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

32 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF
speaks of women,
JUVENAL
Quarum
Delicias et panniculus bombycinus urit. Sat. vi. 259.
Whose beauty e'en a silken veil o'erheats.
MARTIAL.
Nee vaga tarn tenui discursat aranea tela,
Tam levo nee bombyx pendulus iirget opus. L. \m. 33
The spider traces not so thin a line,
Nor does the pendent silk-womi spin so fine.
Foemineiun lucet sic per bombyeina corpus.
Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua. L. viii. 68.
Thus tlirough her silk a lady's body looks.
Thus count we pebbles in the sparkling brooks.
De Pallatinis domince quod Serica prelis.
L. xi. 9.
Here Martial alludes to the employment of presses {prela) lor
preserving the garments of silk and other precious materials;
belonging to the Empress, in the same way, in which we noAV
use presses to keep table-Unen. He says to a lady (L. ix. 38.).
Nee dentes aliter, quam Serica, nocte reponas.
Your teeth at night, lilie silks, you lay aside.
In another passage (L. xi. 27.) he speaks of silken goods
[Serica] as procurable in the Vicus Tuscus at Rome : and
lastly in L. xiv. £p. 24, he mentions ribbons or fillets of silk as
used for adorning the hair.
Tenuia ne madidi violent bombyeina crines,
Figat aeus tortas, sustineatque comas.
Lest your moist hair defile the ribbons thin,
Twist it in knots, and fix it with a pin.
PAUSANIAS,
a native of Asia Minor, and an inquisitive traveller in the
second century, gives the following distinct account of Sericum
according to the ideas received among the Greeks in his time.
The threads from wliich the Seres make webs, are not the produce of bark, but
are obtained in the following manner. There is an animal in that coimtry, which