the smallest shred of silk has hitherto been found in the tombs, or amid the ruins of the Pharaonic period.
No where does Holy Writ, old or new, tell anything of silk but in
one single place, the Apocalypse, xviii. 12. True it is that, in the
English authorized version, we read of "silk" as if spoken of by Ezekiel,
xvi. 10, 13; and again, in Proverbs, xxxi. 22; yet there can be
no doubt, but that in both these passages, the word silk is wrong through
the translators misunderstanding the original Hebrew (
Hebrew characters) (meschi). Of
this word, Parkhurst says: "As a noun, (Hebrew characters), according to our translation
(is) silk, but not so rendered in any of the ancient versions. Silk would
indeed well enough answer the ideal meaning of the Hebrew word,
from its being drawn forth from the bowels of the silk-worm, and that to
a degree of fineness, so as to form very slender threads. But I meet
with no evidence that the Israelites in very early times (and to these
Ezekiel refers) had any knowledge of silk, much less of the manner in
which it was formed; (Hebrew characters), therefore, I think, means some kind of fine linen or cotton cloth, so denominated from the fineness with which the
threads whereof it consisted were drawn out. The Vulgate, by rendering
it in the former passage, 'subtilibus' fine, as opposed to coarse, has
nearly preserved the true idea of the Hebrew."[1] Braunius, too, no mean
authority, after bestowing a great deal of study on the matter, gives it
as his well-weighed judgment that, throughout the whole Hebrew Bible,
no mention whatever can be found of silk, which was a material utterly
unknown to the children of Israel.[2] Once only is silk spoken of in the
New Testament, and then while St. John[3] is reckoning it up along with
the gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen—byssus—and
purple which, with many other costly freights merchants were
wont to bring in ships to that mighty city which, in the Apostle's days,
ruled over the kings of the earth.
Long after the days of Ezekiel was it that silk, in its raw form only, made up into hanks, first found its way to Egypt, western Asia, and eastern Europe.
To Aristotle do we owe the earliest notice, among the ancients, of the silk-worm, and although his account be incorrect, it has much value, since, along with his description, the celebrated Greek philosopher gives us information about the original importation of raw silk into the western world. Brought from China, through India, till it reached the Indus, the silk came by water across the Arabian Ocean, up the Red Sea, and
