Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/522

506 at the temple, her Majesty, followed by her ladies, goes into the field, and, surrounded by the farmers' wives, cooks some mulberry-leaves and lays them on a basket containing the newly hatched worms. The festival is closed with her winding a cocoon



 In Szechuen our ancestors in ancient times Became masters of the precious worms; So, when the snowy skeins we see, Let us pay our vows, all, at Loui' Tseu's feet. Bending our heads before her shrine, Offering her silk and the flowers of the land.

by way of setting an example, in the presence of the people, and distributing gifts to those persons who have been reported by the authorities of their villages as most worthy by reason of their fidelity in attention to the care of the silk-worms.