Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/101

 silk-worm was ever bred there. So far is this from being the case, that it appears to be a country very ill adapted for the production of silk. It may indeed be true, as stated by Latreille, that Sir-hind was colonized from Khotan, and it may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance in confirmation of this supposition, that there is a town called Kotana a little way to the North East of the City of Sir-hind. But, supposing this account to be correct, it is highly probable that the settlement of Sir-hind as a colony of Khotan did not take place till after the year 530, when the breeding of silk-worms was according to Procopius introduced into Europe from "Serinda." Rather more than 120 years before this time India was visited by the Chinese traveller, Fa Hian, who on his way passed some months with great delight and admiration in Khotan; and the special object of whose journey was to see and describe all the cities of India where Buddhism was professed. The inhabitants of Khotan being wholly devoted to that delusion, the same system must have been established in its colony; and, since this zealous pilgrim crossed India at no great distance from the spot where Sir-hind afterwards stood, we cannot doubt that he would have mentioned it, if it had existed in his age. He says not a word about it; and the time is comparatively so short between his visit to India and the date of the introduction of silk-worms into Europe, that we can scarcely suppose Sir-hind, the colony of Khotan and consequently the seat of Buddhism, to have been in existence either at the former or latter period.

In another passage of his history (Bell. Pers. 1. 20.) Procopius throws some light upon our subject by stating that in consequence of the monopoly of the trade in raw silk by the Persians, Justinian attempted to obtain it throngh the Æthi-*