Benefih 



257 



And thus Parnell says of his hermit : — 



" To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, 

 To find if books or swains report it right, 

 He quits his cell, the pilgrim staff' he bore. 

 And fixed the scallo-p in his hat before." 



You will now admit that the Mollusca have contributed 

 their due share to ornament " the outward man;" and you 

 could scarcely expect such animals to do more in the way 

 of clothing us. Nor do I mean to surprise you by find- 

 ing amongst them a rival to the silk- worm, for indeed the 

 claims of the silk-spinning Mollusca are very trifling. But 

 the Pinnae (^fig. 46.), a curious genus of the bivalved class, 



do spin a kind of silk, which 

 has been woven into some ar- 

 ticles of dress, which in early 

 times were so highly prized 

 as to be worn only by em- 

 perors and kings. This silk 

 is the beard, or rather the 

 cable, of the animal, by means 

 of which it is moored to the 

 rocks, in the same manner that 

 our common muscle is. In a 

 crude state the silk is called 

 lana penna. It is cleansed 

 from its impurities by washing 

 in soap and water, drying and 

 rubbing with the hands. " It 

 is then passed through combs 

 of bone, and afterwards, for 

 finer purposes, through iron 

 combs, or cards, so that a 

 pound of the coarse filaments 

 is usually reduced to about 

 three ounces of fine thread. 

 When mixed with about one 

 third of real silk, it is spun on 

 the distaff, and knit into gloves, 

 caps, stockings, vests, &c., 

 forming a stuff of a beautiful 

 brownish yellow colour (resembling the burnished golden 

 hue on the back of certain flies and beetles), but very liable 

 to be moth-eaten, and requiring to be wrapped in fine linen. 

 A pair of gloves costs on the spot about six shillings, and 

 a pair of stockings eleven ; but its sale is not very extensive, 



