152 THE EAHLY HISTORY OP SILK. 



while other countries have made gigantic strides 

 towards perfection. 



The archives of China record the use of silk in 

 that country 2700 years before the Christian era. 

 The Empress See-linng-skee, consort of Hoang-tee.is 

 said to have been the discoverer of the winding of 

 silk from the cocoon, and of converting the silky 

 filaments into a tissue. 



So abundant was it in China long before the 

 Christian era, that in provinces of that country, the 

 peasantry, amounting in numbers to millions, were 

 attired in silk dresses. 



Silk was manufactured at Kos, an island of the 

 Archipelago, in very remote ages. It is related by 

 Aristotle, that Pamphlla, a noble lady of that island, 

 was inventress of a superior mode of fabricating a 

 tissue from wove silk, which she undid, re-spun, and 

 re-wove, with the assistance of the females of her 

 household. This manufacture was known by the 

 name of Bombykiu, from the word Bomlnjx, a silk- 

 worm. It certainly was a singular fancy to undo 

 finished fabrics, to apply their threads to a new 

 species of manufacture. But it would appear to 

 liave been excellent of its kind ; for it is recorded, 

 that the Roman ladies afterwards adopted the pro- 

 cess invented by Pamphila. 



From the manufacture having emanated from Kos, 

 Pliny formed the notion that the Silkworm Moth 

 w^s a native of that island, which subsequent history 



