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CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK. 67
They said, that they had long resided in the country called
Serinda, one of those inhabited by the various Indian nations,
and had accurately informed themselves how raw silk might
be produced in the country of the Romans. In reply to the
repeated and minute inquiries of this Emperor, they stated,
that the raw silk is made by worms, which nature instructs
and continually prompts to this labor ; but that to bring the
worms alive to Byzantium would be impossible ; that the
breeding of them is quite easy ; that each parent animal pro-
duces numberless eggs, which long after their birth are covered
with manure by persons who have the care of them, and being
thus warmed a sufficient time, are hatched. The Emperor
having promised the monks a handsome reward, if they would
put in execution what they had proposed, they returned to In-
dia and brought the eggs to Byzantium, where, having hatched
them in the manner described, they fed them with the leaves
of the Black Mulherry, and thus enabled the Romans thence-
forth to obtain raw silk in their own country."
The same narrative, abridged from Procopius, is found in
Manuel Glycas [Annal. I. iv. p. 209.), and Zonares {Annal. I.
xiv. 7^. 69. ed. Dii Cange.). In the abstract given by Photius
[Biblioth. p. 80. ed. Rothani) of the history of Theophanes
Byzantinus, who was a writer of nearly the same age with Pro-
copius, we find a narrative, in which the only variation is, that
a Persian brought the eggs to Byzantium in the hollow stem
of a plant. The method now practised in transporting the
eggs from country to country is to place them in a bottle not
more than half full, so that by being tossed about, they may be
kept cool and fresh. If too close, they would probably be heat-
ed and hatch on the journey*.
The authors who have hitherto treated of the history of the
silk-worm, have supposed the Serinda of Procopius to be the
modern Sir-hind, a city of Circar in the North of Hindostant.
• Transactions of the Society for encouraging Arts, Manufactures, &c., vol.
xliii. p. 236.
t In this they have followed D'Anville, Antiquity G^ographique de I'lndo,
Paris, 1775, p. 63.