CHAPTER III.

ASBESTOS.

Uses of Asbestos--Carpasian flax--Still found in Cyprus--Used in funerals--Asbestine-cloth--How manufactured--Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks--Relic at Monte Casino 390

APPENDICES.

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 401

APPENDIX B.

ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER.

THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN--COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABIANS, A. D. 704.

Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany--Schönemann to Italy--Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern--Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A. D. 1200--Testimony of Abdollatiph--Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century--Cotton paper--The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom--Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturer’s--Clugny’s testimony--Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100--Ancient water-marks on linen paper--Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain. (The Wasp a paper-maker--Manufacture of paper from shavings of wood, and from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn.) 404

APPENDIX C.

ON FELT.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS.

Felting more ancient than weaving--Felt used in the East--Use of it by the Tartars--Felt made of goats’-hair by the Circassians--Use of felt in Italy and Greece--Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c.--Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap--Desultores--Vulcan--Ulysses--Phrygian bonnet--Cap worn by the Asiatics--Phrygian felt of Camels’-hair--Its great stiffness--Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators--Mode of manufacturing--Felt Northern nations of Europe--Cap of liberty--Petasus--Statue of Endymion--Petasus in works of ancient art--Hats of Thessaly and Macedonia--Laconian or Arcadian hats--The Greeks manufacture Felt 900 B. C.--Mercury with the pileus and petasus--Miscellaneous uses of Felt 414

APPENDIX D.

ON NETTING.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom--General terms for nets--Nets used for catching birds--Mode of snaring--Hunting-nets--Method of hunting--Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes--Manner of fixing them--Purse-net or tunnel-net--Homer’s testimony--Nets used by the Persians in lion-hunting--Hunting with nets practised by the ancient Egyptians--Method of hunting--Depth of nets for this purpose--Description of the purse-net--Road-net--Hallier--Dyed feathers used to scare the prey--Casting-net--Manner of throwing by the Arabs--Cyrus king of Persia--His fable of the piper and the fishes--Fishing-nets--Casting-net used by the Apostles--Landing-net (Scap-net)--The Sean--Its length and depth--Modern use of the Sean--Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians and ancient Egyptians--Corks and leads--Figurative application of the Sean--Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the Persians--Nets used in India to catch tortoises--Bag-nets and small purse-nets--Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian prætor 436

LIST OF PLATES.

I. Frontispiece--Chinese Looms. _to face page_

II. Egyptian Looms, with the Processes of Spinning and Winding, 93

III. Silk Worm, Cocoons, Chrysalis, Moths, and Pinna 118

IV. Spiders, with the Processes of Spinning and Weaving 172

V. Indian Loom, with the Process of Winding off the Thread 315

VI. Egyptian Flax-gathering. Magnified Fibres of Flax and Cotton 359

VII. Map, showing the Divisions of the Ancient World, coloured according to the Raw Materials principally produced in them for Weaving 400

VIII. Caps worn by Cynic Philosopher, Vulcan, Dædalus, Ulysses, and a Desultor. Caps worn by Modern Greek Boy and Fisherman. Mysian Cap or Phrygian Bonnet. Coins in the British Museum 415

IX. Statue of Endymion. Hats worn by Shepherds and Athenian Ephebi. Coins in the British Museum 434

X. Hunting-scenes in bas-reliefs at Ince-Blundell. Egyptians with the Drag-Net 464

PART FIRST.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF SILK.