114 THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 



side. This substance is really "embryo silk," or what 

 would have been spun into silk if the worm had been allowed 

 to exist. The following description of the preparation of 

 this article is furnished by Mr. Samuel Allcock, when on a 

 visit to his gut manufactory at Murcia, in Spain, during the 

 gut harvest in 1886 : " The worms are bred by the country 

 people in their cottages, which usually consist of two rooms 

 on the ground floor. In some of the. villages near Murcia 

 this is the sole occupation of the people, some of whom rear 

 the worms, while others attend to the initial stages of gut 

 making. On one side of the living room of these cottages 

 the worm breeder ties together a number of bamboo cane 

 rods, which grow plentifully there, forming a bed of twelve 

 to fifteen feet long by four feet wide. The worms are 

 spread over these, and are fed five times daily by covering 

 them with mulberry leaves. Before feeding, all unhealthy 

 or dead worms are picked out and removed. The worms 

 live about fifty days, during which time they sleep three 

 days at a time, in all twelve days. When they are ready to 

 spin the cocoon, they creep upon branches of small trees cut 

 out of the gardens, which are placed on the cane beds. 

 They are taken off, put into vinegar, where they remain for 

 six hours, and then put into water. Some of the country 

 people make a special business of this, purchasing the 

 worms from others and employing girls to draw out the gut, 

 which is done by taking off the head of the worm and taking 

 hold of the so-called entrails with the thumb and finger and 

 pulling them out as long as they will come, then placing the 

 gut in clear water. When a sufficient quantity say two or 

 three thousand are drawn, the gut is tied in bunches and 

 hung up to dry in yard or garden. Some worms produce one 

 thread of gut, some two, and a few three. It is afterwards 



