THE EAHLY HISTORY OF SILK. 145 



The archives of China record the use of silk in 

 that country 2700 years before the Christian era. 

 The Empress See-ling-skee, consort of Hoang-tee, is 

 said to have been the discoverer of the winding of 

 silk from the cocoon, and of converting the silky 

 filaments into a tissue. 



So abundant was it in China long before the 

 Christian era, that in provinces of that country, the 

 peasantry, amounting in numbers to millions, were 

 attired in silk dresses. 



Silk was manufactured at Kos, an island of the 

 Archipelago, in very remote ages. It is related by 

 Aristotle, that Pamphila, a noble lady of that island, 

 was inventress of a superior mode of fabricating a 

 tissue from wove silk, which she undid, re-spun, and 

 re-wove, with the assistance of the females of her 

 household. This manufacture was known by the 

 ; name of Bombykia, from the word Bombyx, a silk 

 worm. It certainly was a singular fancy to undo 

 finished fabrics to apply their threads to a new species 

 of manufacture. But it would appear to have been 

 excellent of its kind ; for it is recorded, that the 

 Roman ladies afterwards adopted the process invented 

 by Pamphila, 



From the manufacture having emanated from Kos, 

 Pliny formed the notion that the Silk Worm Moth 

 was a native of that island, which subsequent history 

 contradicts. There remains but little doubt that, 

 whatever fabrics were there wove from raw silk, that 

 it was the produce of eastern countries, as was the 

 case with stuffs woven at Tyre, Berytus, and Persia. 



