ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 191 



fully three inches each, they were overwhelming ; no trays 

 could hold them ; ready to spin, they roamed everywhere 

 in search of a retreat, wishing to choose for themselves, and 

 showing resentment at interference by delay in spinning. 



Of course, a proper building ought to have been arranged 

 for them, but, with no one's leave to ask but our own, 

 we had thought the run of the house would do. Although 

 we knew, theoretically, that if it had been a mile square it 

 would not have been too large for creatures with their 

 wandering propensities (and powers of locomotion to match), 

 we did not realise it till faced by armies of facts. I am, 

 however, only telling the story of how things were done, 

 not of how they ought to have been done. 



Naturally the larvae were not all at the same stage of 

 their development at one and the same time. So when 

 the greater number of them had completed their round of 

 destiny, and the cocoons were collected, silk-weavers were 

 brought from their own homes to finish the work. First 

 they laid the cocoons in warm water to loosen their tenacious 

 gumminess, and then detached the silk. When we saw 

 the glistening threads being wound off by their expert, 

 satin-smooth fingers, we felt indeed repaid for all our 

 trouble. 



If we had thought there were too many caterpillars, not 

 so when it came to cocoons, for needs must a vast number 

 go to the weaving of even quite a small piece of silk. 



A native artist of Trichinopoly was sent for to make 

 water-colour drawings of the moths and larvae in every 

 stage. His work was exquisite in its fidelity to detail, and 

 was used in the illustration of a booklet F. wrote when the 

 experiment had justified itself, and a piece of beautiful 

 pure silk fabric was presented to the Madras Government, 

 under which he served. 



Shortly after my husband's headquarters were trans- 

 ferred ; and that was the end of silk-culture in The Wynad, 



