Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/220

 The Italians call the fibres Lana Pesce or Lana Penna, i. e. Fish Wool, or Pinna Wool. It is not equally good in all places. When the bottom of the sea is sandy, the shell with its bunch of fibres may be easily extracted, and they are silky and of a fine color. But in rushy and muddy bottoms so fast do they stick as to be generally broken in drawing up, and are of a blackish color without gloss.

The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water, and again in tepid water, then spread on a table to dry: while yet moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and then through a narrow one. That which is destined for very fine works is also drawn through iron combs, called scarde (cards). It is then spun with a distaff and spindle.

As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality, the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings and gloves, are expensive. They are esteemed excellent preservatives against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly carried on at Taranto, the ancient Tarentum.

The Lana Penna, having been spun, is now almost universally knit. But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this process prior to the second century; whatever garments they made of this material must have been woven.

The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Tertullian, who lived in the second century (De Pallio, iii. p. 115, Rigaltii). Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says,

Nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosæ lanusitatis plautiores conchæ comant.

Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was ne-*