II4 NATURAL HISTORY 
as thofe of cotton. This ftone was very rare among the ancients ;■ 
pliny 1 feems to think that it was only to be found in the 
burning deferts of India, from the extremity of the heat in which 
climate it derived it’s quality of relifting the force oi lire. He fays, 
(ibid) that it was fo rare and precious, that the finding it was 
efteemed a piece of good fortune, equal to the difcovery of precious 
Hones, and calls the linen wove of it fuperior to any other in the 
world. Plutarch fays it was found in Greece among the Caryftian 
marble. It is now difeovered in feveral parts of Europe, but whe- 
ther lo excellent as that of which the ancients made thele curious 
linens it is hard to decide. 
It may feem to fome a little improbable that there Ihould ever 
have been an art of extracting cloth out of ftone, but when we con- 
fider the downy filaments of the albeftos, and the extream finenefs 
of its fibres, fo apt to mix and entangle one with the other, and 
make a kind of tender wool, it will feem little more furprizing than 
that cloth Ihould be wove out of cotton. The art is fuppofed by 
fome to have been loft in the time of Pliny, for what reafon I can- 
not fay ; for, by the paflage above-mentioned, it is clear, that the 
cloths made of it were extant, and in ufe in his time. Plutarch 
alfo mentions them as made in his time ; and at prefent the curious 
try experiments in the fame way for their amufement. “ Septalius 
(fays Grew, Mufeum, R. S. page 313,) hath, or lately had, ropes, 
paper, and netted-works, all made hereof, and fome of them with 
his own hand.” Whether the moderns underftand the moft effica- 
cious manner of treating this Honey flax, is what cannot be de- 
termined; but their prefent manner of preparing it, is thus laid 
down by Pontoppidan, page 169, but from what authority is not 
mentioned : the ftone is foftened in water, then beaten with a mo- 
derate force till the fibres feparate ; afterwards carefully and repeat- 
edly walhed, till cleared of all terrene particles ; then the flax is 
dried in a fieve ; the filaments are then fpun carefully, the fingers 
being foftened with oil.” The reafon why the art is loft, or rather 
difufed, feems not fo much owing to the want of this ftone, nor to 
the difficulty of weaving it, as to the little or no demand for it, 
burning the dead (which was the principal ufe of it) having never 
been an univerfal cuftom in any even the moft cultivated nations ; 
and where it was a cuftom, few were fo curious as to prevent the 
mixing of the afhes with thofe of the funeral pile, and fewer Hill 
were equal to the expence of procuring fuch coftly cloathings for 
the dead ; but when the Chriftian Religion prevailed over the Ro- 
man empire, and burning the dead was laid afide, then, and not 
Ibid, ut fupra. 
before 
