Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/350

 CHAPTER VI.

CAMELS-WOOL AND CAMELS-HAIR.

Camels'-wool and Camels'-hair—Ctesia's account—Testimony of modern travellers—Arab tent of Camels'-hair—Fine cloths still made of Camels'-wool—The use of hair of various animals in the manufacture of beautiful stuffs by the ancient Mexicans—Hair used by the Candian women in the manufacture of broidered stuffs—Broidered stuffs of the negresses of Senegal—Their great beauty.

We are informed by Ctesias, in a fragment of the 10th Book of his Persic History, that there were camels in a part of Persia, whose hair, soft as Milesian fleeces, was used to make garments for the priests and the other potentates.

John the Baptist wore a garment of camels'-hair; but this must be supposed to have been coarse. (Matt. iii. 4., Mark i. 6.). This passage of scripture is illustrated by Harmer in the following observation : "This hair, Sir J. Chardin tells us (in his MS. note on 1 Sam. xxv. 4.) is not shorn from the camels like wool from sheep, but they pull off this woolly hair, which the camels are disposed to cast off; as many other creatures, it is well known, change their coats yearly. This hair is made into cloth now. Chardin assures us the modern dervishes wear such garments." Campbell, the poet, mentions a tent of camels'-hair cloth, which he saw at an Arab encampment between Oran and Mascara in the kingdom of Algiers. It was 25 feet in diameter and very lofty. (Letters from the South, 1837, vol. ii. p.