Read Ebook: The History of Silk Cotton Linen Wool and Other Fibrous Substances; Including Observations on Spinning Dyeing and Weaving. by Gilroy Clinton G

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1749 lines and 194190 words, and 35 pages

Earliest mention of Flax--Linen manufactures of the Egyptians--Linen worn by the priests of Isis--Flax grown extensively in Egypt--Flax gathering--Envelopes of Linen found on Egyptian mummies--Examination of mummy-cloth--Proved to be Linen--Flax still grown in Egypt--Explanation of terms--Byssus--Reply to J. R. Forster--Hebrew and Egyptian terms--Flax in North Africa, Colchis, Babylonia--Flax cultivated in Palestine--Terms for flax and tow--Cultivation of Flax in Palestine and Asia Minor--In Elis, Etruria, Cisalpine Gaul, Campania, Spain--Flax of Germany, of the Atrebates, and of the Franks--Progressive use of linen among the Greeks and Romans 358

HEMP.

Cultivation and Uses of Hemp by the Ancients--Its use limited--Thrace Colchis--Caria--Etymology of Hemp 387

ASBESTOS.

Uses of Asbestos--Carpasian flax--Still found in Cyprus--Used in funerals--Asbestine-cloth--How manufactured--Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks--Relic at Monte Casino 390

APPENDICES.

ON PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.

Sheep and wool Price of wool in Pliny's time--Varieties of wool and where produced--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--Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer --Cloth of gold--Figured cloths of Babylon--Damask first woven at Alexandria--Plaided textures first woven in Gaul--0,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet--Dyeing of wool in the fleece--Observations on sheep and goats--Dioscurias a city of the Colchians--Manner of transacting business 401

ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER.

THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN--COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABIANS, A. D. 704.

Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany--Sch?nemann to Italy--Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern--Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A. D. 1200--Testimony of Abdollatiph--Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century--Cotton paper--The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom--Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturer's--Clugny's testimony--Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100--Ancient water-marks on linen paper--Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. 404

ON FELT.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS.

Felting more ancient than weaving--Felt used in the East--Use of it by the Tartars--Felt made of goats'-hair by the Circassians--Use of felt in Italy and Greece--Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c.--Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap--Desultores--Vulcan--Ulysses--Phrygian bonnet--Cap worn by the Asiatics--Phrygian felt of Camels'-hair--Its great stiffness--Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators--Mode of manufacturing--Felt Northern nations of Europe--Cap of liberty--Petasus--Statue of Endymion--Petasus in works of ancient art--Hats of Thessaly and Macedonia--Laconian or Arcadian hats--The Greeks manufacture Felt 900 B. C.--Mercury with the pileus and petasus--Miscellaneous uses of Felt 414

ON NETTING.

Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom--General terms for nets--Nets used for catching birds--Mode of snaring--Hunting-nets--Method of hunting--Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes--Manner of fixing them--Purse-net or tunnel-net--Homer's testimony--Nets used by the Persians in lion-hunting--Hunting with nets practised by the ancient Egyptians--Method of hunting--Depth of nets for this purpose--Description of the purse-net--Road-net--Hallier--Dyed feathers used to scare the prey--Casting-net--Manner of throwing by the Arabs--Cyrus king of Persia--His fable of the piper and the fishes--Fishing-nets--Casting-net used by the Apostles--Landing-net --The Sean--Its length and depth--Modern use of the Sean--Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians and ancient Egyptians--Corks and leads--Figurative application of the Sean--Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the Persians--Nets used in India to catch tortoises--Bag-nets and small purse-nets--Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian praetor 436

LIST OF PLATES.

PART FIRST.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF SILK.

SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING.

Whether Silk is mentioned in the Old Testament--Earliest Clothing--Coats of Skin, Tunic, Simla--Progress of Invention Chinese chronology relative to the Culture of Silk--Exaggerated statements--Opinions of Mailla, Le Sage, M. Lavoisn?, Rev. J. Robinson, Dr. A. Clarke, Rev. W. Hales, D.D., Mairan, Bailly, Guignes, and Sir William Jones--Noah supposed to be the first emperor of China--Extracts from Chinese publications--Silk Manufactures of the island of Cos--Described by Aristotle--Testimony of Varro--Spinning and Weaving in Egypt--Great ingenuity of Bezaleel and Aholiab in the production of Figured Textures for the Jewish Tabernacle--Skill of the Sidonian women in the Manufacture of Ornamental Textures--Testimony of Homer--Great antiquity of the Distaff and Spindle--The prophet Ezekiel's account of the Broidered Stuffs, etc. of the Egyptians--Beautiful eulogy on an industrious woman--Helen the Spartan, her superior skill in the art of Embroidery--Golden Distaff presented her by the Egyptian queen Alcandra--Spinning a domestic occupation in Miletus--Theocritus's complimentary verses to Theuginis on her industry and virtue--Taste of the Roman and Grecian ladies in the decoration of their Spinning Implements--Ovid's testimony to the skill of Arachne in Spinning and Weaving--Method of Spinning with the Distaff--Described by Homer and Catullus--Use of Silk in Arabia 500 years after the flood--Forster's testimony.

Whether silk is ever mentioned in the Old Testament cannot perhaps be determined.

Kimchi supposes ?????? to mean silk webs, observing that silk is called ?? ??? by the Arabs. The same opinion has been adopted by Nicholas Fuller, Buxtorf, and other modern critics. Kennicott, however, arranges the words in two lines as follows,

???? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ????

Miscellanea Sacra, l. ii. c. 11.

Silk is mentioned Prov. xxxi. 22. in King James's Translation, i. e. the common English version, and in the margin of Gen. xli. 42. But the use of the word is quite unauthorized.

After a full examination of the whole question Braunius decides that there is no mention of silk in the whole of the Old Testament, and that it was unknown to the Hebrews in ancient times.

De vestitu Heb. Sacerdotum, l. 1. cap. viii. ? 8.

There is not the least shadow of truth in support of such a deduction; and particularly so since the general tenor of the Scriptures leads to a very different conclusion. We are, therefore, not authorized to give our support to any such hypothesis. The history of the Sheep and Goat is so interwoven with the history of man, that those naturalists have not reasoned correctly, who have thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them to any wild stock at all. Such view is, we imagine, more in keeping with the inferences to be drawn from Scripture History with regard to the early domestication of the sheep. Abel, we are told, was a keeper of sheep, and it was one of the firstlings of his flock that he offered to the Lord, and which, proving a more acceptable sacrifice, excited the implacable and fatal jealousy of his brother Cain.

In our search for the distant origin of any art or science, or in looking through the long vista of ages remote even to nations extinct before our own, we are favored with satisfactory evidence so long as we are accompanied with authentic records: beyond, all is dark, obscure, tradition, fable. On such ground it would be credulous or rash in the extreme to repeat as our own, an affirmation, when that rests on the single testimony of one party or interest, especially when that is of a very questionable character. It is even safer, when history or well authenticated records fail us, to appeal to philosophy, or to the well known laws of mind, from which all arts and science spring. The former favors us with the commanding evidence of certainty and decision; and though the latter may only afford the testimony of analogy, yet, is its probability more safe, at least, than what rests on misguided calculations or on the legendary tales of artifice and fiction.

Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: Gen. xi. 16-26; xlvii. 28; and l. 26.

Fohi, Eohi Chinun, and Hoang-ti.

See Dr. A. Clarke's remarks: end of Gen.

See pp. 68, 74, 119 and 294.

End of the deluge 1657 A. M. Fohi, first emperor, began to reign 1947 A. M. Noah died 2007 A. M. Eohi Chinun, second emperor, began to reign 2061 A. M. Hoang-ti, the third emperor, began to reign 2201 A. M. Hoang-ti after establishing the silk culture, died 2301 A. M.

Hoang-ti was therefore contemporary with Joseph when administering the affairs of Egypt. But would we know what account the Chinese themselves give relative to the earliest introduction of the silk culture, we shall find it in the French version of the Chinese Treatises, by M. Stanislas Julien, or in the following words of pages 77 and 78, as translated and published in 1838, at Washington, under the title of "Summary of the principal Chinese Treatises upon the Culture of the Mulberry, and the rearing of Silk-worms."

Tirin places the birth of Christ in the 36th year of Herod, the 40th of Augustus, the 28th from the battle of Actium, the 749th of Rome, and the 4th of the 193d Olympiad.

It will here not be improper to observe that the Samaritan text and Septuagint version of the Hebrew, carry the deluge as far back as to the year 3716 before Christ; or 1000 years before the Chinese account of Hoang-ti. On this subject see the New Analysis of Chronology, by the Rev. W. Hales, D.D. 4to., 3 vol.

Joseph died in the 2369th year from the Creation.

"This great prince was desirous that Si-ling-chi, his legitimate wife, should contribute to the happiness of his people. He charged her to examine the silk-worms, and to test the practicability of using the thread. Si-ling-chi had a large quantity of these insects collected, which she fed herself, in a place prepared for that purpose, and discovered not only the means of raising them, but also the manner of reeling the silk, and of employing it to make garments."

We have seen that the most probable account relative to the time of Fohi, said to have been the first Chinese emperor, is that he reigned 2057 years before the Christian era, or in the year of the world 1947. "According to the most current opinion," says M. Lavoisn?, "China was founded by one of the colonies formed at the dispersion of Noah's posterity under the conduct of Yao, who took for his colleague Chun, afterwards his successor. But most writers consider Fohi to have been Noah himself."

Gen. ix. 28.

Clarke's "Treatise on the Mulberry-tree, and Silk-worm," pp. 14, 18, 20, 21, 27, and 34.

The first ancient author, who affords any evidence respecting the use of silk, is Aristotle. He does not, however, appear to have been accurately acquainted with the changes of the silk-worm; nor does he say, that the animal was bred or the raw material produced in Cos. He only says, "Pamphile, daughter of Plates, is reported to have first woven it in Cos."

Long before the time of Aristotle a regular trade had been established in the interior of Asia, which brought its most valuable productions, and especially those which were most easily transported, to the shores opposite this flourishing island. Nothing therefore is more likely than that the raw silk from the interior of Asia was brought to Cos and there manufactured. We shall see hereafter from the testimony of Procopius, that it was in like manner brought some centuries later to be woven in the Phoenician cities, Tyre and Berytus.

According to Pliny, Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, was believed to have been the inventress of the art of weaving. Minerva is in some of the ancient statutes represented with a distaff, to intimate that she taught men the art of spinning; and this honor is given by the Egyptians to Isis, by the Mohammedans to a son of Japhet, by the Chinese to the consort of their emperor Yao, and by the Peruvians to Mamaoella, wife to Manco-Capac, their first sovereign. These traditions serve only to carry the invaluable arts of spinning and weaving up to an extremely remote period, long prior to that of authentic history.

Paintings representing the gathering and preparation of flax have been found on the walls of the ancient sepulchres at Eleithias and Beni Hassan, in Upper Egypt, and are described and copied by Hamilton.--"Remarks on several parts of Turkey, and on ancient and modern Egypt," pp. 97 and 287, plate 23.

Herodotus, book ii. c. 37, 81.

The transition from vegetable fibre to the use of animal staples, such as wool and hair, could not have been very difficult; indeed, as already stated, it took place at a period of which we possess no very authentic written record.

The instrument used for spinning in all countries, from the earliest times, was the distaff and spindle. This simple apparatus was put by the Greek mythologists into the hands of Minerva and the Parcae; Solomon employs upon it the industry of the virtuous woman; to the present day the distaff is used in India, Egypt, and other eastern countries.

The ancient spindle or distaff was a very simple instrument. The late Lady Calcott informs us, that it continued even to our own days to be used by the Hindoos in all its primitive simplicity. "I have seen," she says, "the rock or distaff formed simply of the leading shoot of some young tree, carefully peeled, it might be birch or elder, and, further north, of fir or pine; and the spindle formed of the beautiful shrub Euonymus, or spindle-tree."

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet