COCOONS OF PURE SILK. 
109 
out, she seems very well contented with her 
prison, and makes no effort to escape. 
The silk is so delicate that it cannot he wound 
or reeled from the cocoon, and this makes it 
more difficult to manage, and not so valuable. 
The natives contrive to pull off the threads from 
four or five cocoons, and twist them together; 
the twisted silk is then woven into small pieces 
of cloth, which are very coarse, and have to be 
well beaten in order to be made pliable. 
An Englishman once brought home some 
Arrindy worms, and when they had finished 
their cocoons, he was quite determined to have 
the silk reeled off in the usual manner. He 
had brought a native servant, from the very spot 
where the worms were procured, who laughed 
heartily at the idea of winding the Arrindy 
thread. But his master persisted in having his 
own way, and tried again, and again, to have the 
silk wound. But at last he was obliged to give 
in, and have it spun like cotton. 
I will only mention one more of these wild 
silkworms. 
From the branches of the sassafras, and the 
spice-tree, in North America, there will often 
hang what look like withered leaves, and you 
would think the next gust of wind might 
carry them away. But they are in reality the 
