Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/447



APPENDIX A.

ON PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.

Sheep and wool—Price of wool in Pliny's time—Varieties of wool and where produced—Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets—Woollen cloth of Egypt—Embroidery—Felting—Manner of cleansing—Distaff of Tanaquil—Varro—Tunic—Toga—Undulate or waved cloth—Nature of this fabric—Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)—Cloth of gold—Figured cloths of Babylon—Damask first woven at Alexandria—Plaided textures first woven in Gaul—$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet—Dyeing of wool in the fleece—Observations on sheep and goats—Dioscurias a city of the Colchians—Manner of transacting business.

LIB. VIII. c. 47s. 72. 50s. 76.

"We are also much indebted to sheep both in sacrifices to propitiate the gods, and in the use of their fleeces. As oxen produce by cultivation the food of men, so we owe to sheep the protection of our bodies There are two principal kinds of sheep, the covered and the common. The former is softer, the latter more delicate in feeding, inasmuch as the covered feeds on brambles. Its coverings are chiefly of Arabic materials.

"The most approved wool is the Apulian, and that which is called the wool of Greek sheep in Italy, and the Italic wool in other places. The third kind in value is that obtained from Milesian sheep. The Apulian wools have a short staple, and are only celebrated for making pænulas. They attain the highest degree of excellence about Tarentum and Canusium. In Asia wools of the same kind are obtained at Laodicea. No white wool is preferred to those which are produced about the Po, nor has a pound ever yet exceeded a hundred sesterces (about $3,60.). Sheep are not shorn everywhere: in certain places the practice of pulling off the wool continues. There are various colors of wool, so that we want terms to denote all. Spain produces some of those varieties which we call native; Pollentia, near the Alps, furnishes the chief kinds of black wool; Asia