leaves of other plants, and a law was enacted, that no worms were to be destroyed or sacrificed until their quantity was sufficiently great. The monastery was founded to commemorate so great a benefit, and some trunks of the original mulberry-trees can yet be seen there[1]."
In the following passage (Règne Animal, par Cuvier, tom. v. p. 402.,) Latreille mentions Turfan as an important city as far as it affected the early silk-trade. In other respects his account coincides with that already given.
"La ville de Turfan, dans la petite Bucharie, fut long-temps le rendez-vous
des caravanes venant de l'Ouest, et l'entrepôt principal des soieries de la Chine.
Elle était la métropole des Sères de l'Asie supérieure, ou de la Sérique de Ptolémée.
Expulsés de leurs pays par les Huns, les Sères s'etablirent dans le grande
Bucharie et dans l'Inde. C'est d'une de leurs colonies, du Ser-hend (Ser-indi),
que des missionaires Grècs transportèrent, du temps de Justinien, les œufs du ver
à soie à Constantinople."
The City of Turfan in Little Bucharia was for a long time the rendezvous of the caravans coming from the West, and the principal market for Chinese silks. It was the metropolis of the Seres of Upper Asia, or the Serica of Ptolemy. The Seres having been expelled their country by the Huns, established themselves in Great Bucharia and in India. It is from one of their colonies (of Ser-indi), that the Grecian Missionaries, in the time of Justinian, brought the eggs of the silk-worm to Constantinople.
A diploma of Ethelbert, King of Kent, mentions "Armilausia
holoserica," proving that silk was known in England
at the end of the sixth century[2]. The usual dress of the
earliest French kings seems to have been a linen shirt and
drawers of the same material next to the skin; over these a
tunic, probably of fine wool, which had a border of silk, ornamented
sometimes with gold or precious stones; and upon this
a sagum, which was fastened with a fibula on the right shoulder.
Eginhart informs us, that Charlemange wore a tunic, or
vest, with a silken border (limbo serico)[3].*
- ↑ It may be observed, that the folds of the turban are not unfrequently used in the East to convey articles of value. See Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, by Charles Fellows, London, 1839, p. 216.
- ↑ Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 24. Adelung's Glossarium Manuale, v. Armilausia.
- ↑ Examples of it may be seen, I. in the two figures of Charlemagne, executed in mosaic during his life-time, one of which is preserved in the Penitentiary of St.
