16 COTTON 



its wild or cultivated state, was known and used at 

 the date of the settlement of America." 



EARLY INDIAN WEAVING 



So much for the history of cotton production. 

 As for its manufacture, we have already seen that 

 the crude Indian plan of spinning and weaving 

 was invented before the Christian Era; and this 

 system followed the culture of cotton as it spread 

 through Europe and Asia. So crude is the Indian 

 equipment a distaff for spinning and a loom com- 

 posed of "a few sticks or reeds which the Indian 

 carries about with him" that the total value is 

 only a few shillings. It is thought likely that the 

 Flemings learned the art of using cotton from the 

 Turkish crusaders, and that cotton manufacture 

 was introduced into England in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury by artisans who fled from Flanders. And be- 

 fore leaving the subject of Indian weaving, it ought 

 to be said that so wonderful is the skill of the Hin- 

 doo that our finest machinery does not make goods 

 equal to that which he produced with his primitive 

 equipment. So fine and gossamer-like were the 

 muslins of Dacca that they were called "webs of 

 woven wind." Tavernier, writing in 1660, says of 

 some Indian fabric, that "when a man puts it on, 

 his skin appears as plainly through it as if he was 

 quite naked; but the merchants are not permitted to 

 transport it, for the Governor is obliged to send it 

 all to the Great Mogul's seraglio, who use it to make 

 the sultanesses' and the noblemen's wives' shifts and 

 garments for the hot weather, and the King and 

 the lords take great pleasure in beholding them in 

 these shifts." 



