Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/86

 When St. Basil says of the new-born moth, that "it assumes light and expanded wings," the beauty of the comparison in illustrating the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is enhanced, when we consider that in its wild state the moth flies very well, although, when domesticated, its flight is weak and its wings small and shrivelled : but still more beautiful does the figure become, if we suppose a reference to those larger and more splendid Phalænæ which produce the coarser kinds of silk in India, and probably in China also.

Basil is the first writer, who distinctly mentions the change of the silk-worm from a Chrysalis to a moth. In his application of that fact he addresses himself to his countrywomen in Asia Minor, and his language represents them sitting and winding on bobbins the raw silk obtained from the Seres and designed to be afterwards woven into cloth.

Between these two authors, Aristotle and Basil, we observe a difference of phraseology which appears deserving of notice. While they both describe the women, not as spinning the silk, but as winding it on bobbins, they designate the material so wound by two different names. Basil uses the term [Greek: nêmata], which might be meant to imply that the silk came from the Seres in skeins as it comes to us from China: Aristotle, on the contrary, uses the term [Greek: bombykia], which can only refer to the state of silk before it is wound into skeins. As it might appear impossible to convey it in this state to Cos, we shall here insert from the authorities already quoted, the Chinese Missionaries, an account of the process by which the cocoons are prepared for winding, and it will then be seen, that the cocoons might have been transported to any part of the world.

"To prepare the cocoons of the wild silk-worms, the Chinese cut the extremities of them with a pair of scissors. They are then put into a canvass bag, and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling lye, which dissolves the gum. When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle;