BOOK XI. XXV. 75-xxvii. 78 



combs on a larger scale than bees do, and then 

 produce a bigger grub. 



XXVI. These creatures are also produced in invention 0/ 

 another "svay. A specially large grub changes into 



a caterpillar with two projecting horns of a peculiar 

 kind, and then into what is called a cocoon, and this 

 turns into a chrysalis and this in six months into a 

 silk-moth. They weave webs Hke spiders, producing 

 a luxurious material for women's dresses, called silk. 

 The process of unraveUing these and weaving the 

 thread again was first invented in Cos by a woman 

 named Pamphile, daughter of Plateas, who has the 

 undeniable distinction of having devised a plan to 

 reduce women's clothing to nakedness. 



XXVII. Silk-moths are also reported to be born in T/ie Coan 

 the island of Cos, where vapour out of the ground Zidnstry. 

 creates Ufe in the blossom of the cypress, terebinth, 



ash and oak that has been stripped otf by rain. First 

 however, it is said, small butterflies are produced 

 that are bare of down, and then as they cannot endure 

 the cold they grow shaggy tufts of hair and equip 

 themselves with thick jackets against winter, scraping 

 too-ether the down of leaves with the rouffhness of 

 their feet ; this is compressed by them into fleeces 

 and worked over by carding with their claws, and 

 then drawn out into woof-threads, and thinned out as 

 if with a comb, and afterwards taken hold of and 

 wrapped round their body in a coiled nest. Then 

 (they say) they are taken away by a man. put in 

 earthenware vessels and reared with warmth and a 

 diet of bran, and so a pecuhar kind of feathers 

 sprout out, clad with which they are sent out to 

 other tasks ; but tufts of wool plucked off are softened 

 with moisture and then thinned out into threads with 



479 



