ribute in linens and
silken stuffs. Tissues of many colours were painted or richly
embroidered.[237]

In the second century A.D., a prince of Khotan,[238] Kiu-sa-tan-na,
was desirous of obtaining from China the eggs of the silkworm, but his
request was refused; and it was prohibited that either eggs of the
silkworm or seed of mulberry-trees should cross the border.

Then the King of Khotan asked for a Chinese princess in marriage, and
this favour being granted, he found means to inform the lady privately
that in her future kingdom she would find no silk to weave or work.
The dread of such an aimless life roused all her womanly instincts.
Defiance of the law, love of smuggling, and the wish to please her
husband and benefit her future people, gave her courage to conceal the
eggs and seeds in the folds of her dress and the meshes of her
beautiful hair, and so she carried a most precious dower into her
adopted country.[239] Thus was broken the spell which for more than
3000 years had confined the secret of China within the fence of its
wonderful wall; and later on, A.D. 530, the eggs were brought to
Byzantium.[240]

From China, therefore, comes our silk.[241] We may say it is traced to
the beginning; but how far back had the archaeologist to grope before
he could find it!

I transcribe a few more quotations from Yates' translations and
authorities.[242]

In the Hippolytus of Euripides, 383, Phaedra _loquitur_:--

"Remove, ye maids, the vests whose tissue glares
With purple and with gold; far be the red
Of Syrian murex; this the shining thread
Which furthest Seres gathers from the boughs."

Lucan describes the transparent material which veiled Cleopatra's
form:--

"Her snowy breast shines through Sidonian threads,
First by the comb of distant Seres struck;
Divided then by Egypt's skilful hand,
And with embroidery transparent made."

Pliny's account of silk and its manufacture is mostly fanciful, though
founded on half-known facts.

The Latin poets of the Augustan age speak of silk attire with other
luxurious customs from the East.[243] The Roman senate, in the reign
of Tiberius, decreed that only women should wear silk, on account of
its effeminacy.

Silk was accumulated for the wardrobes of the empresses till A.D.
176, when Marcus Aurelius, "the Philosopher," sold all the imperial
ornaments and the silken robes of his empress by auction in the Forum
of Trajan.[244]

We le