INSECTS IN COMMERCE 129 



There is a great deal of Chinese literature on 

 the subject of silkworms, chief of which is a 

 remarkable book called the " Silkworm Classic " ; 

 in this we are told that sericulture was known 

 in China in the reign of Fouh-hi, who was 

 supposed to have lived a hundred years before 

 the time of the Flood. The invention of the loom 

 for weaving silk is attributed by Chinese 

 historians to a certain Empress Se-ling-she, or 

 Si-ling-chi, the wife of Hoang-ti, and she is 

 supposed to have been the first to rear silk- 

 worms and to have instituted the culture of the 

 mulberry tree. The following account of this 

 wonderful personage is given in " L'Histoire 

 general de la Chine," by M. Mailla : "The 

 Emperor Hoang-ti, who lived 2000 years before 

 our era, wished that Si-ling-chi, his wife, should 

 contribute to the happiness of his people; he 

 charged her to study the silkworm, and to try 

 to utilize its threads. Si-ling-chi caused a great 

 quantity of these insects to be collected, which 

 she fed herself in a place destined exclusively for 

 the purpose ; she not only discovered the means 

 of rearing them, but still further the manner of 

 winding off their silk and of employing it in the 

 manufacture of fabrics." 



Another French writer, M. Duhalde, in the 

 "Description de la Chine," says: "Up to the 

 time of this queen (Si-ling-chi) when the country 

 was only lately cleared and brought into cultiva- 

 tion, the people employed the skins of animals 

 as clothes. But these skins were no longer 

 sufficient for the multitude of the inhabitants ; 

 necessity made them industrious ; they applied 



