nd, the superiority in this manufacture, though
we are constantly receiving from France novelties which give us good
hints, and urge us to keep pace with the science of the Gobelins in
their woollen dyes. The French, in return, employ our wools,
especially those of Lincolnshire, in their tapestry workshops.

The wool and hair of goats should be a study by itself. They have from
the earliest times been used in India for the finest and softest
fabrics, such as the lovely shawls of Cashmere and the neighbouring
provinces. Cloth of Tars in the Middle Ages is supposed to be what is
now called Cashmere.

3. FLAX.

Boyd Dawkins tells us that "The art of spinning and the manufacture of
linen were introduced into Europe in the Neolithic age, and have been
preserved with little variation from that period to the present day,
in certain remote parts of Europe, having only been superseded in
modern times by the complicated machinery so familiar to us. The
spindle and distaff, or perforated spindle whorls, are of stone,
pottery, or bone, such as are constantly found in Neolithic tombs and
habitations. Thread from the Swiss lake cities is proved to be of
flax, and there is evidence of weaving in some sort of loom."[169]

The meaning of the word Byssus has been disputed; some authorities
asserting that it includes both flax and cotton fabrics. Without the
aid of the microscope, the dispute as to whether the material of the
Egyptian mummy wrappings was cotton or flax, or a mixture of the two,
would never have been settled; but now that the difference of the
structure of each has been clearly ascertained, we know that cotton
was never employed in Egypt, except for certain domestic uses. The
mummy wrappings are entirely linen. Cotton was forbidden for the
priests' dress in the temple, though they might wear it when not on
duty.[170]

There are specimens of Egyptian painted or printed patterns on fine
linen in the British Museum;[171] and it is curious to see in Egyptian
mural paintings the same patterned chintzes on furniture that were
common a hundred years ago in England. Both must have come from India,
and therefore were certainly cotton fabrics.

Herodotus says the mummy cloths were of "byssine sindon," which may be
translated "linen cloth."[172] Cotton he calls "tree wool."

Yates has carefully argued the whole question, and, we think, has
proved that byssus was flax, and not cotton.[173] He quotes Philo,
who certainly mus