{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_43343/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_43343","id":"gutenberg_43343","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43343","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: History - Medieval/Middle Ages","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Cotton -- History","Plants -- Folklore"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\nItalic texts in the original work have been transcribed as _text_. Small\ncapitals in the original work have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.\n\nDepending on the hard- and software used and their settings, not all\ncharacters and symbols may display as intended.\n\nMore Transcriber\u2019s Notes may be found at the end of this text.\n\n\n[Illustration: Planta Tartarica Boromez.\n\nTHE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cTARTARIAN LAMB.\u201d\n\n_After Joannes Zahn._]\n\n\n\n\n  THE VEGETABLE LAMB\n  OF\n  TARTARY;\n\n  _A Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant._\n\n  TO WHICH IS ADDED\n  A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF COTTON AND\n  THE COTTON TRADE.\n\n  BY\n\n  HENRY LEE, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.,\n  SOMETIME NATURALIST OF THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM,\n  AND\n  AUTHOR OF \u2018THE OCTOPUS, OR THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND OF FACT,\u2019\n  \u2018SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED,\u2019 \u2018SEA FABLES EXPLAINED,\u2019 ETC.\n\n  ILLUSTRATED.\n\n  LONDON:\n  SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,\n  CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.\n  1887.\n\n  _All Rights reserved._\n\n\n\n\n  LONDON:\n  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,\n  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  THE FABLE AND ITS INTERPRETATION                                     1\n\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  THE HISTORY OF COTTON AND ITS INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE              63\n\n\n  APPENDIX                                                            97\n\n  INDEX                                                              107\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n  FIG.                                                              PAGE\n\n  THE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cTARTARIAN LAMB.\u201d--_After Joannes Zahn_\n                                                          _Frontispiece_\n\n  1.--THE VEGETABLE LAMB PLANT.--_After Sir John Mandeville_           3\n\n  2.--PORTRAIT OF THE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cSCYTHIAN LAMB.\u201d--_After Claude\n  Duret_                                                               9\n\n  3.--ADAM AND EVE ADMIRING THE PLANTS IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN. THE\n  \u201cVEGETABLE LAMB\u201d IN THE BACKGROUND.--_Fac-simile of the\n  Frontispiece of Parkinson\u2019s \u201cParadisus\u201d_                            19\n\n  4.--RHIZOME OF A FERN, SHAPED BY THE CHINESE TO REPRESENT A TAN-\n  COLOURED DOG, AND LAID BEFORE THE ROYAL SOCIETY BY SIR HANS SLOANE\n  AS A SPECIMEN OF THE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cTARTARIAN LAMB.\u201d--_From the\n  \u2018Philosophical Transactions,\u2019 vol. xx., p. 861_                     25\n\n  5.--ROUGH MODEL OF A TAN-COLOURED DOG, SHAPED BY THE CHINESE FROM\n  THE RHIZOME OF A FERN, AND SUBMITTED TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY BY DR.\n  BREYN AS A SPECIMEN OF THE \u201cSCYTHIAN VEGETABLE LAMB,\u201d OR\n  BORAMETZ.--_From the \u2018Philosophical Transactions,\u2019 No. 390_         31\n\n  6.--THE \u201cBORAMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cSCYTHIAN LAMB.\u201d--_From De la Croix\u2019s\n  \u2018Connubia Florum\u2019_                                                  37\n\n  7.--A COTTON-POD                                                    61\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe fable of the existence of a mysterious \u201cplant-animal\u201d variously\nentitled \u201c_The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary_,\u201d \u201c_The Scythian Lamb_,\u201d and\n\u201c_The Barometz_,\u201d or \u201c_Borametz_,\u201d is one of the curious myths of the\nMiddle Ages with which I have been long acquainted. Until the year 1883,\nnot having given serious thought to it, or made it a subject of critical\nexamination, I had been content to accept as correct the explanation of\nit now universally adopted; namely, that it originated from certain\nlittle lamb-like toy figures ingeniously constructed by the Chinese from\nthe rhizome and frond-stems of a tree-fern, which, from its\nidentification with the object of the fable, has received the name of\n_Dicksonia Barometz_. But during my researches in the works of ancient\nwriters when preparing the manuscript of my two books, \u2018_Sea Monsters\nUnmasked_,\u2019 and \u2018_Sea Fables Explained_,\u2019 I came upon passages of old\nauthors which convinced me that these toy \u201clambs\u201d made from ferns by the\nChinese had no more connexion with the story of \u201c_The Vegetable Lamb_\u201d\nthan the artificial mermaids so cleverly constructed by the Japanese\nwere the cause and origin of the ancient and world-wide belief in\nmermaids. Subsequent investigations have confirmed this opinion.\n\nI have found that all of these old myths which I have been able to trace\nto their source have originated in a perfectly true statement of some\ncurious and interesting fact; which statement has been so garbled and\ndistorted, so misrepresented and perverted in repetition by numerous\nwriters, that in the course of centuries its original meaning has been\nlost, and a monstrous fiction has been substituted for it. \u201cTruth lies\nat the bottom of a well,\u201d says the adage; and in searching for the\norigin of these old myths and legends, the deeper we can dive down into\nthe past the greater is the probability of our discovering the truth\nconcerning them. To obtain a clue to the identity of \u201c_The Scythian\nLamb_\u201d we must consult the pages of historians and philosophers who\nlived and wrote from eighteen to sixteen centuries before Sir John\nMandeville published his version of the story; and, having there found\nset before us the real \u201c_Vegetable Lamb_\u201d in all its truthful simplicity\nand beauty, we shall be able to recognise its form and features under\nthe various disguises it was made to assume by the wonder-mongers of the\nMiddle Ages.\n\nI venture to believe that the reader who will kindly follow my argument\n(p. 42, _et seq._) will agree with me that the rumour which spread from\nWestern Asia all over Europe, and was a subject of discussion by learned\nmen during many centuries, of the existence of \u201ca tree bearing fruit, or\nseed-pods, which when they ripened and burst open were seen to contain\nlittle lambs, of whose soft white fleeces Eastern people wove material\nfor their clothing,\u201d was a plant of far higher importance to mankind\nthan the paltry toy animals made by the Chinese from the root of a fern,\nof which gew-gaws only four specimens are known to have been brought to\nthis country. It seems to me clear and indisputable that the rumour\nreferred to the cotton-pod, and originated in the first introduction of\ncotton and the fabrics woven from it into Eastern Europe.\n\nIt will be seen that the explanation of the process by which the\ntruthful report of a remarkable fact was in time perverted into the\ndetailed history of an absurd fiction is very easy and intelligible.\n\nAs this little book was originally intended for publication, like its\npredecessors before-mentioned, as a hand-book in connection with the\nLiterary Department of the South Kensington Exhibitions, I have treated\nin a separate chapter of the history of cotton, its use by ancient races\nin Asia, Africa, and America, and its gradual introduction amongst the\nnations of Europe. The various stages of its progress Westward were so\ndistinctly and intimately dependent on many remarkable events in the\nworld\u2019s history, by which its advance was alternately retarded and\nfacilitated, that the annals of the \u201c_vegetable wool_\u201d which holds so\nimportant a place amongst the manufacturing industries of Great Britain\nare hardly less romantic than the fable of \u201c_The Vegetable Lamb_,\u201d which\nwas its forerunner.\n\n  HENRY LEE.\n\n  SAVAGE CLUB.\n\n  _May, 1887._\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  VEGETABLE LAMB OF TARTARY\n\n  A CURIOUS FABLE OF THE\n  COTTON PLANT.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE FABLE AND ITS INTERPRETATION.\n\n\nAmongst the curious myths of the Middle Ages none were more extravagant\nand persistent than that of the \u201cVegetable Lamb of Tartary,\u201d known also\nas the \u201cScythian Lamb,\u201d and the \u201cBorametz,\u201d or \u201cBarometz,\u201d the latter\ntitle being derived from a Tartar word signifying \u201ca lamb.\u201d This \u201clamb\u201d\nwas described as being at the same time both a true animal and a living\nplant. According to some writers this composite \u201cplant-animal\u201d was the\nfruit of a tree which sprang from a seed like that of a melon, or gourd;\nand when the fruit or seed-pod of this tree was fully ripe it burst open\nand disclosed to view within it a little lamb, perfect in form, and in\nevery way resembling an ordinary lamb naturally born. This remarkable\ntree was supposed to grow in the territory of \u201cthe Tartars of the East,\u201d\nformerly called \u201cScythia\u201d; and it was said that from the fleeces of\nthese \u201ctree-lambs,\u201d which were of surpassing whiteness, the natives of\nthe country where they were found wove materials for their garments and\n\u201chead-dress.\u201d In the course of time another version of the story was\ncirculated, in which the lamb was not described as being the fruit of a\ntree, but as being a living lamb attached by its navel to a short stem\nrooted in the earth. The stem, or stalk, on which the lamb was thus\nsuspended above the ground was sufficiently flexible to allow the animal\nto bend downward, and browze on the herbage within its reach. When all\nthe grass within the length of its tether had been consumed the stem\nwithered and the lamb died. This plant-lamb was reported to have bones,\nblood, and delicate flesh, and to be a favourite food of wolves, though\nno other carnivorous animal would attack it. Many other details were\ngiven concerning it, which will be found mentioned in the following\npages. This legend met with almost universal credence from the\nthirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, and, even then, only gave place\nto an explanation of it as absurd and delusive as itself. Following the\noutline sketched in the preface, I shall, in this chapter, lay before\nthe reader the story of the \u201cBarometz\u201d or \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d as related\nby various writers, and shall then give my reasons for assigning to the\nfable an interpretation very different from that which has been hitherto\naccepted as the true one.\n\nThe story of a wonderful plant which bore living lambs for its fruit,\nand grew in Tartary, seems to have been first brought into public notice\nin England in the reign of Edward III., by Sir John Mandeville, the\n\u201cKnyght of Ingelond that was y bore in the toun of Seynt Albans, and\ntravelide aboute in the worlde in many diverse countreis, to se\nmervailes and customes of countreis, and diversiteis of folkys, and\ndiverse shap of men and of beistis.\u201d In the 26th chapter of the book in\nwhich he \u201cwrot and telleth all the mervaile that he say,\u201d and which he\ndedicated to the King, he treats of \u201cthe Countreis and Yles that ben\nbe\u021dond the Lond of Cathay, and of the Frutes there\u201d; and amongst the\ncuriosities he met with in the dominions of the \u201cCham\u201d of Tartary he\nmentions the following:--\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE VEGETABLE LAMB PLANT.\n\n_After Sir John Mandeville._\n\nThis plate illustrates that version of the Fable by which the \u201cVegetable\nLamb\u201d is represented as contained within a fruit, or seed-pod, which,\nwhen ripe, bursts open, and discloses the little lamb within it.]\n\n\u201cNow schalle I seye \u021dou semyngly of Countrees and Yles that ben be\u021donde\nthe Countrees that I have spoken of. Wherefore I seye you in passynge be\nthe Lond of Cathaye toward the high Ynde, and towards Bacharye, men\npassen be a Kyngdom that men clepen Caldilhe: that is a fair Contree.\nAnd there growethe a maner of Fruyt, as though it weren Gowrdes: and\nwhan thei ben rype men kutten hem ato, and men fynden with inne a\nlytylle Best, in Flesche, in Bon and Blode, as though it were a lytylle\nLomb with outen Wolle. And Men eten both the Frut and the Best; and that\nis a great Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eaten; alle thoughe it were\nwondirfulle, but that I knowe wel that God is marveyllous in his\nWerkes.\u201d[1]\n\n  [1] \u2018The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, Knt.\u2019 See\n  Appendix A.\n\nSir John Mandeville appears to have never previously heard of this\nstrange plant, but reports of its existence under various phases may be\ntraced back, as we shall presently see, to a date at least eighteen\nhundred years earlier than that of his mention of it. As it is in the\nworks of these older writers that we shall find the long-sought key of\nthe mystery, we will set them aside for the present and follow the\ngrowth and dissemination of the fable.\n\nClaude Duret, of Moulins, who, in his \u2018_Histoire Admirable des Plantes_\n(1605),\u2019 devotes to it a chapter entitled \u201cThe Boramets of Scythia, or\nTartary, true Zoophytes or plant-animals; that is to say, plants living\nand sensitive like animals,\u201d therein says:--\n\n\u201cI remember to have read some time ago in a very ancient Hebrew book\nentitled in Latin the _Talmud Ierosolimitanum_, and written by a Jewish\nRabbi Jochanan, assisted by others, in the year of salvation 436, that a\ncertain personage named Moses Chusensis (he being a native of Ethiopia)\naffirmed, on the authority of Rabbi Simeon, that there was a certain\ncountry of the earth which bore a zoophyte, or plant-animal, called in\nthe Hebrew \u2018_Jeduah_.\u2019 It was in form like a lamb, and from its navel\ngrew a stem or root by which this zoophyte or plant-animal was fixed,\nattached, like a gourd, to the soil below the surface of the ground,\nand, according to the length of its stem or root, it devoured all the\nherbage which it was able to reach within the circle of its tether. The\nhunters who went in search of this creature were unable to capture or\nremove it until they had succeeded in cutting the stem by well-aimed\narrows or darts, when the animal immediately fell prostrate to the earth\nand died. Its bones being placed with certain ceremonies and\nincantations in the mouth of one desiring to foretell the future, he was\ninstantly seized with a spirit of divination, and endowed with the gift\nof prophecy.\u201d\n\nAs I was unable to find in the Latin translation of the Talmud of\nJerusalem the passage mentioned by Claude Duret, and was anxious to\nascertain whether any reference to this curious legend existed in the\nTalmudical books, I sought the assistance of learned members of the\nJewish community, and, amongst them, of the Rev. Dr. Hermann Adler,\nChief Rabbi Delegate of the United Congregations of the British Empire.\nHe most kindly interested himself in the matter, and wrote to me as\nfollows:--\n\n\u201cIt affords me much gratification to give you the information you\ndesire on the Borametz. In the Mishna _Kilaim_, chap. viii. \u00a7 5 (a\nportion of the Talmud), the passage occurs:--\u2018Creatures called _Adne\nHasadeh_ (literally, \u201clords of the field\u201d) are regarded as beasts.\u2019\nThere is a variant reading,--_Abne Hasadeh_ (stones of the field). A\ncommentator, Rabbi Simeon, of Sens (died about 1235), writes as follows\non this passage:--\u2018It is stated in the Jerusalem Talmud that this is a\nhuman being of the mountains: it lives by means of its navel: if its\nnavel be cut it cannot live. I have heard in the name of Rabbi Meir, the\nson of Kallonymos of Speyer, that this is the animal called \u2018_Jeduah_.\u2019\nThis is the \u2018_Jedoui_\u2019 mentioned in Scripture (lit. _wizard_, Leviticus\nxix. 31); with its bones witchcraft is practised. A kind of large stem\nissues from a root in the earth on which this animal, called \u2018_Jadua_,\u2019\ngrows, just as gourds and melons. Only the \u2018_Jadua_\u2019 has, in all\nrespects, a human shape, in face, body, hands, and feet. By its navel it\nis joined to the stem that issues from the root. No creature can\napproach within the tether of the stem, for it seizes and kills them.\nWithin the tether of the stem it devours the herbage all around. When\nthey want to capture it no man dares approach it, but they tear at the\nstem until it is ruptured, whereupon the animal dies.\u2019 Another\ncommentator, Rabbi Obadja of Berbinoro, gives the same explanation, only\nsubstituting--\u2019They aim arrows at the stem until it is ruptured,\u2019 &c.\nThe author of an ancient Hebrew work, Maase Tobia (Venice, 1705), gives\nan interesting description of this animal. In Part IV. c. 10, page 786,\nhe mentions the Borametz found in Great Tartary. He repeats the\ndescription of Rabbi Simeon, and adds what he has found in \u2018A New Work\non Geography,\u2019 namely, that \u2018the Africans (_sic_) in Great Tartary, in\nthe province of Sambulala, are enriched by means of seeds like the seeds\nof gourds, only shorter in size, which grow and blossom like a stem to\nthe navel of an animal which is called _Borametz_ in their language,\ni.e. \u2018_lamb_,\u2019 on account of its resembling a lamb in all its limbs,\nfrom head to foot; its hoofs are cloven, its skin is soft, its wool is\nadapted for clothing, but it has no horns, only the hairs of its head,\nwhich grow, and are intertwined like horns. Its height is half a cubit\nand more. According to those who speak of this wondrous thing, its taste\nis like the flesh of fish, its blood as sweet as honey, and it lives as\nlong as there is herbage within reach of the stem, from which it derives\nits life. If the herbage is destroyed or perishes, the animal also dies\naway. It has rest from all beasts and birds of prey, except the wolf,\nwhich seeks to destroy it.\u2019 The author concludes by expressing his\nbelief, that this account of the animal having the shape of a lamb is\nmore likely to be true than that it is of human form.\u201d\n\nWe have an interesting record of another journey into Tartary,\nundertaken almost simultaneously with that of Sir John Mandeville, by\nOdoricus of Friuli, a Minorite friar belonging to the monastery of\nUtina, near Padua. The exact date of his departure on his travels is not\nmentioned, but he returned home in 1330, and the history of his\nadventures and observations[2] was written in the month of May of that\nyear--thus taking precedence by about thirty years of the narrative of\nthe old English traveller.\n\n  [2] \u2018The Journall of Frier Odoricus of Friuli, one of the order of the\n  Minorites, concerning strange things which he saw amongst the Tartars\n  of the East.\u2019--\u2018Hakluyt Collection of Early Voyages,\u2019 vol. ii. 1809.\n  See Appendix B.\n\nOdoricus, describing his visit to the country of the \u201cGrand Can,\u201d\nsays:--\u201cI heard of another wonder from persons worthy of credit; namely,\nthat in a province of the said Can, in which is the mountain of\nCapsius[3] (the province is called \u2018Kalor\u2019), there grow gourds, which,\nwhen they are ripe, open, and within them is found a little beast like\nunto a young lamb, even as I myself have heard reported that there stand\ncertain trees upon the shore of the Irish Sea bearing fruits like unto a\ngourd, which at a certain time of the year do fall into the water and\nbecome birds called Bernacles; and this is true.\u201d\n\n  [3] Probably an error of transcription for \u201cCaspius.\u201d The mountain of\n  Caspius (now Kasbin) is about eighty miles due south of the Caspian\n  Sea, and in Persian territory, near Teheran.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 2.--PORTRAIT OF THE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cSCYTHIAN LAMB.\u201d\n\n_After Claude Duret._]\n\nIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d was made\na subject of investigation and argument by some of the most celebrated\nwriters of that period.\n\nFortunio Liceti, Professor of Philosophy at Padua, writing in 1518,[4]\ngives his complete credence to the story of the little beast like a lamb\nfound within a fruit-pod when it bursts from over-ripeness; and besides\nthe above passage from Odoricus quotes another, by which it would appear\nthat the worthy friar afterwards himself saw this botanical curiosity,\nand described it as being \u201cas white as snow.\u201d I have been unable to find\nthis paragraph in the Hakluyt edition of Odoricus\u2019s travels.\n\n  [4] \u2018_De Spontaneo Viventium Ortu_,\u2019 lib. 3, cap. 45.\n\nJuan Eusebio Nieremberg, however, in his \u2018_Historia Natur\u00e6_\u2019 (Antwerp,\n1605), also quotes these two passages, and in exactly the same words. He\nprobably copied them from Liceti, and not from the original.\n\nSigismund, Baron von Herberstein, who, in 1517 and 1526, was the\nambassador of the Emperors Maximilian I. and Charles V. to the \u201cGrand\nCzard, or Duke of Muscovy,\u201d in his \u2018Notes on Russia,\u2019[5] gives further\ndetails of this \u201cvegetable-animal.\u201d He writes:--\u201cIn the neighbourhood\nof the Caspian Sea, between the rivers Volga and Jaick, formerly dwelt\nthe kings of the Zavolha, certain Tartars, in whose country is found a\nwonderful and almost incredible curiosity, of which Demetrius\nDanielovich, a person in high authority, gave me the following account;\nnamely, that his father, who was once sent on an embassy by the Duke of\nMuscovy to the Tartar king of the country referred to, whilst he was\nthere, saw and remarked, amongst other things, a certain seed like that\nof a melon, but rather rounder and longer, from which, when it was set\nin the earth, grew a plant resembling a lamb, and attaining to a height\nof about two and a half feet, and which was called in the language of\nthe country \u2018Borametz,\u2019 or \u2018the little Lamb.\u2019 It had a head, eyes, ears,\nand all other parts of the body, as a newly-born lamb. He also stated\nthat it had an exceedingly soft wool, which was frequently used for the\nmanufacturing of head-coverings. Many persons also affirmed to me that\nthey had seen this wool. Further, he told me that this plant, if plant\nit should be called, had blood, but not true flesh: that, in place of\nflesh, it had a substance similar to the flesh of the crab, and that its\nhoofs were not horny, like those of a lamb, but of hairs brought\ntogether into the form of the divided hoof of a living lamb. It was\nrooted by the navel in the middle of the belly, and devoured the\nsurrounding herbage and grass, and lived as long as that lasted; but\nwhen there was no more within its reach the stem withered, and the lamb\ndied. It was of so excellent a flavour that it was the favourite food of\nwolves and other rapacious animals. For myself,\u201d adds the Baron,\n\u201calthough I had previously regarded these Borametz as fabulous, the\naccounts of it were confirmed to me by so many persons worthy of\ncredence that I have thought it right to describe it; and this with the\nless hesitation because I was told by Guillaume Postel,[6] a man of much\nlearning, that a person named Michel, interpreter of the Turkish and\nArabic languages to the Republic of Venice, assured him that he had seen\nbrought to Chalibontis (now Karaboghaz), on the south-eastern shore of\nthe Caspian Sea, from Samarcand and other districts lying towards the\nsouth, the very soft and delicate wool of a certain plant used by the\nMussulmans as padding for the small caps which they wear on their shaven\nheads, and also as a protection for their chests. He said, however, that\nhe had not seen the plant, nor knew its name, except that it was called\n\u2018Smarcandeos,\u2019 and was a zoophyte, or plant-animal. The numerous\ndescriptions given to him,\u201d he added, \u201cdiffered so little that he was\ninduced to believe that there was more truthfulness in this matter than\nhe had supposed, and to accept it as a fact redounding to the glory of\nthe Sovereign Creator, to whom all things are possible.\u201d\n\n  [5] \u2018_Rerum Muscoviticarum Commentarii_,\u2019 1549. See Appendix C.\n\n  [6] Author of \u2018_Liber de Causis, seu de Principiis et Originibus\n  Natur\u00e6_,\u2019 &c.\n\nShortly after the publication of the above narrative by Sigismund von\nHerberstein, and probably in allusion to it, Girolamo Cardano, of Pavia,\ncarefully discussed the phenomenon in question in his work \u2018_De Rerum\nNatur\u00e2_,\u2019[7] printed at N\u00fcrnberg in 1557. He endeavoured to expose the\nabsurdity of the statements made concerning this \u201canimal-plant,\u201d and\nexplained the physical impossibility of its existence in the manner\ndescribed. He argued that if it had blood it must have a heart, and that\nthe soil in which a plant grows is not fitted to supply a heart with\nmovement and vital heat. He also pointed out that embryo animals,\nespecially, require warmth for their development from the _ovum_, which\nthey could not obtain if raised from a seed planted in the earth,\ndemonstrating clearly enough that no warm-blooded animal could exist\nthus organically fastened to the earth. In reply, however, to a possible\nquestion suggested by himself, why there should be no plant-animal on\nland, seeing that there are zoophytes in the sea, he, with the weakness\nand indecision which were innate in his character, admitted that \u201cwhere\nthe atmosphere was thick and dense there might, perhaps, be a plant\nhaving sensation, and also imperfect flesh, such as that of mollusks and\nfishes.\u201d\n\n  [7] Lib. vi. cap. 22.\n\nThis weak point in his argument laid him open to the criticism of his\nrelentless enemy, Julius C\u00e6sar Scaliger. Always on the watch to wound\nand harass Cardano with cutting satire and irritating gibes, this\ncaustic persecutor lost no time in making his attack. In one of his\n\u201c_Exercitationes_\u201d[8] he thus personally addressed the object of his\nsneering disparagement:--\n\n  [8] \u2018_Exotericarum Exercitationum_,\u2019 lib. xv., \u201c_De Subtilitate_\u201d; _ad\n  Hieronymum Cardanum Exercit._ 181, cap. 29. Frankfort, 1557. See\n  Appendix D.\n\n\u201cYou may regard as beyond ridicule this wonderful Tartar plant. The most\nrenowned of the Tartar hordes of the present day, by its reputation, its\nantiquity, and its nobility, is that of the Zavolha. These people sow a\nseed like that of the melon, but rather smaller, from which springs and\ngrows out of the earth a plant which they call \u2018Borametz,\u2019 _i.e._ \u2018the\nLamb.\u2019 This plant grows to the height of three feet in the likeness of a\nreal lamb, having feet, hoofs, ears, and a head perfect with the\nexception of horns, instead of which the plant has hairs in the form of\nhorns. Its skin is soft and delicate, and is used in Tartary for\nhead-gear. The internal pulp is said to be like the flesh of the\ncray-fish, and to have an agreeable flavour; but if an incision be\nmade, real blood flows from it. The root or stalk which rises from the\nearth is attached to the navel of the lamb, and (which is more\nremarkable) whilst the plant is surrounded with herbage it lives as does\na lamb, but as soon as it has consumed all within its reach it withers\nand dies. This does not happen by the arrival of the plant at any\ndefinite period of its growth, for it has been found by experiment that\nif the grass around it be removed it perishes. Another most curious\ncircumstance connected with it is that wolves will eat it with avidity,\nthough no other carnivorous animals will attack it. This,\u201d says\nScaliger, still apostrophizing Cardano, \u201cis merely a little sauce and\nseasoning to your allusion to the fable of the Lamb; but I would like to\nknow from you how four distinct legs and their feet can be produced from\none stem.\u201d\n\nIt is very remarkable that this dissertation of Scaliger, which is\nreally a keen satire on Cardano, and a sarcastic repetition of his\nversion of the fable with ironical comments thereon, has been almost\ninvariably taken as serious, and regarded as an expression of his entire\nbelief in the \u201cScythian Lamb,\u201d as described. Of all subsequent writers\non the subject, Deusingius[9] seems to have been the only one who\nclearly perceived Scaliger\u2019s intention and meaning. Hence, many profound\nbelievers in the myth have claimed as their champion one who would have\nderided them for their credulity.\n\n  [9] Antonius Deusingius, Professor of Medicine, and Rector of the\n  University of Groningen, in his \u2018_Fasciculus Dissertationum\n  Selectorum_,\u2019 p. 598, printed in 1660, declares his own utter\n  disbelief in this animal-vegetable monstrosity, and after quoting\n  Scaliger, thus writes of him:--\u201d_H\u00e6c equidem Scaliger, qui tamen ne\n  serio historiam narrare credatur quam ipse revera pro fabulosa habet,\n  nequaquam vero approbat, ut perperam de eo refert Sennert._\u201d--_Hyp.\n  Physic._ 5, cap. 8.\n\nClaude Duret, for example, whose implicit faith in the marvellous\nzoophyte nothing could shake, quotes verbatim in its defence the remarks\nof \u201cle grand Jules C\u00e9sar Scaliger,\u201d and asks[10] triumphantly,--\n\n  [10] \u2018_Histoire admirable des Plantes_,\u2019 p. 322.\n\n\u201cWho cannot see plainly that Cardano, after having long doubted, and\nafter having adduced philosophical arguments drawn from the works of\nAristotle and other eminent writers, felt himself obliged and condemned\nto confess that in a place filled with heavy and dense air (such as is\nTartary) the Borametz--true plant-animals--might exist as described, as\nwell as sponges, \u2018sea-nettles,\u2019 and \u2018sea-lungs,\u2019 which every one knows\nare true zoophytes, or animal-plants.\u201d\n\nAfter this amusing assumption that the air of Tartary possesses the\n\u201cweight\u201d and \u201cdensity\u201d necessary for the production of plant-animals,\nDuret quotes from Sir John Mandeville\u2019s book in the language in which it\nwas originally written--the Romanic--the passage which I have extracted\nfrom the old English version of the enterprising knight\u2019s \u2018Voiage and\nTravailes,\u2019 and also cites, in confirmation of the prodigy, the account\ngiven of it by the Baron Von Herberstein. He then strongly expresses his\nown belief that--\n\n\u201cOf all the strange and marvellous trees, shrubs, plants and herbs which\nNature, or, rather, God himself, has produced, or ever will produce in\nthis Universe, there will never be seen anything so worthy of admiration\nand contemplation as these \u2018Borametz\u2019 of Scythia, or Tartary,--plants\nwhich are also animals, and which browze and eat as quadrupeds.... If I\ndid not entirely believe this I would denounce it as fabulous, instead\nof accepting it as a fact; but those who are in the habit of daily\nstudying good and rare books, printed and in manuscript, and who are\nendowed with great wisdom and understanding, know that there is no\nimpossibility in Nature, _i.e._ God himself, to whom be all the honour\nand glory!\u201d\n\nBesides the authors already quoted, and others who merely copied the\nnarratives of their predecessors, Guillaume de Saluste, the Sieur du\nBartas, accepted as authentic the story of the Vegetable Lamb. In his\npoem \u201c_La Semaine_,\u201d published in 1578, in which the first few days of\nthe existence of all terrestrial things are described reverently and\nwith considerable power, he represents this plant as one of those which\nexcited the astonishment of the newly-created Adam as he wandered on the\nfirst day of the second week through the Garden of Eden, the earthly\nParadise in which he had been placed.\n\n    \u201cOr, confus, il se perd dans les tournoyements,\n    Embrouill\u00e9es erreurs, courbez desvoyements,\n    Conduits virevoultez, et sentes desloyales\n    D\u2019un Dedale infiny qui comprend cent Dedales,\n    Clos non de romarins dextrement cizelez\n    En hommes, my-chevaux, en courserots seelez,\n    En escaillez oyseaux, en bal\u00e8nes cornues,\n    Et mille autres fa\u00e7ons de bestes incogneues,\n    Ains de vrays animaux en la terre plantez,\n    Humant l\u2019air des poulmons, et d\u2019herbes alimentez,\n    Tels que les Boramets, qui chez les Scythes naissent\n    D\u2019une graine menues, et des plantes repaissent;\n    Bien que du corps, des yeux, de la bouche, et du nez,\n    Ils semblent des moutons qui sont nagui\u00e8res naiz.\n    Ils le seroient du vray, si dans l\u2019alme poictrine\n    De terre ils n\u2019enfon\u00e7oient une vive ra\u00e7ine\n    Qui tient \u00e0 leur nombril, et tombe le meme jour\n    Quils ont broutt\u00e8 le foin qui croissoit \u00e0 l\u2019entour,\n    O, merveilleux effect de dextre divine,\n    La plante a chair et sang, l\u2019animal a ra\u00e7ine,\n    La plante comme en rond de soym\u00eame se meut,\n    L\u2019animal a des pieds, et si marcher ne peut:\n    La plante est sans rameaux, sans fruict, et sans feuillage,\n    L\u2019animal sans amour, sans sexe, et vif lignage;\n    La plante a belles dents, paist son ventre affam\u00e8\n    Du fourrage voisin, l\u2019animal est s\u00e9m\u00e8.\u201d\n\nJoshua Sylvester, the admiring translator of Du Bartas,[11] gives the\nfollowing version of the above lines:--\n\n  [11] \u2018Du Bartas: His Divine Weekes and Workes, translated and\n  dedicated to the King\u2019s most excellent Maiestie by Joshua Sylvester,\n  London. 1584.\u2019\n\n    \u201cMusing, anon through crooked walks he wanders,\n    Round winding rings, and intricate meanders.\n    False-guiding paths, doubtful, beguiling, strays,\n    And right-wrong errors of an endless maze;\n    Nor simply hedged with a single border\n    Of rosemary cut out with curious order\n    In Satyrs, Centaurs, Whales, and half-men-horses,\n    And thousand other counterfeited corses;\n    But with true beasts, fast in the ground still sticking\n    Feeding on grass, and th\u2019 airy moisture licking,\n    Such as those Borametz in Scythia bred\n    Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;\n    Although their bodies, noses, mouths, and eyes,\n    Of new-yeaned lambs have full the form and guise,\n    And should be very lambs, save that for foot\n    Within the ground they fix a living root\n    Which at their navel grows, and dies that day\n    That they have browzed the neighbouring grass away.\n    Oh! wondrous nature of God only good,\n    The beast hath root, the plant hath flesh and blood.\n    The nimble plant can turn it to and fro,\n    The nummed beast can neither stir nor goe,\n    The plant is leafless, branchless, void of fruit,\n    The beast is lustless, sexless, fireless, mute:\n    The plant with plants his hungry paunch doth feede,\n    Th\u2019 admired beast is sowen a slender seed.\u201d\n\nAbout the middle of the seventeenth century very little belief in the\nstory of the \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d remained amongst men of letters, although\nit continued to be a subject of discussion and research for at least\na hundred and fifty years later.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 3.--ADAM AND EVE ADMIRING THE PLANTS IN THE GARDEN\nOF EDEN. THE \u201cVEGETABLE LAMB\u201d IN THE BACKGROUND.\n\n_Fac-simile of the Frontispiece of Parkinson\u2019s \u201cParadisus\u201d_]\n\nAthanasius Kircher, Professor of Mathematics at Avignon, who wrote[12]\nin 1641, after following the error of his predecessors of quoting\nScaliger as a believer in the myth, says:--\n\n  [12] \u2018_Magnes; sive de arte magnetic\u00e2 opus tripartitum_,\u2019 p. 730.\n\n\u201cSome authors have regarded it as an animal, some as a plant; whilst\nothers have classed it as a true zoophyte. In order not to multiply\nmiracles, we assert that it is a plant. Though its form be that of a\nquadruped, and the juice beneath its woolly covering be blood which\nflows if an incision be made in its flesh, these things will not move\nus. It will be found to be a plant.\u201d\n\nThis unwavering prediction has been fulfilled. But the story had to pass\nthrough many vicissitudes of acceptance and disbelief before this\ndecision of Kircher was unanimously admitted to be correct. It seems to\nhave been the fate of this curious fable, through the whole period of\nits history, that no sooner has a ray of some author\u2019s common sense\npenetrated the mist of superstition by which it was surrounded than it\nhas been again befogged by the ignorant credulity of the next writer on\nthe subject.\n\nJans Janszoon Strauss, a Dutchman, better known as Jean de Struys, who\ntravelled through many countries, and amongst them Tartary, from 1647 to\n1672, describes[13] this vegetable wonder. But he was an uneducated and\ncredulous man, and his account of it is little more than a repetition of\nthe errors and fallacies of former centuries concerning it, rendered\nstill more incomprehensible by his having confused with its \u201cvery white\ndown, as soft as silk,\u201d the Astrachan lamb-skins, which were then, and\nare still, a well-known article of commerce. He says:--\n\n  [13] \u2018_Voyages de Jean de Struys en Moscovie, en Tartarie, et en\n  Perse_,\u2019 chap. xii. p. 167. Amsterdam. 1681. Also an English\n  translation, \u201cdone out of Dutch,\u201d by John Morrison. London. 1684. See\n  Appendix E.\n\n\u201cOn the west side of the Volga is a great dry and waste heath, called\nthe Step. On this heath is a strange kind of fruit found, called\n\u2018Baromez\u2019 or \u2018Barnitsch,\u2019 from the word \u2018Boran,\u2019 which is \u201ca Lamb\u201d in\nthe Russian tongue, because of its form and appearance much resembling a\nsheep, having head, feet and tail. Its skin is covered with a down very\nwhite and as soft as silk. The Tartars hold this in great esteem, and it\nis sold for a high price. I have myself paid five or six roubles for one\nof these skins, and doubled my money when I sold it again. The greater\nnumber of persons have them in their houses, where I have seen many.\nThat which caused me to observe it with greater attention was that I had\nseen one of these fruits among the curiosities in the house of the\ncelebrated Mr. Swammerdam, in Amsterdam, whose museum is full of the\nrarest things in Nature from distant and foreign lands. This precious\nplant was given to him by a sailor who had been formerly a slave in\nChina. He found it growing in a wood, and brought away sufficient of its\nskin to make an under-waistcoat. The description he gave of it did very\nmuch agree with what the inhabitants of Astrachan informed me of it. It\ngrows upon a low stalk, about two and a half feet high, some higher, and\nis supported just at the navel. The head hangs down, as if it pastured\nor fed on the grass, and when the grass decays it perishes: but this I\never looked upon as ridiculous; although when I suggested that the\nlanguishing of the plant might be caused by some temporary want of\nmoisture, the people asseverated to me by many oaths that they have\noften, out of curiosity, made experience of that by cutting away the\ngrass, upon which it instantly fades away. Certain it is that there is\nnothing which is more coveted by wolves than this, and the inward parts\nof it are more congeneric with the anatomy of a lamb than mandrakes are\nwith men. However, what I might further say of this fruit, and what I\nbelieve of the wonderful operations of a secret sympathy in Nature, I\nshall rather keep to myself than aver, or impose upon the reader with\nmany other things which I am sensible would appear incredible to those\nwho had not seen them.\u201d\n\nThe next traveller, in order of date, who made the Tartarian Lamb the\nobject of his investigations was Dr. Engelbrecht Kaempfer, who, in 1683,\naccompanied an embassy to Persia, and was appointed Surgeon to the Dutch\nEast India Company two years later. He reported, on his return, that he\nhad searched \u201c_ad risum et nauseam_\u201d for this \u201czoophyte feeding on\ngrass,\u201d that there was nothing in the country where it was believed to\ngrow that was called \u201cBorametz,\u201d except the ordinary sheep, and that all\naccounts of a sheep growing upon a plant were mere fiction and fable.\n\u201cThe word \u2018Borametz,\u2019\u201d he says,[14] \u201cis a corruption of the Russian\n\u2018Boranetz,\u2019 in Polish \u2018Baranak,\u2019 the diminutive of which, \u2018Baran,\u2019 is\nSclavonic. In such a case it signifies \u2018a sheep.\u2019 But,\u201d he continues,\n\u201cthere is in some of the provinces near the Caspian Sea a breed of sheep\ntotally different from those with which we are commonly acquainted, and\nhighly valued for the elegance of the skin, which is used in various\narticles of clothing by the Tartars and Persians. For the magnates and\nthe rich who desire a material superior to that worn by the general\npopulation, the skins of the youngest lambs are preserved, the fleeces\nof these being much softer that those of the older ones, and the younger\nthe animal from which they are taken the more costly are they.\u201d He then\nrefers to the barbarous custom of killing the ewes before the time of\nnatural parturition to obtain possession of the immature fleece of the\nunborn lamb, and says, correctly, that the earlier the stage of\npregnancy in which this operation is performed the finer and softer is\nthe fur of the f\u0153tal skin, and the lighter and closer are the little\ncurls for which it is chiefly prized. The pelt, also, is so thin that it\nis scarcely heavier than a membrane, and, in drying, it frequently\nshrinks so as to lose all similitude to the skin of a lamb, and assumes\na form which might lead the ignorant and credulous to believe that it\nwas a woolly gourd. He, therefore, conjectures that some of these dried\nand shrunken skins may have been placed in museums as examples of the\nfleece of the \u201cTartarian Lamb,\u201d under the supposition that they were of\nvegetable origin.\n\n  [14] \u2018_Am\u0153nitatum Exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum fasciculi_,\u2019\n  x., lib. 3, obs. 1. Lemgo, 1712. Kaempfer\u2019s MSS. and collections were\n  acquired by Sir Hans Sloane, and were deposited in the British Museum.\n\nKaempfer\u2019s suggestions were ingenious, though his theory was erroneous.\nBut, although he rather impeded than assisted in the correct\nidentification of the object of discussion, he, at least, helped to\ndiscredit the myth, which he declared to be one of those \u201creceived with\nfavour by the superstitious, and which when once they have found a\nwriter to describe them, however incorrectly, please the many, obtain\nnumerous adherents, and become respectable by age.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 4.--RHIZOME OF A FERN, SHAPED BY THE CHINESE TO\nREPRESENT A TAN-COLOURED DOG, AND LAID BEFORE THE ROYAL SOCIETY BY SIR\nHANS SLOANE AS A SPECIMEN OF THE \u201cBAROMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cTARTARIAN LAMB.\u201d\n\n_From the \u2018Philosophical Transactions,\u2019 vol. xx. p. 861._]\n\nAn important chapter in the history of this curious fiction was reached\nwhen, in 1698, Sir Hans Sloane[15] laid before the Royal Society an\nobject which has ever since been generally regarded as a specimen of the\nstrange natural production about which so much mystery had existed,\nso many outrageous stories had been told, and on which so much learned\ndiscussion had been expended. His description of it is printed in the\nSociety\u2019s Transactions, and is as follows:--\n\n  [15] Philosophical Transactions, vol. xx. p. 861; and Lowthorp\u2019s\n  Abridgment of the Phil. Trans. vol. ii. p. 649.\n\n\u201cThe figure (fig. 4) represents what is commonly, but falsely, in India,\ncalled \u2018the Tartarian Lamb,\u2019 sent down from thence by Mr. Buckley.[16]\nThis was more than a foot long, as big as one\u2019s wrist, having seven\nprotuberances, and towards the end some foot-stalks about three or four\ninches long, exactly like the foot-stalks of ferns, both without and\nwithin. Most part of this was covered with a down of a dark yellowish\nsnuff colour, some of it a quarter of an inch long. This down is\ncommonly used for spitting of blood, about six grains going to a dose,\nand three doses pretended to cure such a h\u00e6morrhage. In Jamaica are many\nscandent and tree ferns which grow to the bigness of trees, and have\nsuch a kind of _lanugo_ on them, and some of the capillaries have\nsomething like it. It seemed to be shaped by art to imitate a lamb, the\nroots or climbing parts being made to resemble the body, and the extant\nfoot-stalks the legs. This down is taken notice of by Dr. Merret at the\nlatter end of Dr. Grew\u2019s Mus. Soc. Reg. by the name of \u2018Poco Sempie,\u2019 a\n\u2018golden moss,\u2019 and is there said to be a cordial. I have been assured by\nMr. Brown, who has made very good observations in the East Indies, that\nhe has been told by those who lived in China that this down or hair is\nused by them for the stopping of blood in fresh wounds, as cob-webs are\nwith us, and that they have it in so great esteem that few houses are\nwithout it; but on trials I have made of it, though I may believe it\ninnocent, yet I am sure it is not infallible.\u201d\n\n  [16] This specimen evidently came from China; for I find a record that\n  at the date of Sir Hans Sloane\u2019s paper \u201cMr. Buckley, Chief Surgeon at\n  Fort St. George, in the East Indies, presented to the Royal Society a\n  cabinet containing Chinese surgical and other instruments and\n  simples.\u201d\n\nSir Hans Sloane had, it is true, clearly perceived the nature of the\nspecimen sent to the Royal Society by Mr. Buckley, and had correctly\nidentified it as a portion of one of the arborescent ferns; but on the\nquestion whether he had discovered the right interpretation of the\npuzzling enigma I shall have more to say presently. The object figured\nseems to have been regarded by many of his contemporaries as so\ninsufficient to meet the requirements of the oft-told story of the\nplant-animal, and so unsatisfactory an explanation of it, that every one\nwho subsequently had an opportunity of visiting Tartary still felt it to\nbe his duty to make enquiries concerning the famous prodigy of that\ncountry.\n\nAccordingly, we find that John Bell, of Autermony, availed himself of\nthe opportunity afforded him by a diplomatic journey to Persia,[17] in\n1715-1722, to endeavour, whilst in Tartary, to obtain authentic\ninformation respecting the \u201cVegetable Lamb.\u201d He found that nothing was\nknown of it in the country where it was supposed to be indigenous, and\nthus writes of it:--\n\n  [17] \u2018Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to various parts of Asia,\n  in 1716, 1719, 1722, &c., by John Bell, of Autermony. Dedicated to the\n  Governor, Court of Assistants, and Freemen of the Russia Company.\n  London. 1764.\u2019 See Appendix F.\n\n\u201cBefore I leave Astracan, it may be proper to rectify a mistaken opinion\nwhich I have observed to occur in grave German authors, who, in treating\nof the remarkable things of this country relate that there grows in this\ndesart, or stepp adjoining to Astracan, in some plenty, a certain shrub\nor plant called in the Russian language \u2018Tartasky Borashka,\u2019 _i.e._\n\u2018Tartarian Lamb,\u2019 with the skins of which the caps of the Armenians,\nPersians, Tartars, &c., are faced. They also write that the \u2018Tartashky\nBorashka\u2019 partakes of animal, as well as vegetative life, and that it\neats up and devours all the grass and weeds within its reach. Though it\nmay be thought that an opinion so very absurd could find no credit with\npeople of the meanest understanding, yet I have conversed with some who\nwere much inclined to believe it, so very prevalent is the prodigious\nand absurd with some part of mankind. In search of this wonderful plant\nI walked many a mile accompanied by Tartars who inhabit these desarts;\nbut all I could find out were some dry bushes, scattered here and there,\nwhich grow on a single stalk with a bushy top of a brownish colour: the\nstalk is about eighteen inches high, the top consisting of sharp prickly\nleaves. It is true that no grass or weeds grow within the circle of its\nshade--a property natural to many other plants, here and elsewhere.\nAfter a careful enquiry of the more sensible and experienced among the\nTartars, I found they laughed at it as a ridiculous fable.\u201d\n\nBell further says:--\n\n\u201cIn Astracan they have large quantities of lamb-skins, grey and black,\nsome waved and others curled, all naturally and very pretty, having a\nfine gloss, especially the waved, which at a small distance appear like\nthe richest watered tabby:[18] they are much esteemed, and are much used\nfor the lining of coats and the turning up of caps, in Persia, Russia,\nand other parts. The best of these are brought from Bucharia, China, and\nthe countries adjacent, and are taken from the ewe\u2019s belly after she\nhath been killed, or the lamb is killed immediately after it is lambed,\nfor such a skin is equal in value to the sheep. The Kalmuks and those\nTartars who inhabit the desert in the neighbourhood of Astracan have\nalso lamb-skins which are applied to the same purpose, but the wool of\nthese being rougher and more hairy, they are inferior to those of\nBucharia and China both in gloss and beauty, and also in the dressing;\nconsequently in value. I have known one single lamb-skin from Bucharia\nsold for five or six shillings sterling, when one of these would not\nyield two shillings.\u201d\n\n  [18] A rich watered silk: from the French \u201c_tabis_\u201d; Italian,\n  \u201c_tabi_\u201d; Persian, \u201c_retabi_.\u201d\n\nBell had sufficient discrimination to see that these Astracan lamb-skins\nwere in no way connected with the fable of the \u201cBorametz,\u201d and thus\navoided the error of Kaempfer, who regarded them as having given rise to\nthe reports of the existence of that marvellous \u201canimal-plant.\u201d\n\nThe Abb\u00e9 Chappe-d\u2019Auteroche, during his visit to Tartary,[19] about half\na century later than John Bell, sought for the \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d with\nequal earnestness and with similar want of success.\n\n  [19] \u2018Voyage en Sib\u00e9rie,\u2019 Paris. 1768.\n\nLong, however, before the result of the investigations of these two\ntravellers had been made known, a second manipulated fern-root, similar\nto that described by Sir Hans Sloane, had been subjected to the scrutiny\nof another keen and scientific observer.\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 5.--ROUGH MODEL OF A TAN-COLOURED DOG, SHAPED BY THE\nCHINESE FROM THE RHIZOME OF A FERN, AND SUBMITTED TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY\nBY DR. BREYN AS A SPECIMEN OF THE \u201cSCYTHIAN VEGETABLE LAMB.\u201d\n\n_From the \u2018Philosophical Transactions,\u2019 No. 390._]\n\nIn September, 1725, Dr. John Philip Breyn, of Dantzic, addressed to the\nRoyal Society of London an important communication in Latin on this\nsubject,[20] in which he expressed his complete disbelief in the old\nstory, and described a specimen of the \u201cBorametz\u201d (as he believed it\nto be) which had fallen into his hands, and which had led him,\nindependently, to the same conclusion as that arrived at by Sir Hans\nSloane, of whose observations, he says, he was unaware when his own\nmemoranda were written. Commencing by quoting the maxim, \u201c_Non fingendum\nsed inveniendum quid Natura faciat aut ferat_,\u201d he urges upon all who\nsearch for the hidden treasures of Nature, or who desire to discover her\nsecrets, to bear in mind that golden axiom that \u201cthe works and\nproductions of Nature should be discovered, not invented,\u201d and remarks\nthat, if the older writers had adhered to this, Natural History, great\nand honourable in itself, would not have been tarnished by so many silly\nfables like that of the \u201cScythian Lamb.\u201d He directs attention to the\nfact that none of those who have described this plant-animal are able to\nsay that they ever saw it growing; quotes Kaempfer\u2019s interpretation of\nthe origin of the report, namely the Astrachan lamb-skins of commerce,\nand hesitates to regard the object in his possession as the key of the\nproblem. That he had grave and sufficient reasons for his doubts upon\nthis point will be seen from his interesting description of the\ncuriosity referred to. He says:--\n\n  [20] \u2018_Dissertiuncula de Agno Vegetabili Scythico, Borametz vulgo\n  dicto._\u2019 Phil. Trans., vol. xxxiii. p. 353, 1725; and also in Martyn\u2019s\n  Abridgment of the Phil. Trans., vol. vi. p. 317.\n\n\u201cA certain learned and observant man, passing through our city on his\nreturn from a journey through Muscovy, enriched my museum with, amongst\nother natural curiosities, one of these \u2018Scythian Lambs,\u2019 which he\ndeclared to be the genuine Borametz. It was about six inches in length,\nand had a head, ears, and four legs. Its colour was that of iron-rust,\nand it was covered all over with a kind of down, like the fibres of\nsilk-plush, except upon the ears and legs, which were bare, and were of\na somewhat darker tawny hue. On careful examination of it, I discovered\nthat it was not an animal production, nor yet a fruit, but either the\nthick creeping root, or the climbing stem, of some plant, which by\nobstetric art had acquired the form of a quadruped animal. For the four\nlegs, which looked as if the feet had been cut off from them, were so\nmany stalks which had supported leaves, as were also those which formed\nthe ears, and which more nearly resembled horns. The fibres emerging\nfrom these, by which, like other plants, this root or stalk had conveyed\nnutriment, left no doubt upon this point. Close inspection also showed\nthat one of the front legs had been artificially inserted, and that the\nhead and neck were not of one continuous substance with the body, but\nhad been very cleverly and neatly joined on to it. In fact, this root,\nor stem, had been skilfully manipulated into the form of a lamb in the\nsame artful manner as the little figures of men, which, it was said,\nshrieked and dropped human blood when drawn from the ground, were formed\nfrom the roots of the mandragore and bryony.\u201d\n\nDr. Breyn added that there remained in his mind some doubt as to the\nplant from which this burlesque of nature and art was fabricated, until\nthe similarity of its ferruginous silky fibres to those of some of the\ncapillaries suggested the thought that it must be a portion of some\nexotic fern. As to the particular species to which it belonged he was\nunable to pronounce an authoritative opinion, but, hoping in the course\nof time to receive more certain information concerning it, he would\nmerely say that he believed it was of a peculiar species found in\nTartary, and up to that date undescribed.\n\nDr. Breyn\u2019s confirmation of Sir Hans Sloane\u2019s identification of the\n\u201cScythian Lamb\u201d as the stem or rootlet of a fern artificially and\ncleverly manipulated was a crushing blow to the already weakened fable.\nUnfortunately, however, the conclusion thus arrived at was utterly\nmisleading, though it not only satisfied his contemporaries, but has\never since--even to the present day--been universally accepted as the\ncorrect interpretation of the problem. The injurious result was, that,\nas the question appeared to have been set at rest, enquiry ceased, and\nfor nearly sixty years afterwards no more was heard of the \u201cVegetable\nLamb.\u201d\n\nTowards the close of the century two eminent botanists, who were, of\ncourse, well acquainted with the specimens that had been described by\nSir Hans Sloane and Dr. Breyn, were constrained in writing of the poetry\nof their science to make the legendary \u201cBorametz\u201d their theme.\n\nDr. Erasmus Darwin, in 1781, contributed to the literature of the\nsubject the following lines[21]:--\n\n  [21] \u2018The Botanic Garden.\u2019 A poem in two parts; with philosophical\n  notes. London. 1781.\n\n    \u201cE\u2019en round the Pole the flames of love aspire,\n    And icy bosoms feel the secret fire,\n    Cradled in snow, and fanned by Arctic air,\n    Shines, gentle Borametz, thy golden hair;\n    Rooted in earth, each cloven foot descends,\n    And round and round her flexile neck she bends,\n    Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,\n    Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;\n    Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,\n    And seems to bleat--a \u2018vegetable lamb.\u2019\u201d\n\nDr. Erasmus Darwin appears to have bestowed \u201cgolden hair\u201d upon his\nBorametz, to assimilate it to the fern-root toys that were regarded as\nits prototypes; but as the fern of which they were made is a native of\nSouthern China, and as no author has described the lamb-plant as being\nfound in a cold climate, his authority and his motive for locating it in\nan arctic region are alike inexplicable.\n\nDr. De la Croix, the other botanical author above referred to, extolled,\nin 1791, the fabulous animal-plant in a Latin poem[22] which Bishop\nAtterbury characterized as \u201cexcellent, and approaching very near to the\nversification of Virgil\u2019s \u2018Georgics.\u2019\u201d\n\n  [22] \u2018Connubia Florum, Latino Carmine Demonstrata.\u2019 Bath. 1791.\n\n                                \u201cQui Caspia sulcant\n    \u00c6quora, sive legant spumosa Boristhenis ora\n    Sive petant Asiam velis, et Colchica regna,\n    Hinc atque inde stupent visu mirabile monstrum:\n    Surgit humo Borames. Pr\u00e6celso in stipite fructus\n    Stat quadrupes. Olli vellus. Duo cornua fronte\n    Lanea, nec desunt oculi; rudis accola credit\n    Esse animal, dormire die, vigilare per umbram,\n    Et circum exesis pasci radicitus herbis:\n    Carnibus Ambrosi\u00e6 sapor est, succique rubentes\n    Posthabeat quibus alma suum Burgundia Nectar;\n    Atque loco si ferre pedem Natura dedisset,\n    Balatu si posset opem implorare voracis\n    Ora lupi contra, credas in stirpe sedere\n    Agnum equitem, gregibusque agnorum albescere colles.\u201d\n\nAs this has not been \u201cdone into English\u201d (to use an old phrase), I\nventure to offer the following translation of it:--\n\n    \u201cThe traveller who ploughs the Caspian wave\n    For Asia bound, where foaming breakers lave\n    Borysthenes\u2019 wild shores, no sooner lands\n    Than gazing in astonishment he stands;\n    For in his path he sees a monstrous birth,\n    The Borametz arises from the earth:\n    Upon a stalk is fixed a living brute,\n    A rooted plant bears quadruped for fruit,\n    It has a fleece, nor does it want for eyes,\n    And from its brows two woolly horns arise.\n    The rude and simple country people say\n    It is an animal that sleeps by day\n    And wakes at night, though rooted to the ground,\n    To feed on grass within its reach around.\n    The flavour of Ambrosia its flesh\n    Pervades; and the red nectar, rich and fresh,\n    Which vineyards of fair Burgundy produce\n    Is less delicious than its ruddy juice.\n    If Nature had but on it feet bestowed,\n    Or with a voice to bleat the lamb endowed,\n    To cry for help against the threat\u2019ning fangs\n    Of hungry wolves; as on its stalk it hangs,\n    Seated on horseback it might seem to ride,\n    Whit\u2019ning with thousands more the mountain side.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE \u201cBORAMETZ,\u201d OR \u201cSCYTHIAN LAMB.\u201d\n\n_From De la Croix\u2019s \u2018Connubia Florum.\u2019_\n\nThe central figure is a copy of Zahn\u2019s picture of the fabulous\nplant-animal; the other two are taken from fern-root specimens supposed\nto be \u201cVegetable Lambs.\u201d]\n\nWe must now leave the poetical view of the subject, and come to facts.\n\nThe substance of which the artificial animals exhibited by Sir Hans\nSloane and Dr. Breyn were constructed is the long root-stock of a fern\nof the genus _Dicksonia_, of which there are from thirty to thirty-five\nspecies, varying greatly in size, in their mode of growth, and in the\ncutting of their fronds. Some of them, such as _D. antarctica_, a native\nof Australia and New Zealand, often seen in our greenhouses, are\ntree-like in habit, having stems from ten to forty feet in height, and\nfronds two or three yards in length, and two feet or more across; whilst\nothers have root-stocks creeping along the surface of the ground. The\ngenus is most fully represented in tropical America and Polynesia: one\nspecies extends as far north as the United States and Canada, and\nanother was introduced into this country from St. Helena. In some\nspecies, such as _D. Molluccensis_, from Java, the stems are furnished\nwith strong hooked prickles; in others they are densely clad at the base\nwith a thick coat of yellow-brown hairs, which shine almost like\nburnished gold. The stems of _D. Sellowiana_, from tropical America, are\nso thickly clad with long fibrous hairs, changing to brown or nearly\nblack, that it has been said they precisely resemble the thighs of the\nhowling monkeys.[23]\n\n  [23] See \u2018European Ferns,\u2019 by James Britten, F.L.S.; with coloured\n  illustrations from Nature, by Dr. Blair, F.L.S. Cassell. London.--A\n  work full of information on the culture, classification, and history\n  of ferns. I am indebted to it for many of the details here given of\n  the economic value of ferns.\n\nThe species of _Dicksonia_ which has been supposed to have given origin\nto the fable of the \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d has, from that circumstance,\nreceived the name of _Barometz_. It was formerly known as _Cibotium\nglaucescens_. It was introduced into cultivation in conservatories in\nthis country about the year 1830, and was shortly afterwards described\nas _Cibotium barometz_, but the genus _Cibotium_ is now generally united\nwith _Dicksonia_. Its long caudex, or root-stock, creeps over the\nsurface of the ground in the same manner as that of the better known\n\u201cHare\u2019s-foot\u201d fern, _Davallia Canariensis_, and this is covered with\nlong silky hairs, or scales, which look something like wool when old and\ndry. These hairs or scales have been sometimes used as a styptic in\nGermany, and also, very commonly, in China, as related to Sir Hans\nSloane by Dr. Brown. The similar hairs of other species of _Dicksonia_,\nnatives of the Sandwich Islands, are exported to the extent of many\nthousands of pounds weight annually under the name of \u201cPulu,\u201d and are\nused in the stuffing of mattrasses, cushions, &c. The hairs of _D.\nculcita_ are similarly utilised in Madeira. No more than two or three\nounces of hair are yielded by each plant, and it is reckoned that about\nfour years must elapse before another gathering can be obtained.\n\nThe rhizomes and stems of many ferns abound in starch, and have a\ncommercial value, either as medicine or food. The soft mucilaginous pith\nof _Cyathea medullaris_, one of the large tree-ferns of New Zealand, was\nformerly eaten by the natives. It is of a reddish colour, and, when\nbaked, acquires a somewhat pungent flavour. In New Zealand ferns seem to\nbe in some repute for their edible properties, for the large scaly\nrhizomes of _Marattia fraxinea_, and those of another fern, _Pteris\nesculenta_, nearly allied to our common bracken, _P. aquilina_, are also\neaten by the Maoris. The natives bake them in ashes, peel them with\ntheir teeth, and eat them with meat, as we do bread; and sometimes pound\nthem between stones, in order to extract the nutritious matter, the\nwoody part being rejected as useless. In Nepaul, the rhizomes of\n_Nephrolepis tuberosa_ are similarly prepared for food; and in New\nCaledonia the mucilaginous matter of _Cyathea vieillardii_ is obtained\nfrom incisions made in the stem, or at the base of the fronds. The\nsucculent fronds of the little water-fern, _Ceratopteris thalictroides_,\nare boiled and eaten as a vegetable by the poorer classes in the Indian\nArchipelago. The young shoots of the handsome tree-fern, _Angiopteris\nevecta_, are eaten in the Society Islands, and its large rhizome, which\nis in great part composed of mucilage, yields, when dried, a kind of\nflour. In the same islands the young fronds of _Helminthostachys\nlimulata_, the \u201cBalabala\u201d of the Fiji Islands, are eaten in times of\nscarcity; and the soft scales covering the _stipes_ of the fronds are\nused by the white settlers for stuffing pillows and cushions in\npreference to feathers, because they do not become heated, and are thus\nmore comfortable in a sultry climate. In New South Wales, the thick\nrhizome of _Blechnum cartilagineum_ is much eaten by the natives. It is\nfirst roasted and then beaten, so as to break away the woody fibre: it\nis said to taste like a waxy potato.\n\nBy skilful treatment the inhabitants of Southern China occasionally\nconverted the thick root-stock of one of these tree-ferns, \u201c_Dicksonia\nbarometz_,\u201d into a rough semblance of a quadruped, which quadruped, by a\nforegone conclusion, was supposed to be a lamb. They removed entirely\nthe fronds that grew upward from the rhizome, excepting four, and these\nfour they trimmed down until only about four inches of each stalk was\nleft. The object thus shaped being turned upside down, the root-stock\nrepresented the body of the animal, and was supported by the four\ninverted stalks of the fronds, as upon four legs. If the specimen had an\ninsufficient number of stalks growing from it to make the four legs,\nothers were artificially and neatly affixed to it; ears were similarly\nprovided, and, if necessary, the trunk was fitted with a head and neck\nmade from another root-stock.\n\nSo far, well! The identification of the material of which these\nimitations of four-legged animals were fashioned as the rhizome and\nfrond-stalks of a tree-fern is complete, and perfectly satisfactory.\nBut, having given to these root-stocks of tree-ferns the full benefit of\nan acknowledgment of the economic uses that have been made of them in\nvarious ways and in different localities, and having frankly stated the\nstill accepted theory of their connection with the myth of the\n\u201cVegetable Lamb of Scythia,\u201d I have to express my very decided opinion\nthat they and the \u201clambs\u201d (?) made from them had no more to do with the\norigin of the fable of the \u201c_Barometz_\u201d than the artificial mermaids so\ncleverly made by the Japanese have had to do with the origin of the\nbelief in fish-tailed human beings and divinities. In the first place,\nas we shall presently see, these manipulated ferns were not intended by\nthose who fashioned them to resemble lambs at all. Secondly, if they had\nbeen intended to represent the lamb of the fable, they could have been,\nlike the Japanese mermaids, only the outcome and illustration of the\nlegend--not the objects which first gave rise to it. Neither the one nor\nthe other of these counterfeit fabrications appears to have been ever\ncommon; and neither was certainly manufactured in sufficient numbers,\nnor distributed so abundantly and completely over the habitable globe,\nas to have laid the foundation of a myth which in the one case was\nuniversally believed,[24] and in the other attracted attention all over\nEurope and Western Asia, and also in Egypt. Very few of the Japanese\nartificial mermaids have been seen in this country, though they have\nbeen eagerly sought for, and the fern-\u201clambs\u201d that have been brought to\nEngland may be counted on one\u2019s fingers.[25]\n\n  [24] See the Chapter on \u201cMermaids\u201d by the Author in \u2018Sea Fables\n  Explained,\u2019 one of the Handbooks issued by the Authorities of the\n  Great International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883. London. Clowes and\n  Sons, Limited.\n\n  [25] I know of only four--(though, of course, there may be others, of\n  which I shall be glad to receive information)--namely, one in the\n  Botanical department of the British Museum; another in the Museum of\n  the Royal College of Surgeons; the specimen sent from India by Mr.\n  Buckley to the Royal Society in 1698; and that described by Dr. Breyn\n  in 1725. Of the origin of the first-mentioned nothing is known, though\n  it is apparently the one figured by John and Andrew Rymsdyk, in their\n  \u2018_Museum Britannicum_\u2019 (1778, plate xv.), as one of the curious\n  objects in the British Museum. Of the second we only know that it was\n  presented to the College of Surgeons by Mr. Quekett--the habitat of\n  the fern of which it is composed being erroneously given in the\n  Catalogue (No. 177 of \u201cPlants and Invertebrates\u201d) as \u201cPlains of\n  Tartary,\u201d the supposed home of the mythical lamb, but where the fern\n  in question never grew. That sent to England by Mr. Buckley, and which\n  was the subject of Sir Hans Sloane\u2019s paper in 1698, seems to have been\n  lost or mislaid. Whether it remained in the possession of the Royal\n  Society, or was placed by Sir Hans Sloane in his own collection, it\n  ought to be in the British Museum. But nothing is known of it there,\n  nor of the cabinet of surgical instruments and appliances in which it\n  arrived. I have endeavoured to trace it; but although, as usual, I\n  have met with every kind assistance and courtesy from the heads of\n  departments, I have been unsuccessful.\n\n  Sir Hans Sloane, who died in 1753, bequeathed his valuable collection\n  and library to the nation on the condition that \u00a320,000 should be paid\n  to his executors for the benefit of his daughters. The Government\n  raised the necessary funds by a guinea lottery, and sufficient money\n  was thus obtained to purchase also (for \u00a310,500) Montague House, in\n  Bloomsbury, which then became the British Museum. When the Royal\n  Society removed from their old premises, in Crane Court, to Somerset\n  House in 1780 they also gave the contents of their cabinets to the\n  National Collection, but many of these, and amongst them this\n  fern-root animal, cannot be found.\n\n  Dr. Breyn, of Dantzic, no doubt retained the specimen which he\n  described, and it is probably in some continental collection.\n\n  I know, therefore, of only two of these so-called \u201clambs\u201d extant in\n  this country--one in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, and\n  the other in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. No history\n  of either of these has been preserved.\n\nFurther, it is a fact which seems to have been strangely overlooked,\nthat these tree-ferns, with the creeping root-stocks, do not grow in\nTartary. The particular species of _Dicksonia_ from which the\ndoll-\u201clambs\u201d were made is a native of Southern China, Assam, and the\nMalayan peninsula and islands.[26] And we have conclusive evidence, in\naddition to the report made by Mr. Buckley to the Royal Society (p. 27),\nthat these playthings themselves were of Chinese workmanship.\n\n  [26] \u2018_Synopsis Filicum_,\u2019 by Sir W. J. Hooker and J. G. Baker, F.L.S.\n  1863. Art. \u201cDicksonia barometz.\u201d\n\nJuan de Loureiro, an accomplished Portuguese botanist and Fellow of the\nRoyal Society of Lisbon, who lived and laboured as a Catholic missionary\nfor more than thirty years in Cochin China, and, afterwards, for three\nyears in China, thus writes[27]:--\n\n  [27] _Flora Cochinchinensis_, tom. i. p. 675. Lisbon. 1790.\n\n\u201cThe _Polypodium borametz_ grows in hilly woods in China and Cochin\nChina. Many authors have written of the Scythian Lamb, or Borametz--most\nof them fabulously. Ours is not a fruit, but a root, which is easily\nshaped by the help of a little art into the form of _a small rufous dog,\nby which name, and not by that of a \u2018lamb,\u2019 it is called by the\nChinese_.\u201d\n\nLoureiro describes the cutting off the stalks to form the legs, the\nfixing on of smaller ones as ears, and other particulars of the rude\nmanufacture of these fern-root dogs, as witnessed by himself. The common\nname of these toys in China--\u201cCau-tich,\u201d and in Cochin China,\n\u201cKew-tsie,\u201d both represent a \u201ctan-coloured dog.\u201d\n\nIt must also be borne in mind that the lamb-plant was represented as\nspringing from a seed like that of a melon, but rounder, and that the\nnatives of the country where it grew planted these seeds. It was\ntherefore a cultivated plant. The lamb, it was also stated, was\ncontained within the fruit or seed-capsule of the plant; and when this\nfruit, or seed-pod, was ripe it burst open, and the little lamb within\nit was disclosed. The wool of this lamb was described by various writers\nas being \u201cvery white,\u201d \u201cas white as snow,\u201d whereas these root-stocks of\nferns bear no resemblance to a lamb in their natural condition; and when\nthey have been deftly trimmed into shape the hairs or scales upon them\nare tawny orange, matching better with the \u201ctan\u201d markings of a dog,\nwhich they were intended to represent, than with the soft, white fleece\nof a young lamb.\n\nTherefore, even if I had no better explanation to offer, I should be led\nto the conclusion that the identification of these _tawny_ toy-_dogs_,\nmade in _China_ from the _root_ of a _wild_ fern, the spores of which\nare _as small as dust_, with the \u201cVegetable _Lambs_\u201d of _Scythia_, whose\n_white_ fleeces were found within the ripe and opening _fruit_ of a\n_cultivated_ plant, raised from _a large seed_, was obviously erroneous,\nand that the origin of the rumour must be sought for elsewhere.\n\nThe plant that set all Europe talking of the lambs that grew in fruits\nand on stalks of plants somewhere in Scythia was one of far higher\nimportance and value to mankind than the childish knick-knacks made for\namusement out of the creeping root-stocks of ferns. These and the\ncurly-fleeced progeny of the poor ewes of Astrachan were lambs that\ncrossed the track of the first, lost lamb, and led those searching for\nit into the mistake of following their respective trails, whilst the\noriginal \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d escaped from sight.\n\nTracing the growth and transition of this story of the lamb-plant from a\ntruthful rumour of a curious fact into a detailed history of an absurd\nfiction, I have no doubt whatever that it originated in early\ndescriptions of the cotton plant, and the introduction of cotton from\nIndia into Western Asia and the adjoining parts of Eastern Europe.\n\nHerodotus, writing (B.C. 445) of the usages of the people of India, says\n(lib. iii. cap. 106) of this cotton:--\u201cCertain trees bear for their\nfruit fleeces surpassing those of sheep in beauty and excellence, and\nthe natives clothe themselves in cloths made therefrom.\u201d\n\nIn the 47th chapter of the same book, Herodotus describes a corselet\nsent by Aahmes (or Amasis) II., King of Egypt, to Sparta as having been\n\u201cornamented with gold and _fleeces from the trees_\u201d--padded with cotton,\nin fact.\n\nCtesias, also, who was the contemporary of Herodotus, and was made\nprisoner, and kept by the King of Persia as his court physician for\nseventeen years, was acquainted with the use of a kind of wool, the\nproduce of trees, for spinning and weaving amongst the natives of India,\nfor he mentions in his \u2018_Indica_\u2019 a fragment quoted by Photius,\n\u201ctree-garments\u201d; and that he thus referred to clothing made from these\ntree-fleeces we have the testimony of Varro:--\u201cCtesias says that there\nare in India _trees that bear wool_.\u201d\n\nNearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, reported that \u201cthere were\nin India trees bearing, as it were, flocks or bunches of wool, and that\nthe natives made of this wool garments of surpassing whiteness, or else\ntheir black complexions made the material appear whiter than any other.\u201d\n\nAristobulus, another of Alexander\u2019s generals, made mention in his\njournal of the cotton plant, under the name of \u201cthe wool-bearing tree,\u201d\nand stated that \u201cit bore a capsule that contained seeds which were taken\nout, and that which remained was carded like wool.\u201d\n\nStrabo, who records this (lib. xv. cap. 21), referring to it in another\nparagraph, writes:--\u201cNearchus says that their (the natives\u2019) fine\nclothing was made from this wool, and that the Macedonians used it for\nmattresses and the stuffing of their saddles.\u201d[28]\n\n  [28] Unfortunately the Journal and Narrative of Nearchus, written B.C.\n  325-324, are lost, as are also those of Aristobulus, who seems to have\n  been a very accurate observer; and we are indebted to Strabo and\n  Arrian for the summaries and extracts from them that we possess.\n  Strabo\u2019s \u2018_Geographia_\u2019 was completed A.D. 21, about three years\n  before his death. Fabius Arrianus wrote his \u2018_Historia Indica_,\u2019 and\n  \u2018_Periplus Maris Erythr\u00e6i_,\u2019 which contain valuable particulars of\n  Alexander\u2019s expedition, about A.D. 131-135.\n\nTheophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, writing about B.C. 306,\nsays[29]:--\n\n  [29] \u2018_De Historia Plantarum_,\u2019 lib. iv. cap. 4.\n\n\u201cThe trees from which the Indians make their clothes have leaves like\nthose of the black mulberry, but the whole plant resembles the dog-rose.\nThey are planted in rows on the plains, so as to look like vines at a\ndistance.\u201d\n\nIn another passage of the same book (cap. 9) he writes:--\n\n\u201cIn the Island of Tylos, which is in the Arabian Gulf,[30] the\nwool-bearing trees, which grow there abundantly, have leaves like the\nvine, but smaller. They bear no fruit, but the pod containing the wool\nis about the size of a spring apple (\u201c\u03bc\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd\u201d), whilst it is unripe and\nclosed, but when it is ripe it opens: the wool is then gathered from it,\nand woven into cloths of various qualities--some inferior, but others of\ngreat value.\u201d\n\n  [30] Theophrastus is in error in placing Tylos in the Arabian Gulf\n  (which we now call the Red Sea); it was in the Persian Gulf, and is\n  now known as Bahrsin. The ancients, however, gave to the whole of the\n  sea between the east coast of Africa, north of Mogador, and the west\n  shores of India the name of the \u201cErythr\u00e6an Sea,\u201d from King Erythros,\n  of whom nothing more is known than the name, which, in Greek,\n  signifies \u201cred.\u201d From this casual meaning of the word it came to be\n  believed that the water of this sea differed in colour from that of\n  others, and that it was consequently more difficult to navigate.\n\nThis description by Theophrastus is remarkably correct as applied to the\nherbaceous variety of the cotton-plant, from which the chief supply of\ncotton for spinning and weaving into cloth has always been obtained. In\nits mode of growth--branched, spreading, and flexible--it may well be\nlikened to the dog-rose; and its palmate leaves bear a close resemblance\nto those of the black mulberry, which differ little from the leaves of\nsome varieties of the vine. The remark relative to the mode of\ncultivation is also exactly applicable to the cotton-plant, which is set\nin rows about four feet asunder, and the plants about two feet apart, so\nthat a field of it resembles a vineyard when seen from a distance.\n\nPomponius Mela, the author next in order of time, also writes in his\naccount of India[31] of the \u201ctrees that produce wool used by the natives\nfor clothing.\u201d\n\n  [31] _De Situ Orbis_, lib. iii. cap. 7.\n\nThen comes Pliny, who, incompetent and worthless as a naturalist, though\nadmirable as a writer, obscured this subject, as he did many others. In\nhis \u2018Natural History\u2019[32] he mentions cotton in four different\nparagraphs, and in every one of them inaccurately. He confuses cotton\nwith flax, and the fabrics woven of it with linen, and treats of silk as\na downy substance scraped from the leaves of trees. And, in\ntranscribing, or translating, the passage from Theophrastus relating to\nthe \u201cwool-bearing trees,\u201d he distorts the author\u2019s words, and states\nthat \u201cthese trees bear _gourds_ the size of a quince, which burst when\nripe, and display balls of wool out of which the inhabitants make cloths\nlike valuable linen.\u201d Pliny therefore seems to have been the author of\nthe \u201cgourd\u201d portion of the story which afterwards obtained currency in\nWestern Europe.\n\n  [32] \u2018_Naturalis Historia_,\u2019 A.D. 77.\n\nI shall quote one more ancient mention of the \u201cfleece-bearing plant,\u201d\nbecause the author of it gives a more exact description than any\nprevious writer of that portion of it from which the wool is taken.\n\nJulius Pollux, who wrote about a hundred years later than Pliny, says in\nhis \u2018Onomasticon\u2019:--\n\n\u201cThere are also _Byssina_ and _Byssus_, a kind of flax. But among the\nIndians a sort of wool is obtained from a tree. The cloth made from this\nwool may be compared with linen, except that it is thicker. The tree\nproduces a fruit most nearly resembling a walnut, but three-cleft. After\nthe outer covering, which is like a walnut, has divided and become dry,\nthe substance resembling wool is extracted, and is used in the\nmanufacture of cloth.\u201d\n\nThis remark, of the pericarp of the cotton-pod, in some species of\n_Gossypium_, being three-cleft, is in accordance with fact, and is not\nnoticed by any previous writer.\n\nIn tracing the development of these early and truthful accounts of the\ncotton-plant into the complete fable of the compound plant-animal, the\n\u201cVegetable Lamb of Scythia,\u201d we shall find it, as in the case of some\nother myths of the Middle Ages, attributable to two principal causes:--\n\n1. The misinterpretation of ambiguous or figurative language; 2. The\nsimilarity of appearance of two actually different and incongruous\nobjects.\n\nIt is a curious fact, which I believe has not hitherto been noticed in\nconnection with this subject, that the Greek word \u201c\u03bc\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd\u201d (melon), very\nfitly used by Theophrastus in the passage quoted (p. 48) to describe the\nform and appearance of the unripe cotton-pod, may be equally correctly\ntranslated \u201ca fruit,\u201d \u201can apple,\u201d or \u201ca sheep\u201d: the adjective \u201c\u1f11\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd,\u201d\nwhich is also used, means \u201cvernal\u201d; therefore the phrase may be regarded\nas signifying either that the vegetable wool was taken from a \u201cspring\napple\u201d growing upon a tree, or from a \u201cspring-sheep\u201d (or lamb) growing\nupon a tree. Although I believe that the mistake originated, as I shall\npresently explain, in the actual and substantial resemblance between\ncotton wool and lamb\u2019s wool, rather than in the verbal identity of an\nappellative noun, it is not improbable that this ambiguous phrase of\nconvertible interpretation may, in some measure, have contributed to\nconvey, many centuries later, to readers of a dead language who knew\nnothing of the plant referred to, an erroneous idea of the nature of\n\u201cthe fleeces that grew on trees.\u201d It would seem so much more likely that\na soft fleece of white wool should grow upon a young lamb yeaned in\nspring-time than inside a fruit like an apple in the partly-formed and\nunripe condition in which it is found in spring, that students in the\nMiddle Ages, as they pondered doubtfully over this word of double\nmeaning, would probably prefer the first interpretation, and translate\nthe passage of Theophrastus as a statement that the wool was taken from\na \u201cspring-sheep,\u201d or lamb, growing upon a tree which bore no other\nfruit. It is also probable that this use of the Greek word \u201c_melon_\u201d\ngave rise to the report in later times that the seed of the plant which\nbore the \u201cVegetable Lamb\u201d was like that of a melon or gourd.\n\nWe may next take into account the prevalence amongst many tribes and\nnations in both hemispheres of the custom of using figurative language\nin relation to the objects and occurrences of their daily life.\n\nA very striking and remarkable proof is given us by Herodotus that the\nScythians of the North-West, who carried both the cotton and the rumour\nof the lamb-plant into Muscovy, were in the habit of speaking thus\nfiguratively and metaphorically. He writes (lib. iv. cap. 2):--\n\n\u201cThe part beyond the north, the Scythians say, can neither be seen nor\npassed through, by reason of the feathers shed there; for the earth and\nair are full of feathers, and it is these which interrupt the view.\u201d\n\nFurther on (lib. iv. cap. 31) he also observes:--\n\n\u201cWith respect to the feathers with which the Scythians say the air is\nfilled, and on account of which it is not possible either to see further\nupon the continent, or to pass through it, I entertain the following\nopinion. In the upper parts of this country it continually snows--less\nin summer than in winter, as is reasonable. Now, whoever has seen snow\nfalling thick near him will know what I mean; for snow is like feathers,\nand on account of the winter being so severe the northern parts of this\ncountry are uninhabited. I think, then, that the Scythians and their\nneighbours call the snow feathers, comparing them together.\u201d\n\nHerodotus was, of course, right in this interpretation.\n\nWho can doubt that the people who would thus realistically describe snow\nas feathers would probably describe the white wool of the cotton-pod as\n\u201ctree-lamb\u2019s-wool,\u201d the produce of a \u201clamb-plant,\u201d or \u201cplant-lamb\u201d?\n\nThe growth and development of the story of \u201cthe Scythian Lamb\u201d from the\nsimilarity of appearance of two really different objects may be best\nexplained by comparing it with another Natural-history myth, which ran\ncuriously parallel with it. I allude to the fable that Sir John\nMandeville tells us he related to his Tartar acquaintances, viz. that of\nthe \u201c_Barnacle Geese_\u201d--which has never been surpassed as a specimen of\nignorant credulity and persistent error.\n\nFrom the twelfth to the end of the seventeenth century it was implicitly\nand almost universally believed that in the Western Islands of Scotland\ncertain geese, of which the nesting-places were never found, instead of\nbeing hatched from eggs, like other birds, were bred from \u201cshell-fish\u201d\nwhich grew on trees. Upon the shores where these geese abounded, pieces\nof timber and old trunks of trees covered with barnacles were often seen\nwhich had been stranded by the sea. From between the partly opened\nshells of the barnacles protruded their plumose cirrhi, which in some\ndegree resemble the feathers of a bird. Hence arose the belief that they\ncontained real birds. The fishermen persuaded themselves that these\nbirds within the shells were the geese whose origin they had been\npreviously unable to discover, and that they were thus bred, instead of\nbeing hatched, like other birds, from eggs. As the tale spread to a\ndistance, it gained by repetition, like the story of \u201cThe Three Black\nCrows\u201d amusingly told by Dr. John Byrom.[33] The trees found upon the\nshore were soon reported to be trees growing on the shore; that which\ngrew on trees people soon asserted to be the fruit of trees; and thus,\nfrom step to step, the story increased in wonder and obtained credit. It\nwas discussed during many centuries by philosophers and men of learning,\nwho, one after another, accepted the evidence in its favour, until Sir\nRobert Moray, F.R.S., in 1678, reported to the Royal Society that he had\nexamined these barnacles, and that in every shell that he had opened he\nhad \u201cfound a little bird--the little bill, like that of a goose; the\neyes marked; the head, neck, breast, wings, tail, and feet formed, the\nfeathers everywhere perfectly shaped and blackish-coloured, and the feet\nlike those of other water-fowl.\u201d This nonsense was published in the\n\u2018Philosophical Transactions\u2019 (No. 137, January and February, 1678) under\nthe auspices of the highest representatives of science in this country.\nThe old botanist Gerard had previously (in 1597) had the audacity to\nassert that he had witnessed the transformation of the \u201cshell-fish\u201d into\ngeese.[34]\n\n  [33] See Appendix G.\n\n  [34] See \u2018Sea Fables Explained,\u2019 by the Author, 2nd edition, p. 114.\n  Clowes and Sons, Limited.\n\nIn like manner the \u201cwool-bearing plant\u201d of Ctesias, Nearchus,\nAristobulus, and Theophrastus, the plant of which Herodotus wrote that\n\u201cit bore as its fruit fleeces which surpassed those of lambs in beauty\nand excellence,\u201d was soon reported to be \u201ca plant bearing fruit within\nwhich was a little lamb having a fleece of surpassing beauty and\nexcellence.\u201d As it was evident that a living lamb must take food, the\n\u201clytylle best\u201d was, in the next version, kindly placed upon a stalk, and\nso balanced thereon as to be able to bend downward, and browze upon the\nsurrounding herbage. Of course the lamb, if it fed on grass, must have\ndigestive and other organs, like those of lambs ordinarily begotten, so\nthese were liberally bestowed upon it with as much particularity as that\nexercised by Sir Robert Moray in enumerating the \u201cparts and features\u201d\nof the \u201clittle tree-bird.\u201d[35] The transformation of the wondrous\n\u201cplant-animal\u201d from \u201ca little lamb with a white fleece disclosed by the\nbursting of a ripe seed-pod growing on a stalk\u201d into \u201ca lamb growing on\na stalk attached to its navel, and browzing on the herbage within its\nreach,\u201d vastly increased the difficulty of identifying it. Like the\nbarnacle geese, it was discussed by philosophers and sought for by\ntravellers; but its features had been distorted beyond recognition, and,\ninstead of endeavouring to find its original portrait in the pages of\nold historians and geographers, enquirers looked for fresh information\nconcerning it in the misleading tales of successive travellers. At last,\nas we have seen, another \u201cvegetable lamb\u201d crossed the trail of the\noriginal lost one, in the shape of the two Chinese toy-dogs laid before\nthe Royal Society by Sir Hans Sloane and Dr. Breyn. That distinguished\nbody of savants unfortunately accorded their recognition to the wrongful\nclaimant, and ever since then botanists and antiquarians have regarded\nthe problem as solved, and have been satisfied that in these few rude\nmodels of \u201ctan-coloured dogs\u201d they have found the true and original\n\u201csnow-white\u201d \u201cVegetable Lamb of Scythia.\u201d\n\n  [35] The figures of the ancient partly human, partly piscine deities,\n  from which originated the belief in mermaids, similarly passed through\n  various mutations. The first idea was that of a man coming out of the\n  mouth of a fish. Subsequently, the form was that of a man clad in the\n  skin of a fish--wearing it as a mantle--the head of the fish covering\n  that of the man, like a cap or helmet. And so on, till a being was\n  developed the upper half of whose body was human, and the lower half,\n  from the waist downwards, that of a fish.\n\nThe contented acceptance by botanists and other representatives of\nscience, down to the present day, of three or four trumpery toys\nartificially and roughly fashioned by the Chinese from the rhizomes of\na fern which does not grow in Tartary or Scythia, and brought to Europe\nby travellers at rare intervals, as sufficient to account for the origin\nof a rumour which spread from Asia all over Europe and attracted the\nattention of learned men of all countries for many centuries, is not the\nleast remarkable circumstance in the history of the legend of the\n\u201cScythian Lamb.\u201d\n\nWell might the old historians consider worthy of record the reports they\nhad heard of the existence of the \u201cwool-bearing tree,\u201d for, as Dr. Ure\nhas remarked,[36] \u201cit would be universally regarded as a miracle of\nvegetation did not familiarity blunt the moral feelings of mankind. This\nclass of plants, largely distributed over the torrid zone, affords to\nthe inhabitants a spontaneous and inexhaustible supply of the clothing\nmaterial best adapted to screen their swarthy bodies from the scorching\nsun, and to favour the cooling influence of the breeze, as well as\ncutaneous exhalation. While the tropical heats change the soft wool of\nthe sheep into a harsh, scanty hair, unfit for clothing purposes, they\ncherish and ripen the vegetable wool, with its more slender and porous\nfibres, admirably suited for clothing in a hot climate, as the grosser\nand warmer animal fibres are in a cold one. No sooner does the cotton\npod arrive at maturity than its swollen capsules burst with an elastic\nforce, in gaping segments, in order, as it were, to display to the most\ncareless eye their white fleecy treasure, and to invite the hand of the\nobserver to pluck it from the seeds, and to work it up into a light and\nbeautiful robe. Thus held forth from the extremity of every bough, by\nits resemblance to sheep\u2019s wool it could not fail to attract attention.\u201d\n\n  [36] \u2018The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain,\u2019 p. 71.\n\nSuch keen observers as the ancient conquerors of India would have been\nsure to notice with surprise and interest the wonderful vegetable\nproduct which could be compared to nothing so aptly as to the white,\nsoft wool of a little lamb, to appreciate its value and usefulness, and\nto admire the fabrics manufactured from it. And, as these fabrics\ngradually found their way northward from India by the great caravan\nroutes, either by Samarcand, or by the passes of the Hindu Kush, by\nBokhara and Khiva, through Turkestan and Tartary into Russia, in one\ndirection, and by Egypt to the countries on the Mediterranean in\nanother, the sensation they would cause is not difficult to realise. We\ncan imagine how the newly-arrived trader, as he displayed his goods,\nwould be eagerly questioned by intending purchasers of the novel, soft,\nwhite or coloured cloths, so well suited to their requirements, as to\nthe nature of the raw material of which they had been woven. We can\npicture to ourselves their astonishment when he explained to them that\nthe delicate, white, flossy fibres from which his fabrics were made, of\nwhich he, perhaps, showed them a sample, and which looked so like lamb\u2019s\nwool, was the produce of a plant, the fruit of which burst open when it\nbecame ripe, and exposed to view the white wool within it. And we can\neasily understand how the fame of this spread, and was carried into\ndistant lands, and how this \u201cvegetable lamb\u2019s wool\u201d was discussed and\ntalked about in countries where it, and the yarn spun from it, and the\ncloths woven from it, had not yet penetrated.\n\nNow, let us complete our identification of the cotton-pod of India as\n\u201cthe Vegetable Lamb\u201d of the fable by showing its right to the title of\n\u201cthe _Scythian_ Lamb.\u201d\n\nThere is probably no race of men, or rather aggregate of races,\nmentioned prominently in history, of whom, and of whose country so\nlittle has been definitely known as of the ancient Scythians. They have\nbeen generally and vaguely, and, to a certain extent, correctly,\nregarded as represented in modern times by the numerous hordes of\nTartars inhabiting the lands north of the mountains of the Caucasus, and\npart of central and northern Asia. So exclusively have they been\nidentified with these tribes that the terms Tartary and Scythia have\nbeen looked upon as synonymous, and thus \u201cthe Scythian Lamb\u201d has been\ncalled also the \u201cTartarian Lamb,\u201d or \u201cthe Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.\u201d\n\nUnder the name of \u201cScythia\u201d was included (as may be seen on any good\nclassical map) a vast territory, partly in Europe and partly in Asia,\nextending from the 25th to the 116th degree of East longitude. The\nEuropean portion of it was comparatively a small province, known as\n\u201cScythia Parva,\u201d and comprised those districts of Silistria and\nBessarabia bordering the western shores of the Black Sea, south of the\nmouths of the Danube. Scythia in Asia, which was separated from Scythia\nParva by the two Sarmatias, included the whole of Turkestan, Thibet,\nMongolia, and Siberia. It was bounded on the West by the Ural Mountains\nand river, and extended northward through then unknown regions to the\nArctic Circle, and southward to the Himalayas. But still further south,\nbeyond the western Himalayas--the Hindu-Kush--was another part of\nScythia, known as \u201cIndo-Scythia.\u201d This stretched southward to the\nErythrean Sea (the Arabian Sea), and was that part of India now called\nScinde and the Punjab. Through it flowed the Indus and the Hydaspes, and\nit was on the banks of the latter river, at Bucephalia (either the\npresent Jhelum, or Jubalpore, eighteen miles lower), that Alexander\u2019s\nadmiral collected the flotilla which he conducted down the Hydaspes to\nits confluence with the Indus, and along the whole course of that great\nriver, and made his way by its lower mouth into the open water of the\nArabian Sea. Then and there it was--from the time of their arrival in\nthe country, during the war with Pontus and other Indian princes, and on\ntheir ten months\u2019 voyage homeward--that Alexander and his commodore\nNearchus saw the native population of Indo-Scythia \u201cclad in garments the\nmaterial of which was whiter than any other, or at any rate appeared so\nin contrast with their wearers\u2019 swarthy skin,\u201d and which were \u201cmade of\nthe wool like that of lambs, which grew in tufts and bunches upon\ntrees.\u201d\n\nAlthough more than two thousand years have passed since then, Nearchus\u2019s\ndescription of this costume--\u201ca shirt, or tunic, reaching to the middle\nof the leg, a sheet folded about the shoulders, and a turban rolled\nround the head\u201d--would be almost equally accurate at the present day.\nIts wearers may be congratulated that fashion has left unchanged and\nunspoiled an apparel so serviceable and well-suited to the climate of\nthe country and the habits of its people!\n\nAs the \u201cfleeces of vegetable wool, softer and whiter than that of the\nlamb,\u201d came from Indo-Scythia, the supposed plant-animal that bore them\nwas first called \u201cthe Scythian Lamb.\u201d\n\nAs time passed on, the name of Scythia in Asia became merged in that of\nTartary. From the time that the Mahometans became masters of Egypt and\nConstantinople, as no Christian was allowed to pass through their\ndominion to the East, intercourse with India by the two most direct\nroads ceased entirely. Cotton goods and other merchandise from India\nwere therefore conveyed by the trading caravans before mentioned. The\ndep\u00f4t to which they were generally forwarded was Samarcand, as was\ncorrectly related to Guillaume Postel by Michel, the Arabic interpreter\n(p. 13). There they met the great caravan travelling from the East into\nRussia, and, on the journey, passed through part of Scythia in Asia. In\neach district the caravan was joined by hosts of Tartar traders carrying\nwith them the wool of their sheep, the hair of their goats, and the\nskins of both, the soft, curly skins of their lambs, and droves of hardy\ncolts, the produce of their mares, whose milk was, and still is, to them\nas important an article of diet as that of cows is to ourselves. As the\nTartar merchants brought with the fleeces of their sheep, goats, and\nlambs the fleeces also of \u201cthe fine white wool that grew on trees\u201d and\nthe piece-goods made from it, \u201cthe vegetable lamb\u201d from which it was\nsupposed to have been sheared became also in this manner identified with\nTartary, in the same way as were Indian spices with \u201cAraby,\u201d through\nwhich they sometimes passed in transit, but where they never grew. It\nthus became known as \u201cthe wool of the Tartarian Lamb,\u201d and travellers\nwhose curiosity concerning the far-famed \u201czoophyte\u201d was subsequently\naroused sought for it in the dominions of the \u201cGreat Cham.\u201d But, just as\nwhen \u00c6neas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II., sought in\nScotland for the \u201cgoose-bearing tree,\u201d which he eagerly desired to see,\nupon being told that it grew much further north, complained that\n\u201cmiracles will always flee farther and farther away\u201d; so when any\npainstaking traveller in Tartary endeavoured to investigate the subject\nof the strange \u201cplant-animal,\u201d he was sure to learn (unless he allowed\nhimself to be cunningly hoaxed by the skin of a natural lamb, or the\nfruit of another plant) that the object of his search was non-existent\nin its reputed birthplace, and that he must look for it elsewhere.\n\nThus the story of the \u201cScythian\u201d or \u201cTartarian Lamb\u201d grew, and was\nexaggerated and distorted, until all traces of its origin were so\nobliterated that even men of thought and learning have been unable to\nrecognise in the misleading descriptions given of it the plant which,\nexcepting corn, is, perhaps, the most valuable to mankind. For, as I\nhave said, it seems to me to be clear and indubitable that the fruit\nwhich burst when ripe and disclosed within it \u201ca little lamb\u201d was the\ncotton pod, and that the soft, white, delicate fleece of \u201cthe Vegetable\nLamb of Scythia\u201d was that which we still call \u201cCotton Wool.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE REAL \u201cVEGETABLE LAMB\u201d--A COTTON POD.\n\n(_Gossypium herbaceum._)]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE HISTORY OF COTTON AND ITS INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE.\n\n\nIn the preceding pages I have referred to the introduction of cotton\ninto the countries north and west of the Indus in so far only as the\nexpressions of old writers relating to it have seemed to afford a clue\nto the origin of the fable of \u201cthe Scythian Lamb.\u201d But I venture to\nthink that a brief account of its botanical affinities, and of its\nspread and distribution amongst various nations, may form an appropriate\nand acceptable sequel to the story of the wild rumours that preceded by\nmany centuries its arrival in Western Europe.\n\nThe cotton plant, _Gossypium_, is one of the _Malvace\u00e6_--allied to the\nmallow. There are several varieties of it, but only three principal\ndistinctions require notice--namely, the herbaceous, the tree, and the\nshrub species. The first and most useful, _Gossypium herbaceum_, is an\nannual plant, cultivated in the United States, India, China, and other\ncountries. It grows to a height of from eighteen to twenty inches, and\nhas leaves, which being somewhat lobed, of a bright dark green colour,\nand marked with brownish veins, were not inaptly compared by\nTheophrastus with those of the black mulberry and the vine. Its blossoms\nexpand into a pale yellow flower, and when this falls off a\nthree-celled, triangular capsular pod appears. The pod increases to the\nsize of a large cob-nut or small medlar, and becomes brown as the woolly\nfruit ripens. The expansion of the wool then causes the pod to burst,\nand it discloses a ball of snow-white (in some species, yellowish) down\nconsisting of three locks--one in each cell--enclosing and firmly\nadhering to the seeds. As the pods ripen the cotton is gathered by hand,\nand is exposed to the sun till it is perfectly dry; the seeds are then\nseparated from it, and it is packed into bales for future use or\nexportation. In the United States it is planted in rows, four feet\nasunder, and the seeds are set in holes eighteen inches apart.\n\nThe shrub cotton grows in almost every country where the annual\nherbaceous cotton is found. Its duration varies according to the\nclimate. In some places, as in the West Indies, it is biennial or\ntriennial; in others, as in India, Egypt, &c., it lasts from six to ten\nyears; in the hottest climates it is perennial; and in the cooler\ncountries it becomes an annual.\n\nThe tree-cotton, _Gossypium arboreum_, grows in India, Egypt, China, the\ninterior and western coast of Africa, and in some parts of America. As\nthe tree only attains to a height of from twelve to twenty feet, it is\ndifficult to distinguish the tree cotton and the shrub cotton when\nreferred to by travellers.\n\nThe cotton plant, in all its varieties, requires a sandy soil. It\nflourishes on the rocky hills of Hindostan, Africa, and the West Indies,\nand will grow where the soil is too poor to produce any other valuable\ncrop.\n\nCotton has always been regarded as indigenous to India, and as the\ncharacteristic clothing material of that country, as flax is of Egypt,\nsilk of China, and the wool of sheep and goats of Northern Asia.\n\nThe uncertain nature of Hindoo chronology prevents our even guessing at\nthe period when cotton was first spun and woven in India; but there is\nlittle doubt that it was so used from the earliest ages of Hindoo\ncivilization. As Dr. Robertson remarks, in his \u2018Historical Disquisition\non British India\u2019--\u201cWhoever attempts to trace the operations of men in\nremote times, and to mark the various steps of their progress in any\nline of exertion, will soon have the mortification to find that the\nperiod of authentic history is extremely limited, and if we push our\nenquiries beyond the period when written history commences we enter upon\nthe region of conjecture, of fable, and of uncertainty.\u201d\n\nThe earliest mention of cotton with which we are acquainted is found,\naccording to Dr. Royle,[37] in the first book of the Rig Veda, Hymn 105,\nverse 8, which is supposed to have been composed fifteen centuries\nbefore the Christian era. It is, however, a mere allusion to \u201cthreads in\nthe loom,\u201d and although it probably does refer to cotton, the evidence\nof this is only circumstantial. But in \u2018The Sacred Institutes of Manu,\u2019\nwhich date from 800 B.C., cotton is referred to so repeatedly as to\nimply that it was in common use at that time in India. Dr. Royle says,\non the authority of Professor Wilson, that cotton and cotton-cloth are\nmentioned in that book by the Sanscrit names \u201c_Kurpasa_\u201d and\n\u201c_Karpasum_,\u201d and cotton-seeds as \u201c_Kurpas-asthi_.\u201d The common Bengali\nname \u201cKupas,\u201d indicating cotton with the seed, which is still in general\nuse all over India, and may even be occasionally heard in Lancashire,\nis, no doubt, derived from the Sanscrit, from which also comes the Latin\n\u201c_carbasus_.\u201d\n\n  [37] \u2018On the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India and elsewhere,\u2019\n  by J. Forbes Royle, M.D., F.R.S. London. 1851.\n\nIt is evident that the manufacture of cotton in India must date from a\nvery remote period indeed, for long before the time of Herodotus the\nprocesses of weaving and dyeing it had attained to a degree of\nexcellence which indicates considerable previous experience; and a large\nexport trade in white and coloured cotton fabrics had even then been\nestablished.\n\nFrom India manufactured cotton seems to have reached Persia in very\nearly times, for the word \u201cKarpas\u201d occurs in the book of Esther (chap.\ni. v. 6), in the description of the decorations of the palace of Shushan\nduring the right royal festivities given there by King Ahasuerus, B.C.\n519. In the verse referred to we are told that there were \u201cwhite, green,\nand blue hangings.\u201d The word corresponding with \u201cgreen\u201d in the Hebrew is\n\u201c_Karpas_,\u201d in the Septuagint and Vulgate, _carbasinus_, and should be\nrendered \u201ccotton-cloth\u201d; so that the hangings of the palace of Ahasuerus\nwere of white and blue striped cotton, such as may be seen throughout\nIndia at the present day. Bishop Heber describes the Hall of Audience of\nthe Emperor of Delhi, as having these striped curtains hanging in\nfestoons about it.\n\nMattrasses, also, of this striped material, stuffed and padded with\ncoarse cotton, are still used in India as a substitute for doors and\nwindow-shutters, to keep out the heat, and are known as \u201cpurdahs.\u201d\nAristobulus reported that Susiana had when he was there \u201can atmosphere\nso glowing and scorching that lizards and serpents could not cross the\nstreets of the city at noon quickly enough to prevent their being burned\nto death mid-way by the heat\u201d; that \u201cbarley spread out in the sun was\nroasted, as in an oven, and hopped about\u201d (like parched peas); and that\n\u201cthe inhabitants laid earth to the depth of three and a half feet on the\nroofs of their houses to exclude the suffocating heat,\u201d so that it is\nnot improbable that these blue and white striped \u201cpurdahs\u201d were used in\nthe palace of Shushan in the time of Ahasuerus.\n\nStrabo frequently mentions this palace of Shushan, or Susa, which was in\nthe province of Susis, or Susiana, at the head of the Persian Gulf. He\ntells us that when Alexander the Great became master of Persia he\ntransferred to this residence of the Persian Monarchs everything that\nwas precious in the land, although the palace was already almost filled\nwith treasures and costly materials. Strabo has further been quoted as\nmentioning that cotton grew in Susiana and was there manufactured into\ncloths, but although I have searched his chapters many times I can find\nno such statement. It is most probable, however, that before his time\ncotton did grow and was manufactured in Susiana, and that it was first\nintroduced by the Macedonians. They certainly brought into culture there\nbefore the time of Strabo another valuable plant: for we have the\ndistinct statement of the latter that \u201cthe vine did not grow in Susiana\nbefore the Macedonians planted it both there and at Babylon.\u201d\n\nAmidst the hurry of war and the rage for conquest Alexander always kept\nin view the future pacification of an invaded country; its products,\ntherefore, were habitually ascertained and carefully noted, with a view\nto the increase of revenue and the development of commerce. But, beyond\nthis, the great Macedonian conqueror, wherever he went, employed a\nnumerous corps of scouts, and searchers, and men of science, to collect\nspecimens of the curious animals, plants, and minerals to be found on\nthe march. These he sent home from time to time to his great preceptor\nAristotle, who was thus assisted to produce a work on Natural History\nwhich, for general accuracy of description and extent of knowledge, is\na wonderful monument of scientific observation.\n\nWhen by the refusal of his soldiers to proceed further than the banks of\nthe Hyphasis (the modern Beyah), Alexander found himself obliged to\nyield to their wish to be led back to Persia, he determined to sail down\nthe Indus to the ocean, and from its mouth to proceed by the Erythrean\nSea to the Persian Gulf, that a communication by sea might be opened\nwith India. His intention was that the valuable commodities of that\ncountry should thus be conveyed through the Persian Gulf to the interior\nparts of his Asiatic dominions, and that by the Arabian Gulf they should\nbe carried to Alexandria (the site of which he had most judiciously\nselected), and thence distributed to the rest of the world.\n\nWith this object in view, he ordered a numerous fleet of boats and\nriver-craft to be built and collected on the banks of the Hydaspes, at\nBucephalia (either the modern Jhelum, or Jubalpore, some eighteen miles\nlower down the stream), and, when nearly two thousand vessels of various\nshape and size had been got together, he commenced his voyage down the\nHydaspes to the Indus. The conduct of the flotilla was committed to\nNearchus, an officer worthy of that important trust, though Alexander\nhimself accompanied him in his navigation down the river. The army\nnumbered a hundred and twenty thousand men and two hundred elephants.\nOne third of the troops were embarked on the boats, whilst the\nremainder, marching in two columns, one on the right, and the other on\nthe left side of the river, accompanied them in their progress. Retarded\nby various military operations on land, as well as by the slow advance\nof such a fleet as he conducted, Alexander did not reach the sea until\nmore than nine months after the commencement of his journey. Having\nsafely accomplished this arduous undertaking, he led the main body of\nhis army back to Persia by land. The command of the fleet, with a\nconsiderable body of troops on board of it, remained with Nearchus, who,\nafter a coasting voyage of seven months, brought it safely up the\nPersian Gulf into the Euphrates.\n\nAlexander\u2019s expedition into India was no less an intelligent exploration\nthan a successful invasion, and the western world is more indebted than\nis generally understood to the original genius, conspicuous foresight,\npolitical wisdom, and indefatigable exertions of that remarkable man. It\nwas from the memoirs of his officers that Europe derived its first\nauthentic information concerning the climate, soil, inhabitants and\nproductions of India, and amongst the last not the least beneficial to\nman was cotton.\n\nAlthough Scylax of Caryandra, an emissary of Darius Hydaspes, had\ndescended the Indus to the sea about a hundred and eighty years\npreviously (B.C. 509), other nations had derived no benefit from his\ninvestigations. But his report of the fertility, high cultivation, and\nopulence of the country he had passed through inflamed his master\u2019s\ngreed, and made Darius impatient to become possessor of a territory so\nvaluable. This he soon accomplished, and though his conquests seem not\nto have extended beyond the districts watered by the Indus, he levied a\ntribute from it which equalled in amount one-third of the whole revenue\nof the Persian Monarchy.\n\nUntil Alexander became master of Persia no commercial intercourse seems\nto have been carried on by sea between that country and India. The\nancient rulers of Persia, induced by a peculiar precept of their\nreligion which enjoined them to guard with the utmost care against the\ndefilement of any of the \u201celements,\u201d and also by a fear of foreign\ninvasion, obstructed by artificial works near their mouths the\nnavigation of the great rivers which gave access to the interior of the\ncountry. As their subjects, however, were no less desirous than the\npeople around them of possessing the valuable productions and elegant\nmanufactures of India, these latter were conveyed to all parts of their\ndominions by land carriage. The goods destined for the northern\nprovinces were borne on camels from the banks of the Indus to those of\nthe Oxus, down the stream of which they were carried to the Caspian Sea,\nand distributed, partly by land and partly by navigable rivers, through\nthe different countries bounded on the one hand by the Caspian, and on\nthe other by the Euxine, or Black Sea; whilst those of India intended\nfor the southern and interior districts were transported by land from\nthe Caspian Gates to some of the great rivers, by which they were\ndispersed through every part of the country. This was the ancient mode\nof intercourse with India, whilst the Persian Empire was governed by its\nnative princes; and, as Robertson says, \u201cit has been observed in every\nage that when any branch of commerce has got into a certain channel,\nalthough it may not be the best or most convenient one, it requires long\ntime and persistent efforts to give it a different direction.\u201d[38]\n\n  [38] Robertson\u2019s \u2018Historical Disquisition Concerning India.\u2019\n\nAlexander of Macedon was not a man likely to permit the existence of\nimpediments in the way of that which he knew to be highly conducive to\nnational progress and prosperity--namely, the expansion of commerce and\nfacility of communication. On his return, therefore, from India to Susa,\nhe, in person, surveyed the course of the Euphrates and Tigris, and\ngave directions for the removal of the cataracts and dams, which had so\nlong rendered the upper waters of these rivers inaccessible from the\nsea. His wise plans and splendid schemes were cut short by his early\ndeath, B.C. 324; but his surviving generals, though they quarrelled with\neach other, did their best to carry out his policy and the measures\nwhich he had concerted with so much sagacity.\n\nHis successor, Seleucus, entertained so high an opinion of the\nadvantages to be derived from commercial intercourse with India that he\norganized another expedition, which must have been very successful,\nthough no particulars of it have come down to us. He also sent to\nSandracottus, King of the Prasii, an ambassador, Megasthenes, who\npenetrated to Palebothra (the modern Allahabad), at the confluence of\nthe Jumna and the Ganges.\n\nMeanwhile Ptolemy Soter, another of Alexander\u2019s generals, who had\nenjoyed his confidence and entered into his plans more thoroughly than\nany of his other officers, took possession of Egypt, and strove to\nsecure for Alexandria the advantage of the trade with India. Some say\nthat it was he who erected the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbour of\nAlexandria which was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world,\nwho built there the magnificent temple of Serapis, and who founded the\ncelebrated library and museum for the benefit of learning and the\ncultivation of science.[39]\n\n  [39] See Appendix H.\n\nHis son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, completed those works, and, further to\nattract the Indian trade to Alexandria, commenced to form a canal, one\nhundred and seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet deep, between\nArsinoe (Suez) and the eastern branch of the Nile, by means of which the\nproductions of India might be conveyed to Alexandria entirely by water.\nBut this work was never finished, and as the navigation of the northern\nextremity of the Arabian Gulf (the Red Sea) was so difficult and\ndangerous as to be greatly dreaded, Ptolemy built a city, which he\ncalled Berenice, further down the west coast of that sea, about lat.\n24\u00b0. This new city soon became the chief port of communication between\nEgypt and India. Goods landed there were carried by camels across the\ndesert of Thebais to Coptos, a distance of about 320 English miles, and\nfrom there down the Nile to Alexandria, whence they were transhipped to\nthe various countries on the Mediterranean.\n\nThus by the exploits and far-sighted policy of Alexander the Great were\nthe then civilized nations of Europe made practically acquainted with\ncalicoes, muslins, and other piece-goods--clothing materials which they\nhad never previously seen, although probably for more than two thousand\nyears these had been woven in the simple looms of India from the soft,\nwhite, \u201cvegetable-lamb\u2019s wool that grew on trees\u201d; and had during that\nlong period supplied the principal raiment of a population of many\nmillions.\n\nAs the Persians had an unconquerable dislike of the sea, the seat of\nintercourse with India was the more easily established in Egypt, and it\nis remarkable how soon and how regularly the commerce with the East came\nto be carried on by the channel in which the sagacity of Alexander had\ndestined it to flow.\n\nThe Egyptian merchants took on board their cargoes of Indian produce at\nPatala (now Tatta) on the lower Delta of the Indus, at Barygaza (now\nBaroche, on the Nerbuddah) and in the Gulf of Cambay, and probably also\nat Kurrachee and Surat. As their vessels were of small burden, and as\nthey, themselves, though sufficiently acquainted with astronomy to make\nsome use of the stars, had no knowledge of the mariner\u2019s compass, the\nprudent merchantmen crept timidly along within sight of land, following\nthe outline of every bay, and skirting the shores of Persia and Arabia\nand the western coast of Lower Egypt to Berenice. Though the course was\ntedious and the voyage prolonged, the traffic prospered, and was thus\ncarried on for more than three centuries. When Egypt was conquered by\nJulius C\u00e6sar, B.C. 30, and, after the battle of Actium, became a Roman\nprovince under Augustus, it continued undisturbed. The taste for luxury\nat Rome gave a new impetus to commerce with India, and at this time four\nhundred sailing craft were engaged in the trade.\n\nAbout A.D. 50, an important discovery was made which greatly facilitated\nintercourse between Egypt and the East, and diminished the time occupied\nby the voyage. Hippalus, the commander of a vessel trading with India,\nnoticed the periodical winds called the \u201cmonsoons,\u201d or \u201ctrade-winds,\u201d\nand how steadily they blew during one part of the year from the east,\nand during the other from the west. Having observed this to occur\nregularly every year, he ventured to relinquish the slow and circuitous\ncoasting route, and stretched boldly from the mouth of the Arabian Gulf\nacross the ocean, and was carried by the western monsoon to Musiris, on\nthe Malabar coast. This was one of the greatest achievements in\nnavigation in ancient history, and opened the best communication between\nEast and West that was known for fourteen hundred years afterwards.\n\nArrian (who wrote A.D. 131) says that at that date Indian cottons of\nlarge width, fine cottons, muslins, plain and figured, and cotton for\nstuffing couches and beds, were landed at Aduli (the present Massowah),\nand that Barygaza was the port from which they were chiefly shipped.\n\nThe Romans also established an intercourse by land, by way of Palmyra\n(\u201cTadmor in the Wilderness\u201d), which by means of this trade rose to great\nopulence; but even after the removal of the seat of government from Rome\nto Constantinople, in the year 329, the Roman Empire was still supplied\nwith the productions of India by way of Egypt. The trade that might have\nbeen carried on between India and Constantinople by land was prevented\nby the Persians.\n\nThe Indo-Egyptian maritime traffic established by Alexander, and\nencouraged by Ptolemy Lagus and his son, prospered for nearly a thousand\nyears. It survived the downfall of the Roman Empire, A.D. 476, and\nlasted until the conquest of Egypt by the Mahometans under Amru Benalas,\nthe general of Caliph Omar, A.D. 634.\n\nAs no communication was carried on between Mahometans and Christians,\nthe capture of Alexandria by the Saracens prevented the nations of\nEurope obtaining the products of India through Egypt, and this valuable\nroute of international communication was abruptly stopped.\n\nI have devoted some space to a description of the first maritime trade\nwith India, established by the wisdom of Alexander, and suddenly\narrested by Mahometan bigotry, because the history of that commerce is,\nmore or less, the history of the cotton trade, and explains how the use\nof cotton and its progress westward were gradually developed and\nsubsequently checked.\n\nIt will be convenient to make this date--the commencement of \u201cthe dark\nages\u201d--a halting-place from which to mark how far cotton and the fabrics\nmade from it were appreciated by the nations who were chiefly benefited\nby the sea-carriage of Indian products in general.\n\nThe very ancient Egyptians were apparently unacquainted with cotton. At\none time there was considerable discussion concerning the substance from\nwhich the swathing bandages of the mummies were woven, and some\n_savants_ claimed to have discovered cotton amongst them. But the\nmicroscope quickly decided that question, for the character and\nappearance of the fibres of cotton and flax are so markedly different\nthat any young microscopist may distinguish one from the other with\nease. It was found that in every case these bandages were made of linen.\nNegative evidence to the same effect is furnished by the fact that no\npictures or other similitude of the cotton plant has been found in\nEgyptian tombs, whereas accurate representations of flax occur, in its\ndifferent stages of growth, harvest, and manufacture.[40]\n\n  [40] In the Grotto of El Kab are paintings representing, amongst other\n  scenes, a field of corn and a crop of flax. Four persons are employed\n  in pulling up the flax by the roots; another binds it into sheaves; a\n  sixth carries it to a distance; and a seventh separates the linseed\n  from the stem by means of a four-toothed \u201cripple,\u201d which he uses just\n  in the same way as it is now used in Europe. See Hamilton\u2019s\n  \u2018_\u00c6gyptiaca_,\u2019 Plate xxiii., and Yates\u2019s \u2018_Textrinum Antiquorum_,\u2019 p.\n  255.\n\nThe circumstance mentioned by Herodotus, that King Amasis of Egypt, in\nsending as a gift to Sparta a corselet padded with cotton and ornamented\nwith gold thread, thought it a fit present from a King, and in\ndedicating a similar one to Minerva in her temple at Lindus considered\nit an offering worthy of the goddess, shows that it was at that period a\nnovelty and a rarity. The first knowledge of cotton in Egypt may, I\nthink, be correctly assigned to that date--about B.C. 550. Linen was the\nprincipal clothing material of the Egyptians, and the manufacture of it\nfrom flax by them is probably of as great antiquity as the growth and\nwearing of cotton in India. The embalmed bodies of their dead were\nwrapped in it during successive ages through a period of more than two\nthousand years, and their priests wore it during the same period, its\nclean white texture being accepted as a semblance of purity, whereas\nwool, taken from a sheep, was deemed a profane attire.\n\nFlax and linen are frequently referred to in the Bible. The earliest\nmention of the former is in Exodus ix. 31, in the account of the plague\nof hail that devastated Lower Egypt B.C. 1491, and destroyed, when they\nwere nearly ripe for harvest, the two most important crops of the\nEgyptians--that of the barley on which they relied for food for\nthemselves and for export to other nations, and the flax on which they\ndepended for their clothing and manufacturing employment. For flax was\nnot only used for wearing apparel, but the coarser kinds were employed\nfor making sail-cloths, ropes, nets, and for other purposes for which\nhemp is generally used.\n\nIt is surprising that notwithstanding the comparative proximity of Egypt\nto India, cotton, which had been for ages so extensively manufactured in\nthe latter country, should have remained so long unknown or\nunappreciated by a people to whom it would have furnished a cheaper and\nmore comfortable article of dress than the flax-plant. But it is certain\nthat linen was held in favour and the use of it prevailed in Egypt till\nthe Christian era, although the cotton fabrics imported into Berenice\nwere gradually coming into more general wear. Pacatus mentions that Mark\nAntony\u2019s soldiers wore cotton in Egypt, and says that they felt so much\ndiscomfort from the heat that they could hardly tolerate light cotton\nclothing, even in the shade.\n\nFrom a passage in Pliny\u2019s Natural History (lib. xix. cap. 1) it would\nappear that the cotton plant was cultivated in Upper Egypt in his day\n(A.D. 77), and this has been accepted as genuine and quoted by Dr.\nUre[41] and others. But Mr. Yates, in his \u2018_Textrinum Antiquorum_\u2019 (p.\n459), shows good reason for believing that the paragraph was\ninterpolated in the text of one of the MSS. of Pliny\u2019s work, after\nhaving been originally an annotation in the margin of an earlier copy.\nThis explanation clears up an otherwise involved and disconnected\npassage, and there are other reasons besides those given by Mr. Yates\nfor believing that his surmise is correct.\n\n  [41] \u2018The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain.\u2019\n\nAbdollatiph, an Arabian physician who visited Egypt at the end of the\ntwelfth century, does not mention cotton in the account which he wrote\n(A.D. 1203), of the plants of that country; and Prospero Alpini, the\nPaduan physician and botanist, who some four centuries later directed\nhis attention to the natural history of Egypt, says[42] that the\nEgyptians then imported cotton for their use, that the herbaceous kind\n(_Gossypium herbaceum_), from which cotton was obtained in Syria and\nCyprus, did not grow in Egypt, but that the tree kind (_G. arboreum_)\nwas cultivated as an ornamental plant in private gardens, and in very\nsmall quantities, its down not being used for spinning.\n\n  [42] \u2018_De Plantis \u00c6gypti_,\u2019 cap. 18.\n\nBelon, who was in Egypt about thirty years before Alpini, makes no\nmention of cotton growing there; but says that he found it in Arabia, at\nthe north of the Arabian Gulf, near Mount Sinai.\n\nIt would appear, therefore, that up to the beginning of the seventeenth\ncentury the Egyptians were importers, not cultivators, of cotton.\n\nFrom a passage in the comedy \u2018Pausimachus\u2019 of Cecilius Statius (who died\nB.C. 169), quoted by Mr. Yates in the work already referred to, the\nGreeks seem to have been acquainted with muslins and calicoes brought\nfrom India 200 years before Christ; and about a century later the Romans\nadopted the Oriental custom of using cotton-cloth as a protection from\nthe sun\u2019s rays. Ornamental coverings for tents were made from it, and\nawnings of striped and coloured calico were spread over the theatres,\nand gave welcome shade to the spectators. It was also used for\nsail-cloth. Cotton fabrics are frequently mentioned by the poets of the\nAugustan age, and by writers of a later date; but the finer qualities\nare almost always referred to in a manner which indicates that by the\nGreeks and Romans they were regarded rather as an expensive and curious\nproduction than as an article of common use. Their dress was almost\nentirely woollen, which, as they frequently used the bath, was always\ncomfortable; and, for cooler wear, as Mr. Yates truly observes, \u201cthere\nappears no reason why cotton fabrics should have been used in preference\nto linen. The latter is more cleanly, more durable, and much less liable\nto take fire; and amongst the ancients it must have been much the\ncheaper of the two.\u201d In Rome and Athens the finest woven goods were\nextravagantly dear, for the body of the people were practically excluded\nfrom manufacturing work. This was principally carried on by slaves for\nthe benefit of their masters, for all the great men had large\nestablishments of slaves who understood the art of manufacturing most of\nthe articles necessary for ordinary use. The importation of cotton and\npiece-goods into ancient Greece and Rome was therefore comparatively\ninconsiderable.\n\nWith the fall of the Roman Empire, into which Greece had previously been\nabsorbed, art and science in Europe sank into a death-like trance which\nlasted for many centuries. We will therefore trace the progress of the\nIndian cotton trade in other directions during the long period that\nelapsed before science and art revived.\n\nAs India carried on a very important manufacture of cotton for home\nconsumption, as well as for her large exports, it might be supposed that\nChina would have been led to participate in the advantages offered by\nit. But, as in Egypt flax had been for many ages the raw material\nprincipally used for the clothing of the population, so in China fabrics\nwoven from the web of the silkworm were, from the earliest times, used\nfor the dress of all classes of the people. By authorities of high\nrepute in China we are informed that Si-Hing, wife of the Emperor\nHoang-Ti, began to breed silkworms about 2,600 years before Christ, and\nthat the mulberry tree was cultivated to supply them with food four\nhundred years afterwards.\n\nIndia was the country of cotton; Egypt, of flax; China, of silk; and in\nthe two latter countries (especially in the case of the exclusive\nChinese) vested interests for a long time barred the way against the\nadoption of the new foreign material. Cotton vestments and robes of\nhonour were occasionally presented to the Chinese emperors by foreign\nambassadors, and were highly appreciated and admired. The Emperor Ou-Ti,\nwhose reign commenced B.C. 502, had one of these robes; but it was not\ntill fifteen hundred years later that cotton began to be cultivated in\nChina for manufacturing purposes. Towards the end of the seventh century\nthe herbaceous species was grown in the gardens of Pekin, but only for\nthe sake of its flowers. When the country was conquered by the Mongolian\nTartars, A.D. 1280, the emperors of that dynasty took all possible pains\nto extend the culture of cotton, and imposed an annual tribute of it on\nseveral provinces. The cultivators, merchants, weavers, and wearers of\nsilk (which included the whole nation) regarded this as a dangerous\ninnovation seriously affecting their rights and habits, and zealously\ntried to maintain the established usages of the people. Eventually,\nhowever, their prejudices were overcome, and at present nine persons out\nof ten in China are clad in cotton raiment.\n\nReturning to the dark ages of Europe, and the rise of the Mahometan\npower there, we find that by the end of the seventh century the\ncultivation and manufacture of cotton in Arabia and Syria had become an\nimportant industry, and had also crept along the northern coast of\nAfrica. When, therefore, the Saracens and Moors invaded Spain and\nwrested it from the Goths (A.D. 712) they brought with them a knowledge\nof the plant and its uses. Being well skilled in agriculture, they\nimmediately introduced in the conquered territory the cultivation of\ncotton, sugar, rice, and the mulberry--the latter being in favour for\nthe use of its leaves as food for the silkworm. Looms were put to work\nin almost every town, and the growth and weaving of cotton were carried\non with great and increasing success until the fifteenth century.\nBarcelona was celebrated for its cotton sail-cloth, of which it supplied\na great quantity to ship-owners, and stout cotton stuffs like fustian\nwere also qualities for which the Spanish looms were famous. Cotton\npaper, too, seems to have been first made by the Spanish Arabs, although\nabout the same time it was substituted for papyrus in Egypt. A paper was\nlikewise manufactured in Spain from linen rags which was much admired by\nthe literary men of the time. But the religious antipathy which existed\nbetween the Moors and Christians prevented the spread of these and other\nOriental arts; so that when the Moorish domination in Spain was crushed\nby the conquest of Grenada, in 1492, the manufactures which the Moors\nhad introduced and fostered relapsed into barbarous neglect. The cotton\nplant is still found growing wild in some parts of the Peninsula. Under\nthe influence of the Moors cotton was cultivated in Greece, Italy,\nSicily and Malta, but upon their expulsion from Europe its growth was\ntransferred to the African shores of the Mediterranean.\n\nDuring the sway of the Mahometans the passage of Indian commodities to\nNorth-Western and Central Europe was so effectually barred by them that\nthe trade dwindled, and the demand for the products of the East almost\nceased. When the route through Egypt was closed, the Persians, who by\nthat time had learned the advantages of commercial intercourse with\nother nations, seized the opportunity of diverting the traffic of the\nPersian Gulf by the Euphrates and Tigris to Bagdad, and thence across\nthe Desert of Palmyra to the Mediterranean ports. But as Constantinople\nwas also in the hands of the Caliphs, the roads to Europe were long and\ndifficult. The greater part of the goods from India had, as I have\nmentioned (p. 58), to be carried by land on the backs of camels with the\ngreat caravans which, from time immemorial, have been the chief means of\ncommercial intercourse between the nations of Eastern, Central, and\nNorthern Asia, and the countries to the south and west of them.\n\nBesides the two great caravans of pilgrims and merchants which, annually\nstarting from Cairo and Damascus, met at Mecca, exchanged their\nmerchandize there, and disseminated it on their return in every country\nthey passed through, there were others consisting entirely of merchants\nwhose sole object was commerce. These at stated seasons set out from\ndifferent parts of Persia by ancient routes, on journeys of enormous\nlength--those for the East visited India, and even the furthest\nextremities of China. Their average rate of travel was eighteen miles\nper day; and as the time of their departure and their route were both\nknown, they were met by the people of all the countries through which\nthey passed, for the purpose of sale, purchase, or barter. Hence the\nestablishment, as commercial gathering-places, of the great fairs, of\nwhich that still held annually at Nijni Novgorod is a well-known\nexample. The value of the trade thus carried on was far beyond the\nconception of any one who has not given especial attention to the\nsubject. That between Russia and China, which has only been discontinued\nwithin the last few years, has been very important. In the time of Peter\nthe Great, though the capitals of the two empires were six thousand\nthree hundred and seventy-eight miles apart, and the route lay for more\nthan four hundred miles through an uninhabited desert, caravans\ntravelled regularly from one to the other. Tedious as this mode of\nconveyance appears, it sufficed for the traffic in Eastern produce at a\nperiod when the whole of Europe had but little time or taste for the\nrefinements of life, and but little means of purchasing them. Nations\nwere at that time frequently at war, the feudal barons kept their\nvassals under arms, a soldier\u2019s career was the only means of acquiring\ndistinction, and luxuries obtained by commerce were looked upon as\neffeminate and degrading.\n\nThe arts and sciences first revived in Italy. The republics of Venice\nand Genoa turned their attention to commerce, and, in the year 1204, the\nVenetians, under Dandolo, and assisted by the soldiers of the fourth\ncrusade, took the city of Constantinople from the Greeks, and, for a\ntime, had the advantage of carrying on the Indian trade. They only held\nit, however, for fifty-seven years; for, in 1261, the Greeks, under\nMichael Pal\u00e6ologus, and aided by the Genoese, recovered possession of\nthe city, and Genoa acquired the privileges which Venice, for a short\ntime, had enjoyed. The Venetians then, setting aside their religious\nscruples, made a treaty with the Mahometans, and obtained the produce of\nIndia through Egypt.\n\nThe progress of the cotton trade, which had for so long been restricted,\nnow became more rapid. In the fourteenth century the fustians and\ndimities of Venice and Milan were much esteemed, especially in Northern\nEurope. Half a century later the manufacture was established in Saxony\nand Suabia, whence it made its way into the Netherlands. At Bruges and\nGhent a large trade arose, especially in the fustians which were\nmanufactured in Prussia and Germany, and were exported thence to\nFlanders and Spain.\n\nAt the end of the fifteenth century two events took place within a few\nyears of each other which formed an important epoch, not only in the\nhistory of the cotton trade, but in the history of the world--namely,\nthe discovery of America by Columbus, and that of the passage to India\nround the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama. The commerce of Genoa\nhaving been supplanted by the Venetians, Christopher Columbus, a\nGenoese, conceived the plan of sailing to India by a new course. It\nhaving been admitted by philosophers that the world was globular, he\nrightly argued that any point on it might be reached by sailing\nwestward, as well as by travelling eastward. He therefore laid his\nscheme, first, before the Council of the Republic of Genoa, and\nafterwards before the King of Portugal; but, as it was unfavourably\nreceived by both, he persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to grant\nhim two ships, and with these he sailed westward in search of India, on\nthe 3rd of August, 1492. On his arrival, thirty days afterwards, at one\nof the Bahamas, the first land he saw after crossing the Atlantic, his\nvessels were surrounded by canoes filled with natives bringing cotton\nyarn and thread in skeins for exchange. And when he landed in Cuba,\nwhich he at first supposed to be the mainland of India, he saw the women\nthere wearing dresses made of cotton cloth, and also found in use strong\nnets made of cotton cords, which the inhabitants stretched between poles\nand in which they slept at night. These were called \u201chamacas,\u201d whence\ncomes our word \u201chammock.\u201d The people there had also so great a quantity\nof spun cotton on spindles that it was estimated there was 12,000 lbs.\nweight of it in a single house. Oviedo says the same of Hayti, and, at\nthe discovery of Guadaloupe, the same year, cotton thread in skeins was\nfound everywhere, and looms wherewith to weave it. There, as well as at\nHayti and Cuba, the idols were made of cotton, and, in 1520, Fernando\nMagalhaens found the natives of Brazil using cotton for stuffing beds.\nThe growth and manufacture of cotton, which were the first things\nbrought to the notice of Columbus in the \u201cWest Indies,\u201d and which were\nsoon afterwards found existing in various parts of South America, had\napparently been handed down to those who practised them from a time far\naway in the past.\n\nThe Eastern Hemisphere is popularly regarded, even at the present day,\nas possessing a monopoly of antiquity, or, at any rate, of ancient\ncivilization. It is not difficult to understand the mental process by\nwhich this notion is produced. In the first place the mind is hardly\nprepared to receive the idea that the inhabitants of countries of the\nexistence of which we have, comparatively, so recently become aware as\nthe continent of America should have attained to a high degree of\ncivilization long before the natives of Britain emerged from savage\nbarbarism. This feeling found expression in the distinctive\nappellations given respectively to the two hemispheres, the \u201cOld World\u201d\nand the \u201cNew World.\u201d Secondly, the only written historical records that\nhave come down to us from the remote past relate to Europe, Asia, and\nAfrica. But the oldest authentic history is only yesterday\u2019s news in\ncomparison with the age of the world, and that which was called \u201cthe New\nWorld\u201d is as old as the rest of the globe, and, apparently, was\npopulated at quite as early a period. For in Mexico and Central America\nare found unmistakable proofs of the greatness and culture of former\ndwellers in the land. Immense piles of cyclopean masonry, of\ninconceivable grandeur, and incalculable antiquity; mounds and pyramids\nas massive as those of Egypt, huge reservoirs for water, aqueducts,\nruins of public buildings, temples and palaces, tell of a powerful and\nwealthy nation, skilled in engineering and other sciences, and in all\nthe important arts of civilized life. These were followed by successive\nraces, differing from each other in habits, laws, arts, manufactures and\nreligious worship. But all have passed away and out of memory as\ncompletely as if they had never been. We know nothing of their wars or\ndynasties, their prosperity or decay. Their works are their sole\nhistory. Only their ruined monuments remain to show that they once\nexisted; and these are sometimes found in forest solitudes so far from\nthe habitations of those who now occupy their territories, that the\ntraveller who unexpectedly comes upon them is startled, like Crusoe by\nthe foot-print, to find that man has been there.\n\nIn Peru, too, the companions of Pizarro found everywhere evidence of a\nvast antiquity, and of the former existence of a people fully equal to\nthe Romans in grandeur of conception and skill in construction of their\nmarvellous public works. The remains of the capital city of the Chinus\nof Northern Peru cover not less than a hundred and twenty square miles.\nTombs, temples and palaces arise on every hand, ruined for centuries,\nbut still traceable; immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a\nmile in circuit; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and all the\nstructures of a busy city may still be found there. Cie\u00e7a de Leon\nmentions having seen at Teahuanaca great buildings, and stones so large\nand so overgrown that it was incomprehensible how the power of man could\nhave placed them where they were. In another place he saw enormous\ngateways made of masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long,\nfifteen feet high, and six feet thick. The ancient Peruvians made\nconsiderable use of aqueducts, which they built with great skill of hewn\nstones and cement. One of these aqueducts extended four hundred and\nfifty miles across sierras and rivers. Their roads, macadamized with\nbroken stone mixed with lime and asphalte, were described by Humboldt as\n\u201cmarvellous,\u201d and he said that none of the Roman roads he had seen in\nItaly, in the south of France, or in Spain, had appeared to him more\nimposing than the great road of the ancient Peruvians from Quito to\nCuzco, and through the whole length of the empire to Chili.\n\nThese were the works of men who lived thousands of years before the\ntimes of the Incas, and amongst their manufactures was that of cotton.\n\nIn 1831, Lord Colchester brought from ancient tombs at Arica, in Peru,\nand placed in the British Museum, some mummy-cloths woven of cotton, the\nfibres of which seen under the microscope are very tortuous, and\nresemble those of _Gossypium hirsutum_, which is probably the primitive\ncotton plant of South America. The cultivation and manufacture of\ncotton, therefore, in the \u201cNew World\u201d seems to have been at least\ncoeval with the similar use of it in India.\n\nWhen Pizarro conquered Peru, in 1532, he found the cotton manufacture\nstill existent and flourishing there, for the works of the Peruvians in\ncotton and wool (the latter chiefly that of the vicuna) exceeded in\nfineness anything known in Europe at that time. He also learned that,\nfrom the foundation of the empire, at an unknown date, the dress of the\nInca, or Sovereign, had always been made of cotton, and of many colours,\nby the \u201cVirgins of the Sun.\u201d\n\nWhen Cortez and his comrades conquered Mexico in 1519, the people had\nneither flax, nor silk, nor wool of sheep. They supplied the want of\nthese with cotton, fine feathers, and the fur of hares and rabbits. The\nuse of cotton, which had long previously existed, as is known from Aztec\nhieroglyphics, was as common and almost as diversified amongst the\nMexicans as it is now amongst the nations of Europe. They made of it\nclothing of every kind, hangings, defensive armour, and other things\ninnumerable. Cortez was so struck by the beautiful texture of some\narticles that were presented to him by the natives of Yucatan, that a\nfew days after his arrival in Mexico he sent home to the Emperor Charles\nV., amongst other rich presents, a variety of cotton mantles, some all\nwhite, and others chequered and figured in divers colours. On the\noutside they had a long nap, like a shaggy cloth, but on the inside they\nwere without any colour or nap. A number of \u201cunder-waistcoats,\u201d\n\u201chandkerchiefs,\u201d \u201ccounterpanes,\u201d and \u201ccarpets\u201d of cotton were also sent\nto Europe by Cortez.\n\nColumbus\u2019s great discovery was not immediately turned to account, so far\nas the cotton trade was concerned, although it was destined to be most\nvaluable to that industry at a later period. Astonishing as was his\nsuccess, and great and extensive as were its results in finding a \u201cNew\nWorld\u201d hardly inferior in magnitude to one-third of the habitable\nsurface of the globe, he had not achieved exactly that which was the\noriginal object of his voyage--the discovery of a westerly course to\nIndia. When, therefore, only six years afterwards, a direct sea route to\nthe East, by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, was found, the exploit\nwas for some time regarded as the more important of the two, because its\nprobable effects were more easily perceptible.\n\nThe Portuguese, who had explored the west coasts of Africa which lay\nnearest to their own country, and had made several unsuccessful attempts\nto find a passage eastward, determined to make another vigorous effort\nto surmount the difficulty. Accordingly, on the 8th of July, 1497, a\nsmall squadron sailed from the Tagus, under the command of Vasco da\nGama. After a long and dangerous voyage this navigator rounded the\npromontory which had for several years been the object of the hopes and\ndread of his countrymen, and skirting the south-east coast, arrived at\nMelinda, about two degrees north of Zanzibar. There he found a people so\nfar civilized that they carried on an active commerce, not only with the\nnations on their own coast, but with the remote countries of Asia.\nTaking some of these natives on board his ships as pilots, he sailed\nacross the Indian Ocean, and on the 22nd of May, 1498, landed at\nCalicut, on the Malabar coast, ten months and two days after his\ndeparture from Lisbon.\n\nVasco da Gama during his short stay at Melinda had little time for\ninquiring into the condition of the cotton trade of the country on whose\nshores he had landed, and it does not seem to have been forced upon his\nattention as it was on that of Columbus. But when Odoardo Barbosa, of\nLisbon, visited South Africa eighteen years afterwards (in 1516), he\nfound the natives wearing clothes of cotton. In 1590, cotton cloth woven\non the coast of Guinea was imported into London from the Bight of Benin,\nand modern travellers in the interior of Africa concur in the opinion\nthat cotton is indigenous there, and in stating that it is spun and\nwoven into cloth in every region of that continent. From the beauty of\nthe dye and the designs in some of the cotton dresses, it is justly\ninferred to be a manufacture of very ancient standing. We have evidence,\ntherefore, that in Africa, as well as in Asia and America, the cotton\nplant had a separate centre of indigenous growth, and that from a very\nremote period its vegetable wool was manufactured into useful and\nornamental articles of clothing.[43]\n\n  [43] The cotton plant was also found indigenous in the Sandwich\n  Islands, the Galapagos, etc. It is doubtful whether the cotton found\n  in the Bornean Archipelago had not been carried eastward from India.\n\nThe Portuguese took every possible precaution to secure the prize which\nby the courage and perseverance of their admiral they had been enabled\nto grasp, and to maintain the rights which priority of discovery was, in\nthose days, supposed to confer. A chain of forts or factories was\nestablished for the protection of their trade; whilst for the extension\nof it they took possession of Malacca, and their ships visited every\nport from the Cape to Canton.\n\nThe Venetians saw with alarm the ruin that impended over them through\nthe successful rivalry in trade of the Portuguese, but were powerless to\nprevent a competition against which their merchants were unable to\ncontend. They therefore formed an alliance with the Turks under the\nSultans Selim and his successor, Solyman the Magnificent, and incited\nthem to send a fleet against the prosperous Portuguese. They even\nallowed the Turks to cut timber in the forests of Dalmatia with which to\nbuild their ships; and when twelve of these were finished, Solyman\nmanned them with his Janissaries, and sent them to harass the Indian\ntrade. The Portuguese met them with undaunted bravery, and, after\nseveral conflicts, vanquished the Ottoman squadron, and remained masters\nof the Indian Ocean.\n\nThe immediate effect of direct communication with the East by sea was\nthe lowering of the prices of Indian produce. Commerce naturally sought\nthe cheapest market. The trade of Venice was annihilated, and the stream\nof wealth that had flowed to her treasury was dried at its source. The\nmerchandize of India was shipped from the most convenient ports, and\nconveyed cheaply, safely, and directly to Lisbon, and thence was\ndistributed through Europe. A plentiful supply of Indian goods at\nreasonable rates caused a rapid increase in the demand for them, and\namongst the trades to which this gave an impetus was that in cotton.\n\nUp to this period no cotton was woven in England; the small quantity\nthat was used for candle-wicks, &c., came either from Italy or the\nLevant. Linen was first woven in England in 1253, by Flemish hands; but\nfor nearly a century afterwards almost all the cotton, woollen and linen\nfabrics consumed there were manufactured on the continent, and a great\nquantity of British wool was exported to Flanders and Holland. Edward\nIII., however, gave encouragement to foreign skill, and in 1328 some\nFlemings settled in Manchester, and commenced the weaving of certain\ncloths, which, though composed of wool, were known as \u201cManchester\ncottons,\u201d and thus paved the way for the great cotton manufacture for\nwhich that part of Lancashire is now famous.\n\nIn 1560, England imported, through Antwerp, cotton brought from Italy\nand the Levant, as well as that carried from India to Lisbon by the\nPortuguese, and showed some anxiety to compete in its manufacture with\nforeign countries. An impulse was given to this ambition in 1585 by a\nfresh influx of Flemish workpeople, who, driven from their own country\nto escape the cruelties of the Duke of Alba during the religious\npersecution of the Low Countries by the Spaniards, found an asylum in\nEngland, and brought with them the skill in workmanship which adjoining\nStates had long envied.\n\nIndia, however, continued far in advance of every European country in\nthe spinning and weaving of cotton to nearly the middle of the\neighteenth century. The activity of the trade in her piece goods was\nlooked upon as ruinous to the home manufacturer, though most profitable\nto the merchant, and we find Daniel Defoe, in 1708, thus lamenting, in\nhis \u2018Weekly Review,\u2019 the preference for Indian chintz, calico, &c.\n\n\u201cIt crept,\u201d he says, \u201cinto our houses, our closets, our bedchambers;\ncurtains, cushions, chairs, and, at last beds themselves were nothing\nbut calicoes and Indian stuffs, and, in short, almost everything that\nused to be made of wool or silk, relating either to the dress of the\nwomen or the furniture of our houses, was supplied by the Indian\ntrade.... The several goods brought from India are made five parts in\nsix under our price, and, being imported and sold at an extravagant\nadvantage, are yet capable of underselling the cheapest thing we can set\nabout.\u201d\n\nThe Portuguese remained in undisturbed possession of the lucrative trade\nwith India till the end of the sixteenth century, when the United\nProvinces of the Low Countries challenged their pretensions to an\nexclusive right of commerce in the East; and in 1595, the Dutch East\nIndia Company was formed. The English soon followed, and five years\nlater (in 1600) the British East India Company was incorporated by Royal\nCharter. It immediately obtained from the native princes permission to\nestablish forts and factories, and in 1624 was invested with powers of\ngovernment. The Portuguese monopoly and predominance in the East was\noverturned and crushed, and England and Holland attained supremacy in\nnaval power and commercial wealth.\n\nThe cotton trade did not so quickly benefit by this as might have been\nexpected. It remained stationary for more than a century afterwards. But\nin 1738 commenced the history of those wonderful inventions which by\ngiving the power of almost unlimited production to our people\nrevolutionized the manufacturing world. England, which two centuries ago\nimported only \u00a35000 worth of raw cotton, now pays more than \u00a340,000,000\n(forty million pounds) sterling every year for her supply for twelve\nmonths;[44] and as this supply is drawn from every quarter of the globe,\nshe can appreciate the effect upon her cotton trade of the various\nmaritime discoveries mentioned in these pages. From the country\ndiscovered by Columbus, and populated chiefly by her own offspring,\nEngland receives by far the largest portion of her requirements. The\nroute round Cape Horn, discovered by Fernando Magalhaens in 1520, has\nits advantages as another road to the colonies and Eastern possessions\nof Great Britain. The course round the Cape of Good Hope, by which Vasco\nda Gama navigated his ships to Calicut, was for three and a half\ncenturies the main road between India and Western Europe for personal\nintercourse, as well as the conveyance of heavy goods, such as cotton;\nand, though long, it was direct, and comparatively cheap. But the\nsuperiority of the first sea-route originally established by the\nforesight and genius of the great Macedonian conqueror was demonstrated\nin 1845, when Lieutenant Waghorn, a young officer in the service of the\nEast India Company, with invincible ardour, and determined perseverance\nagainst official obstruction and innumerable obstacles, once more made\nEgypt the causeway between Europe and India. Alexandria, built on a site\nadmirably chosen by its founder as a centre of commercial traffic, and\nplaced by the prudence of his engineers just sufficiently far from the\noutflow of the Nile to be free from the danger of its harbour being\nsilted up by the sediment of that muddy river, again became the port of\narrival and departure: but increased skill in seamanship and the command\nof steam power having diminished the risk and difficulty of navigating\nthe upper part of the Red Sea, Suez, the ancient Arsinoe, was selected\nfor the corresponding dep\u00f4t, as offering a shorter passage by land from\nsea to sea than the old road by Berenice, Coptos, and the Nile. Waghorn\nbravely carried out his scheme in the face of the most vexatious\nopposition and discouragement. He built at his own expense eight\nhalting-places in the desert between Cairo and Suez, provided carriages\nfor passengers, and placed small steamers on the Nile and on the canal\nof Alexandria. At last the British and the Indian authorities, who had\nthrown every obstacle in his way, with an obstinate perversity which\nwould be almost incredible if it were unique, graciously consented to\ncountenance his plans, and to allow the mail bags to and from India to\nreach their destination six weeks earlier than by their former journey.\nThus Thomas Waghorn brought England and her Eastern possessions by that\nmuch nearer to each other, and for this achievement deserves the\ngratitude of his countrymen and an honourable place in history.\n\n  [44] The importation of cotton into Liverpool and London in 1886 was\n  as follows:--\n\n                                 lbs.\n    American               1,317,562,480\n    Brazilian                 33,832,400\n    Egyptian                 173,340,000\n    West India, etc.           9,529,910\n    Surat                    148,306,700\n    Madras                    26,729,200\n    Bengal and Rangoon        32,324,600\n                           -------------\n          Total            1,741,625,290\n\n  The prices of the different kinds of cotton vary according to their\n  respective qualities, and are also influenced by the fluctuations of\n  their market value. During 1886 the best Egyptian cotton was sometimes\n  sold as high as 7\u00bd_d._ per lb., and the inferior as low as 3\u00be_d._ per\n  lb.\n\n  The total value of the cotton imported during 1886 was, as I have\n  said, rather over \u00a340,000,000 sterling.\n\nThe new route was, however, unsuitable to the enormous traffic in\nmerchandize to and from the East. The unloading of cargoes at Alexandria\nor Suez, their \u201cportage\u201d across the desert, and their re-shipment on\nother vessels at the further side of the Isthmus, was too tedious,\nlaborious, and expensive to be practicable; therefore the \u201cOverland\nRoute\u201d was chiefly used for the rapid conveyance of the European mails,\npassengers, and light goods, whilst the heavy merchandize, such as\ncotton bales, was conveyed round the Cape as before.\n\nIn 1869, a feat of engineering was completed, the importance of which it\nis impossible to exaggerate. By the cutting of a deep and wide canal\nthrough the narrow strip of land which had previously barred the passage\nby sea round the north-eastern corner of Africa, a water-way was opened\nbetween the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, by which large ships can pass\nfrom one sea to the other without unloading their cargoes. All honour to\nM. de Lesseps, who, in spite of difficulties apparently insurmountable,\nsuccessfully accomplished this work! He had to contend against grave\npolitical considerations, national prejudices and jealousies, religious\nfanaticism, vested interests, and the faithless treachery and grasping\navarice of local officials. It appears to me that amidst political\ncomplications, conflicting interests, the war of tariffs, and financial\narrangements, the credit and appreciation most justly due to the author\nof the Suez Canal have been but grudgingly given. But his posthumous\nfame will be lasting, and his name will be renowned in the future\namongst those of the great path-finders and road-makers of the world,\nwhose discoveries and achievements have largely benefited mankind.\n\nThe white fleeces of the wool that Alexander and his admiral saw growing\non trees in India is again conveyed to Europe by the route planned for\nit by the great chieftain of Macedon. The water-way which he possibly\nsuggested, and which the son of his general and confidant, Ptolemy,\nendeavoured, but failed, to cut, has been successfully laid open. And,\nalthough we now draw our chief supply of cotton from the western country\ndiscovered by Columbus, one result of increased facility of\ncommunication with the East, in conjunction with perfection of\nmachinery, is that the vegetable wool coming therefrom, after giving\nemployment to thousands of our people, and adding to our national\nprosperity, is returned by the same route, manufactured into various\nfabrics wherewith to clothe the people who cultivated it.\n\nThe subject of this chapter being the cotton trade, I need offer no\napology for regarding so many of the great events of history from the\npoint of view of their influence, especially, upon cotton as an article\nof commerce. Although, however, cotton is but a small item amongst the\nproducts of India, the lesson which its history forces upon all\nEnglishmen (without distinction of religious creed, social rank, or\npolitical party) concerning the country from which it was first received\nin Europe and Asia is, that the possession of India confers wealth and\npower on her European rulers, and that Egypt is the highway to it. The\nnation that holds India must grasp it firmly lest it be snatched from\nits keeping, must guard carefully and hold strongly the road to it, and\nmust be prepared to fight for either or both, if necessary, against any\ncombination of enemies. For now, as in times gone by, jealous eyes are\nfixed upon it, and their owners only await an opportunity to put in\npractice that which Wordsworth makes his Rob Roy call\n\n                      \u201cthe good old rule,\n                   ... the simple plan,\n    That he shall take who has the power,\n    And he shall keep who can!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\nA (p. 2).\n\nSIR JOHN MANDEVILLE.\n\nSir John Mandeville, or Maundeville, was of a family that came into\nEngland with the Conqueror. He is said to have been a man of learning\nand substance, and had studied physic and natural philosophy. He was\nalso a good and conscientious man, and was, moreover, the greatest\ntraveller of his time. John Bale, in his catalogue of British writers,\nsays of him that \u201che was so well given to the study of learning from his\nchildhood that he seemed to plant a good part of his felicitie in the\nsame; for he supposed that the honour of his birth would nothing availe\nhim except he could render the same more honourable by his knowledge in\ngood letters. He therefore well grounded himself in religion by reading\nthe Scriptures, and also applied his studies to the art of physicke, a\nprofession worthy a noble wit; but amongst other things he was ravished\nwith a mighty desire to see the greater parts of the world, as Asia and\nAfrica. Having provided all things necessary for his journey, he\ndeparted from his country in the yeere of Christ 1322, and, as another\nUlysses, returned home after the space of thirty-four years, and was\nthen known to a very few. In the time of his travaile he was in Scythia,\nthe greater and lesser Armenia, Egypt, both Libyas, Arabia, Syria,\nMedia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Illyrium, Tartarie and\ndivers other kingdoms of the World, and having gotten by this means the\nknowledge of the languages, lest so many and great varieties and things\nmiraculous whereof himself had been an eie-witness should perish in\noblivion, he committed his whole travell of thirty-four yeeres to\nwriting in three divers tongues--English, French, and Latine. Being\narrived again in England, having seen the wickedness of that age, he\ngave out this speech;--\u2018In our time,\u2019 he said, \u2018it may be spoken more\ntruly than of old that virtue is gone; the Church is under foot; the\nclergie is in erreur; the Devill raigneth, and Simone beareth the\nsway.\u2019\u201d\n\nA man who in the first part of the fourteenth century could conceive,\nand for thirty-four years persist in carrying out, the intention of\ntravelling from one country to another over a great part of the\nhabitable globe, must have possessed remarkable qualifications. Indeed,\nhis achievements were so extraordinary, and his narrative agrees in so\nmany particulars with that of the travels of Marco Polo, that it has\nbeen suggested that he may never have gone to the East at all, but\ncompiled his book from the journals of his predecessor. But it seems to\nme impossible to doubt the correctness of Mr. Halliwell\u2019s opinion that\nthis suggestion is wholly unjustifiable, and that, after perusal of the\nvolume, the judgment of any impartial reader would repudiate such a\nsupposition. Sir John Mandeville met with credit and respect in his own\nday, and the transcriber on vellum of a small folio MS. copy of his\nbook, written in double columns certainly not more than twenty years\nafter his death, prefaces it in a manner which shows that he entertained\nno doubt concerning it.\n\nThere are several editions of Sir John Mandeville\u2019s account of his\n\u2018Voiages.\u2019 The most useful to the general reader are, 1st, that printed\nin London, in 1725, from a manuscript in the Cottonian collection; 2nd,\na reprint of the above, with a few notes by Mr. J. O. Halliwell, and\nvarious illustrations, which are _fac-simile_ copies by F. W. Fairholt,\nfrom the older editions and manuscripts in the Harleian collection,\npublished by Lumley in 1837; and, 3rd, a reprint of this later edition,\npublished by F. S. Ellis, in 1866.\n\nSir John Mandeville died at Liege on the 17th of November, 1371. His\nfellow-townsmen of St. Albans appear to have believed that his body was\nbrought home to the place of his birth, and buried in St. Albans Abbey,\nfor the following doggrel verses were inscribed as his epitaph on one of\nthe pillars there:--\n\n    \u201cAll ye that pass by, on this pillar cast eye,\n    This Epitaph read if you can;\n    \u2018Twill tell you a Tombe once stood in this room\n    Of a brave, spirited man,\n    Sir John Mandevil by name, a knight of great fame,\n    Born in this honoured Towne;\n    Before him was none that ever was knowne\n    For travaile of so high renowne.\n    As the Knights in the Temple cross-legged in Marble,\n    In armour with sword and with shield,\n    So was this Knight grac\u2019d which Time hath defac\u2019d\n    That nothing but Ruines doth yield.\n    His travailes being done, he shines like the Sun\n    In heavenly Canaan.\n    To which blessed place the Lord, of His grace,\n    Bring us all, man after man.\u201d\n\nThere is no doubt, however, that Sir John Mandeville was buried in the\nAbbey of the Gulielmites in the town of Liege, where he died; for\nAbrahamus Ortelius, in his \u2018Itinerarium Belgi\u00e6\u2019 (p. 16), has printed the\nfollowing epitaph there set over him:--\n\n\u201c_Hic jacet vir nobilis Dominus Johannes de Mandeville, aliter dictus ad\nBarbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de Angli\u00e2, medicine professor,\ndevotissimus orator, et bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator; qui\ntoto quasi orbe lustrato Leodii diem viti sui clausit extremum Anno\nDomini 1371, Mensis Novembris die 17._\u201d\n\nOrtelius adds, that upon the same stone with the epitaph is engraven a\nman in armour with a forked beard, treading upon a lion, and at his head\na hand of one blessing him, and these words in old French: \u201c_Vos ki\npaseis sor mi, pour l\u2019amour Deix proies por mi_\u201d--that is, \u201cYe that pass\nover me, for the love of God pray for me.\u201d There is also a void place\nfor an escutcheon, whereon, Ortelius was told, there was formerly a\nbrass plate with the arms of the deceased knight engraven thereon--viz.,\na Lion _argent_ with a Lunet _gules_, at his breast, in a Field _azure_,\nand a Border engraled _or_. The clergy of the Abbey also exhibited the\nknives, the horse-furniture, and the spurs used by Sir John Mandeville\nin his travels. John Weever, in his \u2018Ancient Funeral Monuments\u2019 (p.\n568), says that he saw the above epitaph at Liege, and also the\nfollowing verses hanging near by on a tablet:--\n\n                       \u201c_Aliud\n    Hoc jacet in tumulo cui totus patria vivo\n    Orbis erat: totium quem peragrasse ferunt\n    Anglus, Equesque fuit; num ille Britannus Ulysses\n    Dicatur, Graio clarus, Ulysse magis.\n    Moribus, ingenio, candore, et sanguine clarus,\n    Et vere cultor Religionis erat\n    Nomen si qu\u00e6ras est Mandevil, Indus, Arabsque,\n    Sat notum dicit finibus esse suis._\u201d\n\n\nB (p. 8).\n\nODORICUS OF FRIULI.\n\nOdoricus did not write his account of his travels with his own hand, but\ndictated it to his brother friar, William de Solanga, who wrote it as\nOdoricus related it. Having \u201ctestified and borne witness to the Rev.\nFather Guidolus, minister of the province of S. Anthony, in the\nMarquesate of Treviso (being by him required upon his obedience so to\ndo), that all that he described he had seen with his own eyes, or heard\nthe same reported by credible and substantial witnesses,\u201d Odoricus\nprepared to set out on another and a longer journey \u201cinto all the\ncountries of the heathen.\u201d He, therefore, determined to present himself\nto Pope John XXII., and to obtain his benediction on his missionary\nenterprise. Accordingly, at the commencement of the year 1331, he left\nUtina with this intention. On his way, however, he was met, near Pisa,\nby an old man who, hailing him by his name, told him that he had known\nhim in India, and warned him to return to his monastery, \u201cfor that in\nten days thence he would depart from this present world.\u201d Having said\nthis, he vanished from sight. Odoricus obeyed the admonition, and\nreturned to Utina \u201cin perfect health, feeling no crazednesse nor\ninfirmity of body. And being in his convent the tenth day after the\nforsayd vision, having received the Communion, and prepared himself unto\nGod, yea, being strong and sound of body, he happily rested in the Lord,\nwhose sacred departure was signified to the Pope aforesaid under the\nhand of the public notary of Utina.\u201d Odoricus died January 14th, 1331,\nand was beatified.\n\n\nC (p. 11).\n\nSIGISMUND VON HERBERSTEIN.\n\nSigismund von Herberstein was born at Vippach, in Styria, in 1486. He\ndistinguished himself so greatly in the war against the Turks that the\nEmperor entrusted him with various missions, and made him successively\ncommandant of the Styrian cavalry, privy councillor, and president of\nfinance of Austria. During two periods of residence at Moscow, in all\nabout sixteen months, as ambassador from the Emperor Maximilian to the\nGrand Duke of Muscovy, Vasilez Ivanovich, he earnestly studied and\nsagaciously observed everything that came under his notice, and\nneglected nothing which could instruct or profit him. His work on\nRussia, above referred to, is universally regarded as the best ancient\nhistory of that State. He renounced public life in 1555, and died in\n1556.\n\n\nD (p. 14).\n\nJULIUS C\u00c6SAR SCALIGER.\n\nJulius C\u00e6sar Scaliger, born in 1484, probably at Padua, was one of the\nmost celebrated of the many great writers of the sixteenth century. He\nwas a man of real talent, but of unbounded vanity and unscrupulous\nambition. Originally baptized \u201cJules,\u201d he added \u201cC\u00e6sar\u201d to his name,\nand, to enhance his own merits by the \u00e9clat of high birth, made for\nhimself a false genealogy, and asserted that he was the hero of\nadventures in which he had taken no part. In order to force himself into\nnotice he attacked Erasmus, and in two harangues, which the latter\ndisdained to answer, used towards him the grossest invectives. Scaliger\nnext directed his insolent hostility against Girolamo Cardano. Jealous\nof the fame of the great Pavian physician and mathematician, he, in a\ncritique containing more insults than arguments, ferociously assailed\nCardano\u2019s treatise, \u201c_De Subtilitate_\u201d; and so exaggerated was the\nestimate he formed of the effect of his diatribes on the objects of his\nmalice, that when Erasmus died, and a false rumour of the decease of\nCardano was spread abroad, he believed, or affected to believe, that the\ndeath of both had been caused by his conduct towards them, and in the\ncourse of a fulsome eulogy expressed his regret for having deprived the\nworld of letters of two such valuable lives. Scaliger died in 1558, aged\nseventy-five years.\n\n\nE (p. 21).\n\nJANS JANSZOON STRAUSS, OTHERWISE JEAN DE STRUYS.\n\nJean de Struys, in 1647, shipped at Amsterdam as sailmaker\u2019s mate on\nboard a vessel bound to Genoa. On arriving there the ship was bought by\nthe Republic, equipped as a privateer, and sent to the East Indies. She\nwas, however, captured by the Dutch, and Struys took service on board a\nship belonging to the Dutch East India Company, and after visiting Siam,\nJapan, Formosa, &c., he returned to Holland in 1681. Having stayed at\nhome with his father for four years, he went to sea again, but finding\nat Venice an armed flotilla on the point of departure to fight the\nTurks, he joined it, was several times taken prisoner, and as often\nescaped or was rescued. In 1657 he returned to Holland, was married, and\nled a quiet life for ten years, but hearing that the Tzar was fitting\nout at Amsterdam some vessels to go to Persia by the Caspian Sea,\n\u201cnothing,\u201d to use his own words, \u201ccould hold him back.\u201d He therefore\nstarted in a vessel bound to the Baltic, landed at Riga, and found his\nway overland, through Moscow and by the Oka and Volga to Astrachan. In\nJune, 1670, the fleet in which he served set sail for the Caspian. His\nvessel went ashore on the coast of Daghestan, and he was made prisoner\nand taken to the Kan or Tchamkal of Bayance, by whom he was sold as a\nslave to a Persian. After passing through the possession of several\nmasters he was bought by a Georgian, an ambassador to the King of\nPoland, who allowed him to purchase his freedom. On the 30th of October,\n1671, he joined a caravan travelling to Ispahan, made his way to the\ncoast, embarked for Batavia, and, after innumerable adventures, arrived\nin Holland in 1673, and retired to Ditmarsch, where he died in 1694. His\nmemoirs of his life were published in Dutch, at Amsterdam, in 1677, and\ntranslated into German in the following year, and into French in 1681.\n\n\nF (p. 28).\n\nJOHN BELL OF AUTERMONY.\n\nFurnished with letters of introduction to Dr. Areskine, chief physician\nand privy councillor to the Czar Peter I., Bell \u201cembarked at London in\nJuly, 1714, on board the _Prosperity_ of Ramsgate, Captain Emerson, for\nSt. Petersburg.\u201d As the Czar was about to send an ambassador, Artemis\nPetronet Valewsky, to \u201cthe Sophy of Persia, Schach Hussein,\u201d Bell, by\nthe good offices of Dr. Areskine, obtained an appointment in his suite,\nand set out from St. Petersburg on the 15th of July, 1715. He kept a\ndiary, and was evidently an enlightened, discriminating and careful\nobserver.\n\n\nG (p. 52).\n\nTHE THREE BLACK CROWS.\n\nBY DR. JOHN BYROM.\n\nThe following is the story referred to in the text. It well illustrates\nthe process by which the first rumour concerning cotton--that \u201cwool as\nwhite and soft as that of a lamb grew on trees\u201d--was exaggerated to a\nstatement that \u201clambs grew on certain trees,\u201d and were, therefore,\npartly animal and partly vegetable.\n\n    Two honest tradesmen, meeting in the Strand,\n    One took the other briskly by the hand.\n    \u201cHark ye,\u201d said he, \u201c\u2019tis an odd story this\n    About the crows!\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is,\u201d\n    Replied his friend. \u201cNo? I\u2019m surprised at that,--\n    Where I come from it is the common chat;\n    But you shall hear an odd affair indeed!\n    And that it happened they are all agreed:\n    Not to detain you from a thing so strange,\n    A gentleman who lives not far from \u2018Change,\n    This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,\n    Taking a vomit, threw up three black crows!\u201d\n    \u201cImpossible!\u201d \u201cNay, but \u2018tis really true;\n    I had it from good hands, and so may you.\u201d\n    \u201cFrom whose, I pray?\u201d So, having named the man,\n    Straight to inquire his curious comrade ran.\n    \u201cSir, did you tell?\u201d--relating the affair--\n    \u201cYes, sir, I did; and, if \u2018tis worth your care,\n    \u2018Twas Mr.--such a one--who told it me;\n    But, by-the-bye, \u2018twas _two_ black crows, _not three_!\u201d\n    Resolved to trace so wonderous an event,\n    Quick to the third the virtuoso went.\n    \u201cSir,\u201d--and so forth. \u201cWhy, yes; the thing is fact,\n    Though in regard to number not exact;\n    It was not _two_ black crows, \u2018twas only _one_!\n    The truth of which you may depend upon;\n    The gentleman himself told me the case.\u201d\n    \u201cWhere may I find him?\u201d \u201cWhy in--\u201d such a place.\n    Away he went, and having found him out,\n    \u201cSir, be so good as to resolve a doubt;\u201d\n    Then to his last informant he referred,\n    And begged to know if true what he had heard.\n    \u201cDid you, sir, throw up a black crow?\u201d \u201cNot I!\u201d\n    \u201cBless me, how people propagate a lie!\n    Black crows have been thrown up, _three_, _two_, and _one_;\n    And here, I find, all comes at last to _none_!\n    Did you say nothing of a crow at all?\u201d\n    \u201cCrow?--crow?--perhaps I might; now I recall\n    The matter over.\u201d \u201cAnd pray, sir, what was\u2019t?\u201d\n    \u201cWhy, I was horrid sick, and at the last\n    I did throw up, and told my neighbours so,\n    Something that was--_as black_, sir, _as a crow_.\u201d\n\n\nH (p. 71).\n\nTHE DESTRUCTION OF THE ALEXANDRINE LIBRARY.\n\nThis magnificent collection, founded by Ptolemy Soter, and added to by\nhis successors, was twice partially dispersed before its total\ndestruction by the Saracens. A great portion of it was burned during the\nsiege of Alexandria by Julius C\u00e6sar, B.C. 48. The lost volumes were in\nsome measure replaced by Antony, who (B.C. 36) presented to Cleopatra,\nthe library of the Kings of Pergamus. At the death of Cleopatra,\nAlexandria passed into the power of the Romans, and this second\ncollection was partly destroyed by fire when the Emperor Theodosius I.\nsuppressed paganism, A.D. 390. The Alexandrine Library met its memorable\nfate in 638, when, after a vigorous resistance for fourteen months, the\ncity was taken by Amru, the general of Caliph Omar. Abdallah, the\nArabian historian, and favourite of Saladin (1200), gives the following\naccount of this catastrophe. \u201cJohn Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian,\nbeing at Alexandria when the Saracens entered the city, was admitted to\nfamiliar intercourse with Amru, and presumed to solicit a gift,\ninestimable in his opinion, but contemptible in that of the\nbarbarians,--and that was the royal library. Amru was inclined to\ngratify his wish, but his rigid integrity scrupled to alienate the least\nobject without the consent of the Caliph. He accordingly wrote to Omar,\nwhose well-known answer is a notable example of ignorant fanaticism.\n\u2018If,\u2019 said he, \u2018these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran they\nare useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree with the book\nof God they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.\u2019 The sentence of\ndestruction was executed with blind obedience; the volumes of paper or\nparchment were distributed to the 4,000 baths of the city; and so great\nwas their number that six weeks was barely sufficient time for the\nconsumption of this precious fuel.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n  Ahasuerus, cotton hangings in the palace of, at Shushan, 66\n  Alexander the Great, descent of the Indus and Hydaspes by, 68\n      \u201e          \u201e     sagacity and wise policy of, 67, 72\n      \u201e          \u201e     opens up the Euphrates and Tigris, 71\n      \u201e          \u201e     selects the site of Alexandria, 68\n      \u201e          \u201e     Europe indebted to, for the introduction of\n                       cotton, 72\n  Alexandria made the centre of the Indian trade, 72\n      \u201e      Lighthouse, Library, and Temple of Serapis at, 71\n      \u201e      destruction of the Library of--Appendix H, 105\n  Amasis II., Corselet padded with cotton presented to Sparta by King,\n              46\n  Aristobulus mentions \u201ca tree bearing wool, which was carded,\u201d 47\n       \u201e      report by, of the great heat at Susiana-Shushan, 66\n  Arrian\u2019s account of the cotton trade in his day, 73\n\n  Barnacle Geese, the fable of, compared with that of the Barometz, 52\n  Barometz the, described by Sir John Mandeville, 2\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Claude Duret, 5, 16\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Talmudical writers, 6\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Odoricus of Friuli, 8\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Fortunio Liceti, 11\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, 11\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Sigismund von Herberstein, 11\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Guillaume Postel, 13\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Michel, the Interpreter, 13\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Girolamo Cardano, 13\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Julius C\u00e6sar Scaliger, 14\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Antonius Deusingius, 15\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Athanasius Kircher, 21\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Jean de Struys, 21\n      \u201e       \u201e  in verse by Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas, 17\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Joshua Sylvester, translator of the above,\n                             18\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 35\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      Dr. De la Croix, 36\n      \u201e       \u201e   sought for by Dr. Engelbrecht Kaempfer, 23\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      \u201e  John Bell, of Autermony, 28, Appendix F,\n                                103\n      \u201e       \u201e       \u201e      \u201e  the Abb\u00e9 Chappe d\u2019Auteroche, 30\n  Barometz, origin of the word, 23\n      \u201e     the fable of the, 1\n      \u201e        \u201e        \u201e     compared with that of the \u201cBarnacle\n                              Geese,\u201d 52\n      \u201e        \u201e        \u201e     its various phases and transformations, 1,\n                              53\n  Bartas, the Sieur du, lines by, on the Barometz, 17\n  Bell, John, seeks ineffectually the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 28\n  Borametz. _See_ Barometz.\n  Breyn, Dr., describes to the Royal Society his Chinese artificial\n  \u201cLamb,\u201d 30\n  British Museum, specimen of the \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d in, 24, 43\n  Buckley, Mr., Chinese articles presented to the Royal Society by, 27\n     \u201e      \u201e   his Chinese dog fashioned from rhizome of a fern, 27\n\n  Canal from Suez to the East Nile commenced by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 71\n    \u201e     \u201e     \u201e    Aden, constructed by De Lesseps, 94\n  Cape route, the, discovered by Vasco da Gama, 83, 88\n  Cardano describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 13\n     \u201e    exposes the unreasonableness of believing the fable, 14\n  Central America, ancient use of cotton in, 85, 86\n  Chappe d\u2019Auteroche, the Abb\u00e9 seeks for the \u201cBarometz,\u201d 30\n  Chinese artificial dogs made from root-stocks of ferns, 27, 28, 34,\n  39, 44\n  Columbus finds cotton in use in America, 84\n  Cotton, its use of great antiquity in India, 65\n    \u201e     reaches Persia from India, 66\n    \u201e     hangings of, in the palace of Ahasuerus at Shushan, 66\n    \u201e     found in use in India by Alexander the Great, 58\n    \u201e     piece-goods introduced into Europe by the Macedonians, 72\n    \u201e     shipped from Patala and Barygaza to Aduli, 72\n    \u201e     conveyed by a circuitous coasting route, 73\n    \u201e         \u201e    in a straight course by Hippalus, 73\n    \u201e         \u201e    by the Romans vi\u00e2 Palmyra, 74\n    \u201e     the trade in, through Egypt, checked by the Saracens, 74\n    \u201e     ancient Egyptians unacquainted with, 75\n    \u201e     breast-plate padded with, sent by King Amasis to Sparta, 46,\n          75\n    \u201e     Mark Antony\u2019s soldiers wear, in Egypt, 76\n    \u201e     Egyptians, till the 17th century, importers, not growers of,\n          77\n    \u201e     in Rome and Greece manufactured by slaves, 78\n    \u201e     vestments presented to ancient Emperors of China, 79\n    \u201e     manufactured by the Moors and Saracens in Spain, 80\n    \u201e     paper made from, by the Spanish Arabs, 80\n    \u201e     manufacture in Spain relapsed after the conquest of Grenada,\n          80\n    \u201e     conveyed by Tartar caravans from India to Europe, 56, 57, 58,\n          81, 82\n          conveyed again through Egypt by the Venetians, 82\n    \u201e     manufacture in Saxony, the Netherlands, and Germany, 83\n    \u201e     found by Columbus in daily use in the West Indies, 84\n    \u201e        \u201e     Magalhaens in use in Brazil, 84\n    \u201e     used by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, 85, 86\n    \u201e     mummy cloths brought from ancient Peruvian tombs, 86\n    \u201e     imported into England in the 16th century through Antwerp, 91\n    \u201e     statistics, 92\n    \u201e     now crosses from India by the route planned by Alexander, 95\n  Cotton-plant, the, described by Theophrastus, 47\n        \u201e        \u201e        \u201e       Pomponius Mela, 48\n        \u201e        \u201e        \u201e       Julius Pollux, 49\n        \u201e       botany of the, 63\n        \u201e       the, indigenous to India, 64\n        \u201e        \u201e   noticed in India by Alexander and his army, 58\n        \u201e       culture of the, in China encouraged by the Mongols, 79\n        \u201e        \u201e        \u201e        Arabia and Syria, 77\n        \u201e        \u201e        \u201e        Spain by the Saracens and Moors, 80\n        \u201e        \u201e        \u201e          \u201e   relapsed after the conquest of\n                                         Grenada, 80\n        \u201e       the, still grows wild in the Peninsula, 81\n  Cotton-wool the fleece of the \u201cScythian Lamb,\u201d 63\n  Ctesias writes of the \u201ctrees that bear wool,\u201d 46\n\n  Danielovich, Demetrius, describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb\u201d to Von\n  Herberstein, 12\n  Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, lines by, on the \u201cBarometz,\u201d 35\n  De la Croix, Dr., Latin lines by, on the Barometz, 36\n  Deusingius, Antonius, disbelieves the animal-plant monstrosity, 15\n  Dicksonia barometz a tree-fern, 40\n      \u201e        \u201e     toy dogs made from rhizomes of, by the Chinese, 41\n      \u201e        \u201e     does not grow in Tartary or Scythia, 44\n  Duret, Claude, describes the \u201cBarometz,\u201d 3\n    \u201e      \u201e     avows his entire belief in the rumour, 16\n\n  East India Company incorporated, 92\n  Egypt, the route from India to Europe planned by Alexander, 68, 93, 95\n    \u201e    conquest of, by the Saracens, 7\n    \u201e    the country of flax, 75, 79\n    \u201e    the high road to India to be guarded, 96\n  Egyptian maritime traffic with the East lasted 1000 years, 74\n  Egyptians, the ancient, unacquainted with cotton, 75\n      \u201e      till the 17th century importers not growers of cotton, 77\n\n  Ferns, models of dogs made of, by the Chinese, 27, 28, 34, 39, 44\n    \u201e    their economic value, 40, 41\n  Flemish weavers settle in Manchester, 90\n\n  General belief in the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 2\n\n  Hebrew, ancient, version of the fable, 6\n  Herberstein, Sigismund von, describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 11\n  Herodotus writes of trees bearing for their fruit fleeces of wool, 46\n  Hippalus notices the monsoons, 73\n\n  India, use of cotton in, mentioned by Herodotus, 46\n    \u201e         \u201e         \u201e         \u201e     Ctesias, 46\n    \u201e         \u201e         \u201e         \u201e     Nearchus, 46\n    \u201e         \u201e         \u201e         \u201e     Aristobulus, 47\n    \u201e         \u201e         \u201e         \u201e     Strabo, 47\n    \u201e    the Indo-Scythia of the ancients, 57\n    \u201e    cotton indigenous to, 64\n    \u201e    trade with opened by Alexander vi\u00e2 Egypt, 68\n    \u201e         \u201e     vi\u00e2 the Euphrates and Tigris, 71\n    \u201e         \u201e     restored to Egypt by the Venetians, 82\n    \u201e    the Cape route to, discovered by Vasco da Gama, 83, 88\n  Indo-Scythia, identical with Scinde and the Punjab, 57\n\n  Japanese artificial mermaids compared with Chinese toy-dogs, 42, 54\n  Jadua, or Jeduah, the, 7\n\n  Kircher, Athanasius, declares the Barometz to be a plant, 21\n  Kaempfer, Dr. Engelbrecht, searches ineffectually for the Vegetable\n                             Lamb, 23\n     \u201e       \u201e       \u201e       suggests that the fable refers to Astrachan\n                             lamb skins, 23\n\n  Lamb, the \u201cScythian,\u201d why so called, 56\n   \u201e     \u201e     \u201e        see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n   \u201e     \u201e  \u201cTartarian,\u201d why so called, 59\n   \u201e     \u201e     \u201e        see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n   \u201e     \u201e  Vegetable, its fleece cotton wool, 60\n   \u201e     \u201e     \u201e        see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n  Lesseps, De, constructs the Suez Canal, 94\n  Liceti, Fortunio, says the \u201cVegetable Lamb\u201d was \u201cas white as snow,\u201d 11\n  Loureiro, Juan de, describes the making of artificial dogs from ferns,\n  44\n\n  Magalhaens, Fernando, discovers the route round Cape Horn, 84\n  Manchester, Flemish weavers settle in, 90\n  Mandeville, Sir John, describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 2\n       \u201e      \u201e     \u201e   biographical sketch of--Appendix A, 97\n  Mela, Pomponius, describes the cotton-plant, 48\n  Mermaids, Japanese, compared with Chinese dogs, 42, 54\n  Mexicans, the ancient, use of cotton by, 85, 86\n  Michel, the Interpreter, describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb\u201d and its uses,\n  13\n  Monsoons, the, noticed by Hippalus, 73\n  Museum, British, supposed \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d in the, 24, 43\n     \u201e    Natural History. _See_ Museum, British.\n     \u201e    Hunterian, R. Coll. Surgeons, supposed Scythian Lamb in the,\n  43\n\n  Nearchus mentions the \u201cwool-bearing trees,\u201d 46\n     \u201e     descent of the Indus by, 68\n  Nieremberg, on the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 11\n\n  Odoricus of Friuli describes the \u201cVegetable Lamb,\u201d 8\n     \u201e          \u201e    curious incident in the life of--Appendix B, 100\n\n  Peruvians, the ancient, use of cotton by, 86, 87\n  Pliny confuses cotton with flax, 48\n  Pollux, Julius, describes the cotton-plant, 49\n  Postel, Guillaume, informs von Herberstein of the \u201cwool-bearing\n  plant,\u201d 13\n  Ptolemy Soter follows Alexander\u2019s policy and takes possession of\n                Egypt, 71\n    \u201e       \u201e   founds the lighthouse, library and temple at Alexandria,\n                71\n    \u201e     Philadelphus commences a canal from Suez to the East Nile, 71\n\n  Royal Society, supposed \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d laid before the, by Sir Hans\n  Sloane, 24\n  Royal Society, supposed \u201cScythian Lamb\u201d laid before the, by Dr. Breyn,\n  30\n\n  Saluste, Guillaume de, Sieur du Bartas. _See_ \u201cBartas.\u201d\n  Scaliger, Julius C\u00e6sar, attacks Cardano on the subject of the\n  \u201cBarometz,\u201d 14\n  Scythian Lamb, the, why so called, 56\n      \u201e     \u201e     \u201e   see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n  Scythians, the, describe snow as \u201cfeathers,\u201d 51\n  Scythia-Indo the same as Scinde and the Punjab, 57\n     \u201e    in Asia identical with Tartary, 57\n     \u201e    Parva identical with certain districts of Silistria and\n  Bessarabia, 57\n  Shushan, cotton hangings in the palace of Ahasuerus at, 66\n  Sloane, Sir Hans, lays before the Royal Society a supposed \u201cScythian\n                    Lamb,\u201d 24\n     \u201e     \u201e    \u201e   identification of the above by, unsatisfactory, 28\n     \u201e     \u201e    \u201e   bequest by, to the Nation, 43\n  Strabo mentions the \u201cwool-bearing trees,\u201d 47\n  Strauss Jans Janszoon. _See_ \u201cStruys.\u201d\n  Struys, Jean de, mentions the \u201cBarometz,\u201d 21\n     \u201e       \u201e     doubts the \u201canimal\u201d version of the story, 22\n  Suez Canal completed by De Lesseps, 94\n\n  Talmudical writers mention the \u201cBarometz,\u201d under the name of \u201cJadua,\u201d\n  7\n  Tartary identical with Scythia in Asia, 57\n  Tartar caravans, cotton conveyed by, to Europe, 56, 57, 58, 81, 82\n  Tartarian Lamb, the, why so called, 59\n      \u201e      \u201e      \u201e  see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n  Theophrastus writes of the cultivation of the \u201cwool-bearing tree,\u201d 47\n       \u201e       exactly describes the cotton-plant, 48\n  Trees, wool-bearing, described by Herodotus, 46\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Ctesias, 46\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Nearchus, 46\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Aristobulus, 47\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Strabo, 47\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Theophrastus, 47\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Pomponius Mela, 48\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Pliny, 48\n     \u201e          \u201e          \u201e        Julius Pollux, 49\n\n  Vasco da Gama opens the Cape route to India, 83, 88\n  Vegetable Lamb, the, its fleece cotton wool, 60\n      \u201e      \u201e     \u201e   see \u201cBarometz.\u201d\n\n  Waghorn, Lieut., opens the route across the desert, 93\n  Wool-bearing trees. _See_ Trees, wool-bearing.\n\n  Zavolha, the, a renowned Tartar horde, 12, 14\n\n\n  LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,\n  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes:\n\nPage 24, footnote [14]: The footnote anchor was missing in the source\ndocument, anchor [14] has been inserted where it seems to fit best.\n\nThe original language has been retained, including inconsistencies in\nspelling, except as mentioned below. Inconsistent lay-out has not been\nchanged either.\n\nPage 102, ... he returned to Holland in 1681: this seems unlikley in\nthe context, possibly the year should be 1651.\n\n\nChanges made to the original text:\n\nFootnotes and illustrations have been moved.\n\nSome wrong or missing punctuation has been corrected or added, some\nminor typographical errors have been corrected silently.\n\nSeveral index entries have been changed to make their spelling conform\nto that used in the text.","title":"The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant.: To Which Is Added a Sketch of the History of Cotton and the Cotton Trade","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":31028}