1847.] Veriplus of the Erythrean Sea, fyc. 71 



woven into cloth. Silk merchants were called " metaxiarii," and the 

 duty that was levied on the raw material was denominated " metaxiati- 

 cum." It is stated that the price of metaxa was raised by a tax imposed 

 on it in Persia ; and that, on the manufacturers, in consequence of this 

 duty, charging a higher price for their cloths, Justinian fixed a maximum 

 and ruined the trade. 



From the manner in which Muga silk is produced, namely, by worms 

 found on certain trees in the forests, or reared on trees planted for the 

 purpose, the error of supposing this substance to be the product of the 

 bark, leaves, or flowers of trees, is easily accounted for. The ancients 

 knew that bombycina (or the mulberry silk) was procured from an 

 insect, but the indigenous silk of Serica or Assam, which they thence 

 called sericum, was supposed, from the accounts they received of it, to 

 be the production of the leaves, the bark, or the flowers of trees. 



Ammianus Marcellinus describes the process to which this supposed 

 vegetable product " fetus arborum" was subjected, in order to facilitate 

 the drawing out, or the reeling of the threads of which it consisted. 

 This was performed by means of frequent sprinklings of water (or per- 

 haps by immersing the silk in water and potash as is practised in Assam 

 in the present day). From this mixture of down and liquid (ex lanu- 

 gine et liquore mistam) the Seres combed out a very slender filament- 

 ous substance, and spinning it into woof threads, they wove them into 

 the cloths called Sericum. The author mentions that this kind of cloth 

 was originally, or on its first introduction into Europe, worn only by 

 the nobility, but that in his time it was in common use among the 

 lower classes of people. The cloth, which he here alludes to, appears 

 from the woof alone having been made of silk, to have been a mixed 

 cotton and silk fabric, such as is manufactured about Dacca in the pre- 

 sent time. These cloths called Kaseedas, consist of two kinds, viz. of 

 Muga silk and cotton woven in the loom, and of cotton cloths em- 

 broidered with Muga silk with the needle. The former have been 

 manufactured here from time immemorial. Both kinds are annually 

 exported from Dacca to Bussora and Jidda, whence they are conveyed 

 into the interior of Arabia and Mesopotamia, where they are used as 

 turbans, vests, &c. by all classes of people in these countries. A large 

 quantity is sold at the great annual fair held in the vicinity of Mecca. 

 Formerly, they were an article of export to Egypt and Turkey : and it 



