Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/436



près du cap Chromachiti.
 * dant qu'il le fut autrefois; la carrière qui le fournit est dans la montagne d'Akamantide,

Le talc est commun, surtout près de Larnaca, où on l'emploie à blanchir les maisons; et le plàtre a de nombreuses carrières.

The "talc" may be the same with the "Lapis specularis," which was found in Cyprus, according to Pliny (xxxvi. 45.). The testimony of Sonnini so far agrees with those of the ancients, that all the places mentioned were on the northern side of the island, so that the asbestos seems to have been found between Solæ towards the West and Carpas towards the East.

Pietro della Valle, when he was at Larnaca, was presented with a piece of the amiantus of the country, but says that it was no longer spun and woven.

Pliny, if we can rely upon his testimony as given in the existing editions of his works, states, that Asbestos was obtained in Arcadia (H. N. xxxvii. 54.) and in India.

"A kind of flax has been discovered which is incombustible by fire. It is called live flax; and we have seen napkins of it burning upon the hearth at entertainments, and, when thus deprived of their dirt, more resplendent through the agency of fire than they could have been by the use of water. The funeral shirts made of it for kings preserve the ashes of the body separate from those of the rest of the pile. It is produced in deserts and in tracts scorched by the Indian sun, where there are no showers, and among dire serpents, and thus it is inured to live even when it is burnt. It is rare, and woven with difficulty on account of the shortness of its fibres. That variety which is of a red color becomes resplendent in the fire. When it has been found it equals the prices of excellent pearls. It is called by the Greeks Asbestine Flax, on account of its nature. Anaxilaus relates, that if a tree surrounded with cloth made of it be beaten, the strokes are not heard. On account of these properties this flax is the first in the world. The next in value is that made of byssus, which is produced about Elis in Achaia, and used principally for fine female ornaments. I find that a scruple of this flax, as also of gold, was formerly sold for four denarii. The nap of linen cloths, obtained chiefly from the sails of ships, is of great use in surgery, and their ashes have the same effect as spodium. There is a certain kind of poppy the use of which imparts the highest degree of whiteness to linen cloths."—Pliny, Lib. xix. ch. 4.

Besides the manufacture of napkins, this description exactly agrees with the accounts of Strabo, Sotacus, Dioscorides, and