Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/93

 bearing the name of St. Ambrose and entitled. It contains nearly the same matter with the preceding. The writer professes to have obtained his information from "Musæus Dolenorum Episcopus," meaning, as it appears from the Greek tract, Moses, Bishop of Adule, of whom he says,

Sericam ferè universam regionem peragravit: in quâ refert arbores esse, quæ non solum folia, sed lanam quoque proferunt tenuissimam, ex quâ vestimenta con ficiuntur, quæ Serica nuncupantur. p. 58.

He travelled through nearly all the country of the Seres, in which, he says, that there are trees producing not only leaves, but the finest wool, from which are made the garments called Serica.

These notices are not devoid of value as indicating what were the first steps to intercourse with the original silk country. It may however be doubted, whether the last account here quoted is a modification of the ideas previously current among the Greeks and Romans, or whether it arose from the mistakes of Moses himself, or of other Christian travellers into the interior of Asia, who confounded the production of silk with that of cotton.

THE THEODOSIAN CODE,

published A. D. 438, mentions silk (sericam et metaxam) in various passages.

APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS, CL., A. D. 472.

Describing the products of different countries, this learned author says (Carmen. v. l. 42-50),

Fert Assyrius gemmas, Ser vellera, thura Sabæus.

Th' Assyrian brings his gems, the Ser His fleeces, the Sabean frankincense.

In a passage (Carmen. xv.), he mentions a pall,

Cujus bis coctus aheno Serica Sidonius fucabat stamina murex.

The Tyrian murex, twice i' th' cauldron boil'd, Had dyed its silken threads.

The expression here used, indicates that the silk thread was