The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
ON PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
Sheep and wool—Price of wool in Pliny's time—Varieties of wool and where pro-
duced—Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets—Woollen cloth of
Egypt—Embroidery—Felting—Manner of cleansing— DistafF of Tanaquil
Varro—Tunic—Toga—Undulate or waved cloth—Nature of this fabric—Fig-
m-ed cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)—Cloth of gold—Figured
cloths of Babylon—Damask first woven at Alexandria—Plaided textures first
woven in Gaul— $150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet—Dyeing of wool in the
fleece—Obsers'ations on sheep and goats—Dioscurias a city of the Colchians
Manner of transacting business.
LIB. VIIL c. 47s. 72. 50s. 76.*
" We are also much indebted to sheep both in sacrifices to propitiate the gods,
and in the use of their fleeces. As oxen produce by cultivation the food of men,
so we owe to sheep the protection of our bodies Tliere are two prin-
cipal kinds of sheep, the covered and the common. The former is softer, the lat-
ter more delicate in feeding, inasmuch as the covered feeds on brambles. Its
coverings are chiefly of Arabic materials.
" The most approved wool is the Apulian, and that which is called the icool
of Greek sheep in Italy, and the Italic loool in other places. The third kind in
value is that obtained from Milesian sheep. The Apulian wools have a short
staple, and are only celebrated for making poenulas. They attain the highest
degree of excellence about Tarentum and Canusium. In Asia wools of the same
kind are obtained at Laodicea. No white wool is preferred to those which are
produced about the Po, nor has a pound ever yet exceeded a hundred sesterces
(about $3, GO.). Sheep are not shorn ever>-wliere : in certain places the practice
of pulling off" the wool continues. There are various colors of wool, so that wc
want terms to denote all. Spain produces some of those varieties which we call
native ; Pollentia, near the Alps, furnishes the chief kmds of black wool ; Asia
* The edition here followed is that of SUlig, Lipsia;, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo.
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