dropped them on all the shores of the world. Then, as
now, savages had a passion for beads, and civilized men and women
still admire them as trimmings. In the Middle Ages they were sometimes
worked into pictures.[149]

In as far as materials are essential to the art of embroidery, I must
restrict myself to the history of silk, wool, flax, cotton, and gold.
With these all the finest works have been executed for the artistic
adornment of dress and hangings. All other materials have been
occasional experiments, or else were resorted to in the absence or
ignorance of the above five most important factors in our domestic
civilization. The history of wool must take precedence as being that
of the original, if not the first, of textile materials.

2. WOOL.

The wool of sheep and the hair of goats were used very early in the
world's history for clothing, and probably also for hangings. The
earliest civilizations plaited, span,[150] wove, and felted them.

There is no reason to suppose that goats and sheep preceded the
creation of man. No early fossils record them. Our sheep are supposed
by zoologists to be descended from the Argali or Ovis Ammon of
Linnaeus, inhabiting the central regions of Asia.[151]

It is possible that plaited grasses may have preceded wool. But though
certain prehistoric specimens are supposed to have been found in
Spain, yet of this there is but imperfect proof.

The pastoral tribes wandering over those fair regions that extend from
Khotan to Arabia, following their flocks and herds, and studying where
best to feed, increase, and multiply them, and obtain from them the
finest texture of wool, are spoken of nowhere more than in the
collected books of the Old Testament, open to us all; and there we
learn how important a place these shepherds held in the world's
civilization. "Watching their flocks by night," they watched the stars
also, and they were astronomers; seeking the best pastures and fodder,
they learned to be botanists, florists, and agriculturalists. They
became also philosophers, poets, prophets, and kings.[152] Job and his
country were enriched through the breeding of sheep. The seven
daughters of Jethro, the High-priest, tended their father's flocks.

The Arabians were always great breeders of sheep. The Greeks and
Romans, from Homer to Virgil, sang of the herdsman's life. Our Lord
Himself did not disdain to be called "the Good Shepherd."[153]

The merchants who traded from the Arab