10 



proceed in the discharge of the duties which 

 have thus devolved upon him. In giving the 

 history of the silk culture, it is not his purpose 

 to enter upon the natural history of the worm 

 itself: however interesting that might be to 

 naturalists and men of science, the honest yeo- 

 manry of the country entertain no great curiosi- 

 ty in the premises. rn ~ iU ~ ~ :i : ~ ~ " * 

 perfect indifference 



To them it is a matter of 

 how many antennae and 



pectinated fillets the worm may possess, suffi- 

 cient it is for all purposes of profit, that it. is 

 known to fabricate a beautiful thread of finely 

 attenuated texture. He will, however, do 

 what is infinitely better endeavor to teach 

 them, in a plain and unostentatious way, all 

 things necessary to be known to enable them 

 to lay hold of the business with a certain 

 prospect of large profits. With these pre- 

 fatory remarks, he will venture on that part 

 of his plan connected with the oiigin, rise, and 

 progress, of the silk business. 



The silk worm, or catterpillar, is called 

 lombyx from the Greek word signifying sound. 

 There were two kinds amongst the Greeks, 

 the one a hairy catlerpillar, the other the silk 

 worm proper, as known at the present day. 

 The real silk web was first known, as far as 

 history gives an account, in ancient Serica, a 

 part of the Chinese Empire, beyond the 35th 

 degree. Forests of Mulberry trees there grew 

 and the worms colonising themselves among 

 them for centuries, fed upon their rich foliage 



of his subjects. The Empress, as became her, 

 together with the women of her household, 

 gathered the silk worms from the trees, pla- 

 ced them in the imperial apartments, caused 

 them to be supplied abundantly with leaves 

 from the Mulberry forests, and kept clean. 

 The result of this experiment was, that it was 

 soon found the c jcoons raised within the impe- 

 rial apartments, were infinitely superior in 

 quality, and more numerous and richer in silk 

 than those raised in the open air, where they 

 were exposed to the injurious effects of the 

 changes of the temperature of the air, and 

 where they were, also, exposed to the depre- 

 dations of their natural enemies, serpents, ants 

 and spiders. 



Similar exertions for the domestic culture 

 as we are told, were made by the succeeding 

 Empresses, so that it became the principal 

 occupation of the Empresses, and the apart- 

 ments of the imperial palace were given up to 

 it. From the highest rank of females, it came 

 at last to be exercised by the whole fair sex, 

 and ultimately gained such favor, that it turn- 

 ed to be the principal source of the wealth of 

 China, and the fair sovereigns of the Empire, 

 did not content themselves with the rearing of 

 the worms, but attended also, to the card- 

 ing and weaving of their finely spun webs. 

 The original promotress of the art in China, 

 the Empress Si-Leng-Chi, taught her women 



undisturbed by man, who, if he had so design- 

 ed it, might have gathered the precious thread 

 and provided himself with clothing, without 

 much labor. The worms were permitted, 

 however, to remain long untouched and the 

 beautiful article of their fabrication continued 

 for centuries alike unprofitable and neglect- 

 ed. 



In the reign of the Emperor Houng-Ti, a 

 new era commenced in the culture of Silk. 

 The worms were then, for the first time, shel- 

 tered and carefully attended to. The history 

 of China, as our author says, mentions, that 

 700 years before Abraham, and 2,700 years 

 before the Christian era, Houng-Ti, "the Em- 

 peror of the earth," who reigned for more 

 than a hundred years, taught the Chinese to 

 construct houses, carts, ships, mills and other 

 useful things of a similar kind, and persuaded, 

 moreover, his first and legitimate consort, Si- 

 Leng-Chi, to attend to the silk worms, and to 

 try several experiments, in order to increase 

 their utility ; wishing as he said, and as a good 

 monarch Raturally would, that his wife, the 

 Empress, might also contribute to the welfare 



not only to convert the new material into 

 clothing stuffs, but to embroider them with 

 representations of flowers and animals. 



In order to encourage the rearing of the 

 worms, and the weaving and manufacturing 

 of silk, the Emperor, the learned classes, the 

 princes, courtiers and Mandarins, and in short, 

 all who were sufficiently affluent dressed in 

 satin or damask. Subsequently, silk became 

 an article of exportation, and found its way 

 into all the other countries of Asia, and ulti- 

 mately to Europe. The caravans were seen 

 going from the coasts of China to those of 

 Syria, usually occupying as much as two hun- 

 dred and forty-three days on the journey. 

 The Phoenecians finally found their way to the 

 East of Europe. 



The Greeks, it is affirmed by writers, de- 

 rived their first knowledge of silk from the 

 military expeditions of Alexander into Persia 

 and India, and Jlrislotle called the attention of 

 his country to it as early as three hundred and 

 fifty years before Christ. 



When this fabric was first introduced among 

 the Romans, owing to itsv-high price, the 

 chains only were of silk, and the filling either 



