he term is explained there by _kin kin_
(gold brocade)."--H. C.] The stuffs called _Nasich_ and _Nac_ are again
mentioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.). We only know that they were
of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who
mentions _Nakh_ several times and _Nasij_ once. The latter is also
mentioned by Rubruquis (_Nasic_) as a present made to him at the Kaan's
court. And Pegolotti speaks of both _nacchi_ and _nacchetti_ of silk and
gold, the latter apparently answering to _Nasich_. _Nac, Nacques, Nachiz,
Naciz, Nasis_, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century,
French and English. (See _Dictionnaire des Tissus_, II. 199, and _Douet d'
Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France_, etc., 334.) We find no
mention of _Nakh_ or _Nasij_ among the stuffs detailed in the _Ain
Akbari_, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. [Cf. Heyd,
_Com. du Levant_, II. p. 698; _Nacco_, nachetto, comes from the Arabic
_nakh_ (_nekh_); _nassit_ (_nasith_) from the Arabic _necidj_.--H. C.]
_Quermesis_ or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar.
_Kirmiz_) found on _Quercus coccifera_, now supplanted by cochineal. The
stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but
apparently, like the mediaeval _Purpura_, if not identical with it, it
came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes
velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and
_pourpres_ of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with
_pourpre blanche_. I may, however, point to Plano Carpini (p. 755), who
describes the courtiers at Karakorum as clad in white _purpura_.

The London prices of _Chermisi_ and _Baldacchini_ in the early part of the
15th century will be found in Uzzano's work, but they are hard to
elucidate.

Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for its
variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature of the
goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but Josephus
speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of Titus,
"gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom," and he also
describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a [Greek: peplos Babylonios]
of varied colours marvellously wrought. Pliny says King Attalus invented
the intertexture of cloth with gold; but the weaving of damasks of a
variety of colours was perfected at Babylon, and thence the