JUVENAL
speaks of women,
Quarum
Delicias et panniculus bombycinus urit. Sat. vi. 259.
Whose beauty e'en a silken veil o'erheats.
MARTIAL.
Nec vaga tam tenui discursat aranea tela,
Tam leve nec bombyx pendulus urget opus. L. viii. 33
The spider traces not so thin a line,
Nor does the pendent silk-worm spin so fine.
Fœmineum lucet sic per bombycina corpus,
Calculus in nitida sic numeratur aqua. L. viii. 68.
Thus through her silk a lady's body looks,
Thus count we pebbles in the sparkling brooks.
De Pallatinis dominæ quod Serica prelis.
L. xi. 9.
Here Martial alludes to the employment of presses (prela) for preserving the garments of silk and other precious materials, belonging to the Empress, in the same way, in which we now use presses to keep table-linen. He says to a lady (L. ix. 38.),
Nec dentes aliter, quam Serica, nocte reponas.
Your teeth at night, like silks, you lay aside.
In another passage (L. xi. 27.) he speaks of silken goods (Serica) as procurable in the Vicus Tuscus at Rome: and lastly in L. xiv. Ep. 24, he mentions ribbons or fillets of silk as used for adorning the hair.
Tenuia ne madidi violent bombycina crines,
Figat acus tortas, sustineatque comas.
Lest your moist hair defile the ribbons thin,
Twist it in knots, and fix it with a pin.
PAUSANIAS,
a native of Asia Minor, and an inquisitive traveller in the second century, gives the following distinct account of Sericum according to the ideas received among the Greeks in his time.
The threads from which the Seres make webs, are not the produce of bark, but
are obtained in the following manner. There is an animal in that country, which
