1847.] Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, fyc. 69 



produced in the country, with which three-fourths of the people are 

 clothed. The raw material is seldom purchased ; each family spins and 

 weaves the silk which it rears, and petty dealers go round and purchase 

 for ready money whatever can be spared for exportation or for the use of 

 the few persons who have none of their own. Considerable quantities 

 of the two coarser kinds are also exported. There may be one loom for 

 every two women, and in great families there are eight or ten which are 

 wrought by slave girls." The Muga moth is reared on seven different 

 varieties of trees, and the extent of the plantations in Lower Assam is 

 estimated by Mr. Hugon at 5000 acres exclusive of what the forests 

 produce.* In Upper Assam the plantations are still more extensive. 

 Mahomed Cazim describes the silks of Assam in A. D. 1661 " as being 

 of excellent quality and as resembling those of China." He also states 

 that the Assamese were skilled in embroidering with flowers and in 

 weaving velvet and a kind of strong silk fabric called tautbund for mak- 

 ing tents and khenauts.f Tavernier states that there is in Assam 

 "great store of silk but coarse," and that there is a sort of silk found 

 under the trees which is spun by an insect like the silk-worm. J The 

 nature of Muga silk appears to have been unknown before this time. 

 Methold, who visited India prior to A. D. 1620, speaks of it as being 

 the production of a certain tree. He mentions as the imports into 

 Masulipatam from Bengal, " calicuts, lawns, and divers sorts of cotton 

 cloths, raw silk, and Moga, which is made of the bark of a certain 

 tree ;" and he adds " many curious quilts and carpets are stitched with 

 this Moga."§ Muga appears to be the substance which is mentioned 

 under the name of sericum by the ancients, and which is described by 

 them as being procured from the leaves or bark of certain trees. It is 

 evident that they regarded it as a different article from the produce of 

 the mulberry silk-worm which they designated bombycina. Bombycina 

 was the name that was applied to the threads spun by an insect called 

 Bombyx, which Aristotle describes as a horned worm that undergoes 

 several transformations in the course of six months, and that produces 

 the substance called " Bombykia." On the other hand, " Sericum" was 

 supposed to be a vegetable production. Theophrastus, Virgil, Diony- 

 sius Periegetes, Pomponius Mela, Seneca, Arrian, Claudian, and Jerom 



* Journal As. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 21. f As. Res. Vol. II. p. 174. 



X Tavernier's Travels. Chap. Assam. § Purchas's Pilgrims, Vol. V. p. 1005. 



