CHAPTER VI. 



CHINA AM> MOMIOLIA: 



CHINA. 



AXCIKNT writers speak of the Chinese as the people of the land of Seres. The country has 

 been called bv different names at different eras in the past, but always by some form of the 

 name Sin, Simr, Chin, or China. This region was described in the classic age of Eome as a 

 vast and populous country, touching on the east the ocean and the limits of the habitable 

 world, a line beyond which, in the words of Cosmas, "there is neither habitation nor 

 navigation." The people, imperfectly as they were then known, were described as civilised, 

 mild, just, and frugal, avoiding collisions with their neighbours, and ever shy of close 

 intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple 



O1INKSK fOOMKS IN RAIN-COATS. 

 181 



