Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/448

 and Bætica those ruddy varieties called Erythrean; Canusium a sandy-colored wool; and Tarentum one of a dark shade peculiar to that locality. New-shorn greasy wools have all a medicinal virtue. The wool of Istria and Liburnia being more like hair than wool, is unsuitable for making the cloths which have a long nap. This is also the case with the wool of Salacia in Lusitania; but the cloth made from it is recommended by its plaided pattern. A similar kind is produced about Piscenæ (i. e. Pezenas), in the province of Narbonne, and likewise in Egypt, the woollen cloth of which country, having been worn by use, is embroidered and lasts some time longer. The ''coarse wool with a thick staple was used in very ancient times for carpets'': at least Homer (900 B. C.) speaks of the use of it. ''The Gauls have one method of embroidering these carpets, and the Parthians another. Portions of wool also make cloth by being forced together by themselves''. With the addition of vinegar these also resist iron, nay even fires, which are the last expedient for purging them; for, having been taken out of the caldrons of the polishers, they are sold for the stuffing of beds, an invention made, I believe, in Gaul, certainly in the present day distinguished by Gallic names: for in what age it commenced I could not easily say, since the ancients used beds of straw, such as are now employed in camps. The cloths called gausapa began to be used within the memory of my father; those called amphimalla within my own, (See Part First, p. 30,) as well as the shaggy coverings for the stomach, called ventralia. For the tunic with the laticlave is now first beginning to be woven after the manner of the gausapa. The black wools are never dyed. Concerning the dyeing of the others we shall speak in their proper places, in treating of sea-shells or the nature of herbs.

"M. Varro says, that the wool continued to his time upon the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, also called Caia Cæcilia, in the temple of Sangus; and that there remained in the temple of Fortune a royal undulate toga made by her, which Servius Tullius had worn. Hence arose the practice of carrying a distaff with wool upon it, and a spindle with its thread, after virgins who were going to be married. She first wove the straight tunic, such as is worn by tiros together with the toga pura, and by newly-married women. The undulate or waved cloth was originally one of the most admired; from it was derived the soriculate . Fenestrella writes, that scraped and Phryxian togas came into favor about the end of the, denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters.—See Fellows's Discoveries in Lycia.]