^"^ BUlTIoIl WOOL Ta.VDR, 



and brought it to hitn from year to year.** At a later 

 period, Solomon thus describes a good wife: — "' Sne 

 seeketh woo! and flax, and worketh willingly with her 

 hands."* Tiiat garments were in those early ages 

 made of several pieces, joined by needle work, is evi- 

 dent on a perusal of Genesis, xxxvii. 3 ; Judges, v. 30 ; 

 and 2 Samuel, xiii. 13 ; and this plan is allowed to be 

 even more ancient than the weaving of flax. Job, 

 who flourished, or is supposed to have flourished, before 

 the Israelites left Egypt, shows clearly by his words 

 that flannel clothing was then in vogue : " Let me be 

 condemned if I have seen any perish for want of 

 clothing, or any poor without covering ; if his loins 

 have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with 

 the fleece of my sheep ;" and that the cloth was woven, 

 and not produced by beating, is evident from his say- 

 ing, when complaining of his sad estate, " My days 

 are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." 



(39.) The early progress of the Wool Trade is 

 veiled in much obscurity, and only to be discovered 

 by seeking for it in a mass of fable, which in many in- 

 stances enabled the old writers to string together the 

 dry details of history, in a manner suited to the taste 

 and habit of their time. The following may be taken 

 as a specimen. Phryxus, the son of Alhamas king 

 of Thebes, fleeing with his sister, Helle, from their 

 stepmother, and riding upon (carrying with him) a 

 ram which had a golden (valuable) fleece, sought 

 to cross the Dardanelles, when Helle was drowned, 



» The art of weaving was first practised at Arach in Babylonia, and 

 §pread thence to neighbouring cities, and in process of time to the most 

 remottf p^rts of the woikl—Bri/anrsJnc/e/U Mi/thoiogijy Vol. v. \:. 173. 



