Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/276

 while his account of the silkworm is at least within sight of the truth, although not so near it as Aristotle's:

"At first they assume the appearance of small butterflies with naked bodies, but soon after, being unable to endure the cold, they throw out bristly hairs, and assume quite a thick coat against the winter by rubbing off the down that covers the leaves, by the aid of the roughness of their feet. This they compress into balls by carding it with their claws, and then draw it out and hang it between the branches of the trees, making it fine by combing it out as it were; last of all, they take and roll it round their body, thus forming a nest in which they are enveloped. It is in this state that they are taken; after which they are placed in earthen vessels in a warm place, and fed upon bran. A peculiar sort of down soon shoots forth upon the body, on being clothed with which they are sent to work upon another task. The cocoons which they have begun to form are rendered soft and pliable by the aid of water, and are then drawn out into threads by means of a spindle made of a reed. Nor, in fact, have the men even felt ashamed to make use of garments formed of this material in consequence of their extreme lightness in summer; for so greatly have manners degenerated in our own day that so far from wearing a cuirass, a garment even is found to be too heavy."

(See also Lassen, I, 317–322; III, 25; Yates, Textrinum Antiquorum.)

The reeling of silk from the cocoons was confused into a combing of down from the leaves, which had also a basis of truth, byt was the cause of the confusion with cotton. Compare Virgil, Georgics, II, 121;—"Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres."

Pliny finally distinguishes between the two fibers in referring to Arabian cotton (XII, 21): "trees that bear wool, but of a different nature from those of the Seres; as in these trees the leaves produce nothing at all, and indeed might very readily be taken for those of the vine."

The word "silk" is from a Mongolian original, sirkek, meaning silk; Korean sir, Chinese ssi. Hence the Greek sēr, Latin sericum. From this word the name Seres was applied to the peoples through whose hands the product came; by which must be understood, not the Chinese themselves, but rather the Turkish or Tibetan intermediaries. That the word was loosely extended to cover most of Eastern Asia is undeniable; but Ptolemy distinguishes the Sinae, Isaiah the Sinim, while the Periplus gives nearly the correct form, This, for China proper.

Pliny has a curious mixture of Seres and Cirrhadae in his Scyritae