78 LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



titles. But it was sold at such an extravagant 

 price, that it was considered too expensive to 

 be worn even by kings ; so that when the Em- 

 peror Aurelian was asked by the Empress if he 

 would give her a silk dress, he answered that 

 he could not afford it ; and James the Sixth of 

 Scotland borrowed a pair of silk stockings from 

 the Earl of Mar, to appear in before the English 

 ambassador. 



The Roman people could not imagine of what 

 the beautiful article was made ; some thought 

 it was the inside of a spider-like insect, that was 

 first fed upon a sort of paste, and afterwards 

 upon the leaves of the willow, until it burst 

 with fat ; some thought it was produced by a 

 shell-fish ; some that it grew upon trees ; while 

 others believed it to be made by a worm, which 

 built nests of clay, and collected wax. 



Some of these insects were afterward sent 

 into Persia, and they were soon spread over 

 various parts of Europe, where the mulberry 

 trees (upon the leaves of which they feed) were 

 cultivated, and the manufacture of silk was ex- 

 tensively carried on. 



There are several other species of caterpillars, 



