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CAMELS-WOOL AND CAMELS-HAIR. 313
212.) He also mentions [vol. i. j). 161.) that the Kabyles or
Berbers, who live in the vicinity of Algiers, and are descended
from the original occupants of the country, dwell in " tents of
camels'-hair." We are informed that the Chinese make car-
pets of the same material*. Coverlets of goats' or camels'-hair
are used by the soldiers in Turkey to sleep undert.
" The Cir-
cassians, when marching, or on a journey, always add to their
other garments a cloak made from camel or goats'-hair, with a
hood, which completely envelopes the whole person. It is im-
penetrable by rain ; and it forms their bed at night, and pro-
tects them from the scorching sun by dayl."
Fortunatus, in his hfe of St. Martin (1. iv.), describes a garment
of such cloth ; but it may be doubted whether he took
his description from actual knowledge of the use of it, or only
from the account in Matthew of the dress of John the Baptist
already quoted.
Camels'-hair of annual growth would vary in fineness ac-
cording to circumstances, and might be used either for the
coarse raiment of prophets and dervises, or for the costly
shawls, to which Ctesias alludes. Fine wool, adapted to the
latter purpose, might also grow, as in the goat and beaver, be-
neath the long hair of the camel. It has been doubted
whether cloth so fine and beautiful as Ctesias asserts, could pos-
sibly be obtained from camels. The following accounts by
modern travellers illustrate and justify the statement of the
suspected ancient.
Marco Polo, who travelled in the 13th century, in his account
of the city of Kalaka, which was in the province of Tangut
and subject to the Great Kahn, says§, " In this city they manu-
facture beautiful camelots, the finest known in the world, of the
hair of camels and likewise of fine wool." According to Pallas,
(Travels, vol. ii. § 8.,) " From the hair of the camel the Tartar
women in the plains of the Crimea manufacture a narrow
* China, its Costume, Arts, Manufactures, &c., by Bertin : translated from
the French. London, 1812, vol. iv.
t Travels in Circassia, by Edmund Spencer, vol. i. p. 202.
t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 219.
§ Book i. ch. 52. p. 235. of Marsden's Translation.
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