MOTH. 
361 
to Cosmas) in different parts of India, had pene- 
trated into the country of the Seres, or China. 
There they observed the labours of the silkworm, 
and became acquainted with all the arts of man in 
working up its productions in such a variety of ele- 
gant fabrics. The prospect of gain, or perhaps an 
indignant zeal excited by seeing this lucrative branch 
of commerce engrossed by unbelieving nations, 
prompted them to repair to Constantinople. There 
they explained to the emperor the origin of silk, 
as well as the various modes of preparing and manu- 
facturing it, mysteries hitherto unknown, or very 
imperfectly understood in Europe ; and encouraged 
by his liberal promises, they undertook to bring to 
the capital a sufficient number of these wonderful 
insects, to whose labours man is so much indebted. 
This they accomplished by conveying the eggs of 
the silkworm in a hollow cane. They were hatched 
by the heat of a dunghill, fed with the leaves of a 
wild mulberry-tree, and they multiplied and worked 
in the same manner as in those climates where they 
first became objects of human attention and care. 
Vast numbers of these insects were soon reared in 
different parts of Greece, particularly in the Pelo- 
ponnesus. Sicily afterwards undertook to breed 
silkworms with equal success, and was imitated 
from time to time in several towns in Italy. In 
all those places extensive manufactures were esta- 
blished and carried on with silk of domestic produc- 
tion. The demand for silk from the East diminish- 
ed of course ; the subjects of the Greek emperors 
