Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/424

 Lam. ii. 20, were, no doubt, made of the flax of this country, although Forster (De Bysso, p. 92.), on account of the celebrity of the Milesian wool, supposes them to have been woollen. It is probable, that the Milesian net caps, worn by ladies, were made of linen thread.

Jerome, describing the change from an austere to a luxurious mode of life, mentions shirts from Laodicea. Some commentators have supposed linen shirts to be meant.

According to Julius Pollux (vii. c. 16.) the Athenians and Ionians wore a linen shirt reaching to the feet. But the use of it among the Athenians must have come in much later than among the Ionians, who would adopt the practice in consequence of the cultivation of flax in their own country as well as in their colonies on the Euxine Sea, and also in consequence of the general elegance and refinement of their manners. Indeed it appears probable, that the linen used by the Athenians was imported.

The only part of Greece, where flax is recorded to have been grown, was Elis. That it was produced in that country is affirmed by Pliny (l. xix. c. 4.), and by Pausanias in three passages already quoted.

When Colonel Leake was at Gastūni near the mouth of the Peneus in Elis, he made the following observations.

For flax (one of the chief things produced there) the land is once ploughed in the spring, and two or three times in the ensuing autumn, with a pair of oxen, when the seed is thrown in and covered with the plough. The plant does not require and hardly admits of weeding, as it grows very thick. When ripe, it is pulled up by the roots, and laid in bundles in the sun. It is then threshed to separate the seed. The bundles are laid in the river for five days, then dried in the sun, and pressed in a wooden machine. Contrary to its ancient reputation, the flax of Gastuni is not very fine. It is chiefly used in the neighboring islands by the peasants, who weave it into cloths for their own use.

In one of the Pseudo-Platonic Epistles (No. xiii. p. 363.) mention occurs of linen shifts for ladies, made in Sicily, which certainly implies nothing more than that linen was woven in Sicily. The material for making it may have been imported. In like manner the linen of Malta was exceedingly admired