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FITNESS OF THE MALLOW FOR MAKING CLOTH. 197
refer to that admirable specimen of Eastern taste and ingenu-
ity, the Sacontala of the great Indian dramatist CaUdasa. Sev-
eral passages of this poem make mention of the Valcula, which
tlie Sanscrit Lexicons, themselves of great antiquity, explain as
meaning either bark, or a vesture made from it. We learn
from Dr. WalUch, a celebrated Indian botanist, that many
kinds of Hibiscus had this quahty in an eminent degree, and,
as their bark was in common use for making all kinds of cord-
age, it might undoubtedly be employed for weaving.
The Sacontala is of a date as ancient as the Periplus.- Pro-
fessor Von Bohlen {Das alte Tndien, vol. ii. jy. 477.) asserts,
that the author Calidasa certainly flourished as early as the
first century B. C. Sir William Jones makes him older by
several centuries. ( Works, vol. vi. p. 206.) The place also
agrees as well as the time. The Hibiscus Tiliaceus, according
to Sir J. E. Smith, is " one of the most common trees in every
part of the East Indies, thriving in all sorts of situations and
soils, and cultivated for the sake of its shade even more than
the beauty of its flowers, in towns and villages and by road-
sides. A coarse cordage," he adds, " is made of the bark ; the
wood is light and Avhite, useful for small cabinet-work ; the
mucilage of the whole plant is applied to some medical pur-
poses." The Molochina, montioned in the Periplus, were
brought from Ozene and Tagara, and may have come from
still further North. The hermitage, described in the drama,
was at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and near the river
Mahna, and, according to the representations given by the poet,
the Valcalas (translated by Sir W. Jones -^mantles of woven
bark" and by Chezy, " vetemens d^ecorce"\ were worn both
by the hermits and by the beautiful Sacontala. while she was
their imnate*.
" Valcalas" are mentioned in precisely the same manner in
the Ramayana, one of the most noted of the heroic poems of
ancient India. They are represented as coarse garments worn
by ascetics.
* Translation of the Sacontala, Sir W. Jones's Works, vol. vi. pp. 217. 2:25. 269.
Original, ed. Ch^zy, Paris, 1830, p. 7, 1. 10. ; p. 9, 1. 10 ; p. 24, 1. 7. ; p. 1.31, 1. 14.
Ch6zy's translation, pp. 10. 27. 142. 143. See also Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. p. 648.