26 THE SILK GODDESS 



49. But had the legend any slight foundation like that we have 

 suggested, § 46, it must have lingered in popular minds quite outside the 

 range of literature. The fact does not seem improbable, as records of this 

 folklore and belief may have disappeared in one or the other of the five 

 great bibliothecal catastrophes which have made of the ancient literature of 

 China a mere wreck. However the hypothesis seems difficult to maintain 

 with the positive statements and allusions we have collected which show 

 vagueness of former beliefs about the protective genii of silk and 

 silkworms. Moreover, iho geographical information gathered in the first 

 part of this paper (§§ 3-21 "1 show reason to believe that silkworms did 

 not exist in the N.W. of China until later times, and therefore that 

 during the period of their earliest settlements in Kansuh and Shensi, the 

 immigrating tribes under the leadership of Hwang-ti, who married a girl of 

 Si-ling in that region, cannot have been made acquainted by her with the 

 art of sericulture. 



Conclusion. 



50. The outcome of the foregoing paper, about the history and legend 

 of Si-ling she as the real inventor of the silk industry, is that they have no 

 historical fouudation. It is another instance of the ways and means which 

 have contributed to the formation of the modern Pantheon of the Chinese. 

 In the few ancient accounts of innovations and inventions attributed to the 

 rulers of the legendary period, such as Hwang-ti and others, accounts which 

 are found in the great Appendix to the Book of Changes, 113 the 

 authorship of which is attributed to Confucius through the pencil of a 

 disciple, and in the fragments of older times added to the Book 

 of mountains and seas 114 during the Han period, no allusion whatever 

 is made to the invention of the silk industry. This silence,to say the least, 

 is very significant, as it concerns a most ancient and most prominent in- 

 dustry of China which was entitled to a special mention should the 

 legend attributing its invention to Hwang-ti and his wife have existed at 

 the time when these accounts were compiled. It may be taken as a con- 

 curring and final proof that silk culture was not a Chinese invention, and 

 was proper to the pre-Chinese populations of the country, particularly in 

 the east, as shewn by the geographical and historical data collected in these 

 pages. 



The whole evidence concurs to show that it was only when the civilised 

 chieftains of the Bak families arriving from the West, advanced eastwards 

 and intermarried with girls of the native tribes, that they became acquain- 



