196 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



The Eastern kings and princes were also 

 habited in linen, therefore flax formed a con- 

 siderable branch of the trade of Egypt ; and 

 their method of making fine linen, was 

 carried to such a wonderful perfection, that 

 the threads which were drawn out of them 

 were almost imperceptible to the keenest 

 eye. Pliny states, that some of the thread 

 made from flax was finer and more even, 

 if possible, than the web of a spider, and 

 yet so strong, that it would give a sound 

 nearly as loud as a lute-string. This author 

 states in the first chapter of his nineteenth 

 book, that he had seen an Egyptian net 

 made of so fine a thread, that, notwithstand- 

 ing every cord in the mesh was made of 

 150 threads twisted, yet it could be drawn 

 through the ring of a finger. "I have known," 

 says this writer, " one man who could carry 

 about as many of these nets, as would encom- 

 pass a whole forest." He adds, that Julius 

 Lupus, who was governor of Egypt, pos- 

 sessed one of these nets ; but that the most J 

 extraordinary net-work was that which was ; 

 shewn in the temple of Minerva, in the Isle 

 of Rhodes ; every thread of which was twisted '' 

 365 times double, agreeably to the number 

 of days in the year. This singularly curious ; 



