TO NEAPOLIS. 39 
erroneously written ; either Sirres\ Serrce*, or chap. 
Ceres. There was a nation or tribe in India that had - 
this appellation Sires : it is mentioned by P/m^/ 
as a people from whom the Romans derived 
their coarse silk for spinning*; and their 
country was called Serica ; the name of their 
metropolis being Sera". The Greeks called silk- 
worms 2 ^^6?, as we learn from the commentary 
of Servius upon Virgil'' \ but in the passage 
referred to by this commentator, the poet may 
allude to cotton as well as silk^. 
We met two parties of Turkish women of Equestrian 
quality on horseback ; a sight we had never Ladies. 
before enjoyed, in any part of the empire. 
(S) See Major Leake's " Researches in Greece," p. 13. Land. 1814. 
(4) See Beaujuur's Tabl. du Comm. de la Grece, torn. I. p. 54. 
where it is written " Seres, ou Serrce." 
(S) " Skrks, lanicio syl varum nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes 
frondium canitiem : unde geminus fcerninis nostris labor, redordiendi 
fila, rursumque fexendi. Tarn multiplici opere, tarn longinquo orbe 
petitur, ut in publico matrona transluceat." Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. vi. 
cap. 17. torn. I. p. 301. L. Bat. 1635. 
(6j Vide Ptokmaum, lib. vi. cap. iQ. pp. 157, 158. eA, Magin.\6\l . 
(l) " Q'^i'l nemora jEtbiopum, molli canentia lana? 
Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.'" 
Firgilii Georgic. lib. ii. ver. 120. p. 138. ed. Delph. Amst. 1690. 
(S; Vide Grnnm^ium \n Steph. de Urh. p. 595. (10.) *' Gossypium 
rt Sericum intelligit. De quibus ita Amm. JUarcellinu.t, lib. xxiii. 
•■'ip. 28. Et abund^ syKap '•ubiucidae, k quibus arboruni !"oRtus aquarum 
asper;;iriibiis 
