never to 

 wear garments of linen. In Germany it is in caves 23 deep under- 

 ground that the linen-weavers ply their work ; and the same 

 is the case, too, in the Alian territory, in Italy, between the 

 rivers Padus and Ticinus, the linen of which holds the third 

 rank among the kinds manufactured in Europe, that of Sseta- 

 bis 24 claiming the first, and those of Eetovium 25 and of JFaven- 



" This was the time for sowing it with the Romans, though in some 

 countries, at the present day, it is sown so late as the autumn 



15 In B xviii c 72, he has spoken of this method of gathering vege- 

 table productions as injurious to the soil, by withdrawing its natural 



^i^ Censentur hoc reditu ?" There is little doubt that the Gauls, like 

 their German neighbours, cultivated flax for the purposes of female dress, 

 and iiQt mainly for the manufacture of sails. 



" Quod vocant inane." He implies that the boundless space of 

 ocean on the Western coasts of Gaul was useless for any purposes of navi- 



See B. iv. c. 33. 19 See B. iv. c. 33. 



20 See B. xxxiv. c. 48. 31 See B. iv. c. 31. 



22 A family of the Atilia gens. . . 



23 Jt was, and is still to some extent, a prevalent opinion, that the hu- 

 midity of caves under-ground is favourable to the manufacture of tissues 

 of hemp and flax. 



24 In Spain. See B. i. c. 1, and B, iii. c. 4. . _ . . 

 as Cluvier takes this place to be the same with Litubium in Liguria, 



mentioned by Livy, B. xxxii. 



