WILD SILK WORMS. 191 



of drugget, they must address themselves to a trusty person, 

 for, as druggets are made of ferret silk, it is easy to impose 



on a stranger. 



After the gathering of the cocoons, those intended for eggs 

 must be selected for use at the end of Summer, or the fol- 

 lowing Spring ; and after having strung them in the man- 

 ner described, they must be hung up in proper places. There 

 is a choice to be made among the other cocoons : this choice 

 is made by pressing them between two fingers. Those that 

 resist are the best, and have the most silk ; those that yield 

 are middling, and have less silk. The two extremities of 

 both kinds must be cut with a pair of scissors, separate 

 them, and put them in two bags of linen hemp, when they 

 must be tied up with a pack-thread ; then they must be 

 plunged in a large kettle of boiling lie, which has been 

 strained. This lie, which ought to be strong, must be 

 made of the ashes of the jujube tree, or stalks of buck- 

 wheat, or of a kind of persicaria, from which indigo is ob- 

 tained. When the cocoons have boiled an hour, the bag of 

 the middling ones must be opened, to see if the lie has had 

 the effect that is required, to unravel easily. As this lie is 

 only intended to dissolve the glue or gum that joins the 

 silky threads of the cocoon, European ingenuity will, per- 

 haps, find some solvent more active and quicker. When 

 the cocoons of the first bag are at the desired point, they 

 must be drawn from the kettle ; then those of the second 

 bag must be examined from time to time so as not to injure 

 them. If both be withdrawn from the kettle at the proper 

 time, the bags must be pressed till the lie escapes, and they 

 must then be left until the next day to dry. If they are 

 withdrawn too late from over the fire, after having squeezed 

 out the water, of which they are full, by pressing them in 

 the bag, they must be spread on the hurdles to dry then* 



