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320 India, and it would appear as if there were no conclusive evidence of its having been known in Western Asia until Justinian introduced it in the sixth century through Persia from China. But there is no doubt that the brocades of Ahmedabad and Benares and Murshedabad represent the rich stuffs of Babylon, wrought, as we know they were, with figures of animals in gold and variegated colours. Such brocades are now a speciality of Benares, where they are known under the name of shikargah, happy "hunting grounds," which is nearly a translation [Yule, Marco Polo, i, 63] of the name thard-wahsh, or "beast hunts," by which they were known to the Saracens. Fine weaving probably passed from India to Assyria and Egypt, and through the Phœnicians into Southern Europe; and gold was inwoven with cotton in India, Egypt, Chaldæa, Assyria, Babylonia, and Phœnicia, from the earliest times, first in flat strips, and then in wire, or twisted round thread, and the most ancient form of its use is still practised all over India. In Exodus xxxix, 2 and 3, we read: "And he [Aholiab] made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires" ["strips" it should be translated], "to work it in the blue and in the purple and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." The inspired Psalmist, in setting forth the majesty and grace of the Kingdom of God [Psalm xliv], says, "Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen of Ophir. … The king's daughter is all glorious within, her raiment is of wrought gold." Almost at the same time Homer describes the golden net of Hephæstus [Od. viii, 274]:

Pliny [Bk. viii, ch. 74] also tells us, "But to weave cloth with gold was the invention of an Asiatic King, Attalus, from whom the name Attalic ["Attalica vestis," "Attalica tunica," "Attalicus