218 



ON THE ANCIENT 



fashionable and many were the strictures in which some sober 

 writers indulged, when complaining about the luxury and 

 wantonness of the Eoman ladies, in dressing themselves in 

 precious and thin silks. It is remarkable, that the real origin 

 of silk remained a long time unknown. Pausanias who wrote 

 his archaeological work on Hellas is the first classical author 

 whose ideas about silk and silkworms are pretty correct, for 

 the general notion was, that the silk was combed from the 

 leaves of trees. If we enumerate now the Indian export 

 articles derived from the vegetable kingdom, we shall soon 

 observe, that both in number and in value they are superior 

 to those belonging to the animal world. 



Of grains Rice formed an important commodity. The 

 cultivation of rice extended in ancient times only so far West 

 as to Bactria, Susiana, and the Euphrates valley. The Greeks 

 most likely obtained their rice from India, "as this country 

 alone produced it in sufficient quantity to be able to export 

 it. Moreover the Grecian name for rice Oryza, for which, 

 there exists no Aryan or Sanskrit root, has been previously 

 identified by scholars with the Tamil word arisi, which denotes 

 rice deprived of the husk. This was exactly the state in which 

 rice was exported. The Greeks besides connected rice gene- 

 rally with India. Athenaeos quotes Oryza hephthe, cooked 

 rice, as the food of the Indians, and Aelianus mentions a 

 wine made of rice as an Indian beverage. If now the Greek 

 received their rice from India, and the name they called this 

 grain by is a Dravidian word, we obtain an additional proof 

 of the Non-Aryan element represented in the Indian trade. 



The Cotton cloths (sindones of Herodotos) show by their name 

 their Indian origin. It occurs also afterwards in the Periplus 

 where a distinction is made in the cotton goods according to 

 quality, and cotton thread is mentioned as a separate article. 

 The Eoman Digesta call the co f ton thread carpasium, and 

 the cotton cloth carbasia, whie]r name for the latter is also 

 used by the Alexandrian merchant, the Sanskrit name being 



