68 SILK. 



warm. In ancient times that light-winged passion nestled 

 quite as snugly in the folds of fine linen, and the same fact is 

 sufficiently attested by modern instances. 



Be it remembered, that, though " silken sheen " has been 

 always considered by us of Europe an article more or less of 

 luxury, in Asia it has been for ages one of absolute use. 

 While at Rome, silk was valued at its weight in gold, and the 

 Emperor Aurelian 1 refused his Empress a silken robe because 

 it was too dear, the " lean unwashed artificer " of China was in 

 some provinces clothed in his silken garment. To the latter 

 country, under the name of Serica, has been attributed the 

 discovery of weaving Silk-worm threads, whence the Latin 

 holo-sericum, or silken garment, of which the first is said to 

 have been worn by the Emperor Heliogabalus. 2 In the days 

 of Solomon, we are told, a woman named Pamphila of the 

 Island of Cos, was skilled in the art of making cloth from this 

 country of Serica or China. Du Halle says, that the most 

 ancient of the Chinese writers ascribe the invention to one of 

 the women of the Emperor Hoang Fi, named Silung, and so 

 important was the discovery held, that all the women in the 

 Emperor's palace were employed in rearing the worms and 

 weaving their productions. Nor, indeed, could the Chinese 

 have valued silk too highly, either as an article of home use, or 

 as a very principal one of commerce, before it was cultivated 

 and manufactured in other countries. 



As connected with outward apparel, as well as various other 

 arts of ornament, our next obligation to Insects is for dyes. 

 Cochineal, which until the year 1694 was believed in Europe 

 to be a seed, is now known, by putting a few grains in warm 

 water, to be an Insect, a Coccus, something resembling in form 

 those commonly found on the leaves of grape-vines and of the 

 hawthorn. It is a native of China and other parts of Asia, 

 where the nopal or the prickly pear on which it feeds, is indi- 



1 Emperor Aurelian, died A.D. 275. 



2 Emperor Heliogabalus, died A.D. 222. 



