ons present were clad in satin.[273] Semper and Bock believe
that it had been a Chinese material long before it reached Europe.

Satin was often called "blattin," in connection with the colour of the
cochineal insect (blatta), whose dye was invariably used for satin. We
cannot tell, however, which was certainly named from the other.[274]

In the poem of "The Lady of the Fountain," translated by Lady
Charlotte Guest from the Welsh ballads of the thirteenth century, silk
and satin are often named. At the opening of the poem, King Arthur is
described seated on a throne of rushes, covered with a flame-coloured
satin cloth, and with a red satin cushion under his elbow.

Fiery red was the orthodox colour for satin. In old German poems we
find it described as "pfellat," always as being fiery. One kind of
pfellat was called salamander.[275] Bruges satins were the most
esteemed in the Middle Ages. Chaucer speaks of "satin riche and
newe."[276]

Satin and velvet are the contrasting silken materials. In satin the
threads are laid along so that the shining surface ripples with every
ray of sunshine, and the shadows are melted into half-lights by the
reflections from every fold. It makes a dazzling garment, splendid in
its radiant sheen; whereas in velvet, where each thread is placed
upright and shorn smoothly, all light is absorbed and there are no
reflections, and the whole effects are solemn, rich, and deep.[277]
Some of the oldest velvets resemble plush in the length of their pile,
and have not the dignity of velvet.

Semper, from the different derivations that have been suggested,
selects the connection of the word "velvet" (German, _Felbert_) with
"welf," the skin or fur of an animal.[278]

Among the gifts to Charlemagne (ninth century) from Haroun el Raschid
were velvets; and the earliest existing specimen we know of is named
by Bock as being in the Pergament Codex at Le Puy, in Vendome, where,
amongst other curious interleaved specimens of weaving, is a fine
piece of shorn silk velvet.[279]

Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, frequently speaks of velvet as
an Asiatic fabric. It is first known as a European textile in Lucca,
about 1295, and we may therefore say that it was imported from the
East.[280]

In the next chapter on colour I have noticed the curious fact that the
word purple was sometimes used to mean colour, and sometimes to
express the texture of velvet, thus confounding the two; but I have
also point