216 THE INSECT WOBLD. 



" The empress, accompanied by queens and the greatest ladies 

 of the court, went in state into this enclosure, and gathered with 

 her own hand the leaves of three branches which her ladies in 

 waiting had lowered till they were within her reach ; the finest 

 pieces of silk which she made herself, or which were made by her 

 orders and under her own eye, were destined for the ceremony of 

 the grand sacrifice offered to Chang-si, 



"It is probable," adds Duhalde, " that policy had more to do 

 than anything else with all this trouble taken by the empresses. 

 Their intention was to induce, by their example, the princesses 

 and ladies of quality, and the whole people, to rear silkworms : 

 in the same way as the emperors, to ennoble in some sort agri- 

 culture and to encourage the people to undertake laborious works, 

 never failed, at the beginning of each spring, to guide the plough 

 in person, and with great state to plough up a few furrows, and 

 in these sow some seed. 



"As far as concerns the empresses, it is a long time since they 

 have ceased to apply themselves to the manufacture of silk ; one 

 sees, nevertheless, in the precincts of the imperial palace, a large 

 space covered with houses, the road leading to which is still called 

 the road which leads to the place destined for the rearing of silk- 

 worms, Tor the amusement of the empresses and queens. In the 

 books of the philosopher Mencius, is a wise police rule, made under 

 the first reigns, which determines the space destined for the cul- 

 tivation of mulberry trees, according to the extent of the land 

 possessed by each private individual." 



M. Stanislas Julien * tells us of many regulations made by the 

 Emperor of China, to render obligatory the care and attention 

 requisite to rearing silk. 



Tchin-iu, being governor of the district of Kien-Si, ordered that 

 every man should plant fifty feet of land with mulberry trees. f 

 The Emperor (under the dynasty of Witei) gave to each man 

 twenty acres of land on condition that he planted fifty feet with 

 mulberry trees. Hien-tsang (who ascended the throne in 806) 



* " Resum6 des principaux traites Chinois sur la culture des muriers et 1' education 

 des vers a sole, traduit par Stanislas Julien." Paris, imprimerie royale, 1837. 

 f " Annales de la dynastie des Liang." 



