72 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan. 



is probable, therefore, that they are the cloths of that kind which is 

 designated " subserica" by ancient authors, from being made partly of 

 metaxa or tassar silk, and partly, either of cotton or flax. 



It would appear, also, that the ancients imported the strong silk 

 fabric, which the Assamese formerly manufactured for tents. Dion 

 Cassius (L. XLIII.) states, that Julius Caesar, when he entertained the 

 Romans with magnificent spectacles, covered the amphitheatre with 

 awnings of sericum to shelter them from the sun. (Vide Macpherson's 

 Annals of Commerce, Vol. I. p. 138.) This, no doubt, was the cloth 

 called tautbund, which Mahomed Cazim states was used for tents and 

 khenauts (or the outer walls of tents). 



Ammianus Marcellinus describes the Seres, as people of a most peace- 

 able disposition, as most frugal or provident in their habits, and as 

 shunning intercourse with the rest of mankind. Their mode of carry- 

 ing on traffic, as mentioned by him, is similar to that described by 

 Pomponius Mela, and Pliny. He states, that when strangers crossed 

 the river to purchase thread or other commodities, the Seres carried on 

 trade with them without interchanging words, and estimated the value 

 of the merchandize offered for sale by inspection alone — disposing of 

 their own goods [by bartering them for articles of country produce] but 

 declining to buy foreign commodities in return. Solinus writes, " Primum 

 eorum fluvium mercatores ipsi transient, in cujus ripis nullo interpartes 

 linguae commercio sed depositarum rerum pretia sestimantes sua tradi- 

 unt nostra non emunt." The river, on the banks of which the traffic 

 here alluded was carried on, appears to have been the boundary line be- 

 tween Bengal and the country of the Seres. It is apparently the same 

 river, which Pliny designates the first in the country of the Seres, and 

 it may be regarded, therefore, as having been the frontier one : (Primum 

 eorum noscitur flumen Psitaras.) It appears to be a river in the Rung- 

 pore district, and is perhaps the Tistha. The Seres here mentioned 

 are some of the hill tribes bordering on Sylhet and Assam, and the 

 thread, which the strangers or foreign merchants purchased from them, 

 was, no doubt, the Tassar or Muga silk thread of the latter country, &c. 



Ammianus Marcellinus alludes to other articles of merchandize be- 

 sides the thread which the Seres bartered. They comprised skins and 

 iron, and, in all probability, lign-aloe, musk, lac, hair-ehowrees, and 

 rhinoceros's horns. 



