. PRODUCTION OF SILK. 139 



lolls size, employing from 3,000 to 10,000 people. But 

 if to these we add the number employed in the mulberry 

 plantations, and in feeding the silk-worms which are 

 connected with each each establishment, they will amount 

 to from 10 to 40,000 men, women and children, to each 

 filature. 



To Bengal, filatures and machinery and suitable per- 

 sons were sent out in 1772, since which time the quality 

 of the silk has progressively improved, and the quantity 

 increased. Bengal silk is called by two names, country 

 wound, or that which is reeled in the rude Indian man- 

 ner, and filature, or that which is reeled by the most ap- 

 proved modes of Europe. Again there are the distinc- 

 tions in the fineness of the thread ; also between the 

 fineness of the silk of the filatures of different districts ; 

 those of Gonatea and Comercolly being the finest, and 

 next to these are the filatures of Radnagore and Cassim- 

 bazar. Most of the raw silk of these filatures, is used 

 in the manufactories of England. From 1770 to 1789, 

 the silk-worms have been successfully introduced from 

 Bengal to Madras, and in 1792 they had become spread 

 in an extent of 600 miles of the coast. 



In India the weaver chooses his position beneath a 

 tree, that its foliage may protect him from the rays of 

 a scorching sun, and the cords which sustain his har- 

 ness are attached to its branches. The loom is of bam- 

 boo of the rudest construction. The shuttle is in form 

 of a netting needle, and longer than the breadth of the 

 web ; and with this instead of a baton, he beats up the 

 thread of the woof. Yet in this rude mod he is able 

 to prepare a fabric which may vie in beauty with those 

 of Italy. 



The Persians for centuries engrossed the whole trade 

 between Rome and China to enormous profit. Their 

 caravans traversed the vast extent of Asia, laden with 

 rich merchandize, from the Chinese ocean to the coast 

 of Syria; the raw silk for the extensive manufactures 

 of Persia, Tyre and Berytus being wholly derived from 



