Whether Silk is mentioned in the Old Testament—Earliest Clothing—Coats of Skin, Tunic, Simla—Progress of Invention Chinese chronology relative to the Culture of Silk—Exaggerated statements—Opinions of Mailla, Le Sage, M. Lavoisnè, Rev. J. Robinson, Dr. A. Clarke, Rev. W. Hales, D.D., Mairan, Bailly, Guignes, and Sir William Jones—Noah supposed to be the first emperor of China—Extracts from Chinese publications—Silk Manufactures of the island of Cos—Described by Aristotle—Testimony of Varro—Spinning and Weaving in Egypt—Great ingenuity of Bezaleel and Aholiab in the production of Figured Textures for the Jewish Tabernacle—Skill of the Sidonian women in the Manufacture of Ornamental Textures—Testimony of Homer—Great antiquity of the Distaff and Spindle—The prophet Ezekiel's account of the Broidered Stuffs, etc. of the Egyptians—Beautiful eulogy on an industrious woman—Helen the Spartan, her superior skill in the art of Embroidery—Golden Distaff presented her by the Egyptian queen Alcandra—Spinning a domestic occupation in Miletus—Theocritus's complimentary verses to Theuginis on her industry and virtue—Taste of the Roman and Grecian ladies in the decoration of their Spinning Implements—Ovid's testimony to the skill of Arachne in Spinning and Weaving—Method of Spinning with the Distaff—Described by Homer and Catullus—Use of Silk in Arabia 500 years after the flood—Forster's testimony.
The miser's heaps of gold, the figur'd vest,
The gem, the silk-worm, and the purple dye,
By toil acquir'd, promote no other end.—Peristeph. Hymn. x.
Whether silk is ever mentioned in the Old Testament
cannot perhaps be determined.
In Ezek. xvi. 10 and 13, "silk" is used in the common English bible for משי, which occurs no where except here, but which, as appears from the context, certainly meant some
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