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

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

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SILK BY THE ANCIENTS. 31<br />

SAINT JOHN.<br />

Silk (SipiKov) occurs but once in the New Testament, Rev.<br />

xviii. 12. It is here mentioned in a curious enumeration <strong>of</strong> all<br />

the most valuable articles <strong>of</strong> foreign traffic.<br />

SILIUS ITALICUS.<br />

Seres lanigeris repetebant vellera lucis. Punica. vi. 4.<br />

Seres took fleeces from the <strong>wool</strong>ly groves.<br />

Munera rubri<br />

Prseterea Ponti, depexaque vellera ramis,<br />

Femineus labor. lb. xiv. 664.<br />

<strong>The</strong> produce <strong>of</strong> the ErythrjEan seas,<br />

And fleeces <strong>com</strong>b'd by women from the trees*.<br />

Videre Eoi (monstrum admirabile !) Seres<br />

Lanigeros cinere Ausonio canescere lucos.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Seres' <strong>wool</strong>ly groves, O wondrous sight I<br />

In the far East, were with Italian ashes white.<br />

lb. xvii. 595, 596.<br />

In the last passage Silius is describing the effects <strong>of</strong> the re-<br />

cent eruption <strong>of</strong> Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79. That its ashes<br />

should reach the country <strong>of</strong> the Seres, whether it was in Persia<br />

or China, would indeed have been " Monstrum admirabile !"<br />

STATIUS.<br />

Seric (i. e. <strong>silk</strong>en) palls.<br />

PLUTARCH<br />

Sylv

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