was originally woven at Fustat
on the Nile. The warp was stout linen, the woof of cotton so twilled and
cut that it gave a low thick pile. Chaucer's knight in the fourteenth
century wore fustian. In the fifteenth century Naples was famous for the
weaving of fustians.

A cloth made in France at a town called Mustrevilliers was known as
"mustyrd devells."

[Sidenote: Damask]

China is supposed to be the first country to weave patterned silks.
India, Persia, Syria, and Byzantine Greece followed. Those were known as
"diaspron" or diaper, a name given them at Constantinople. In the
twelfth century, the city of Damascus, long famed for her beautiful
textiles, outstripped all other places for beauty of design and gave the
Damascen or damask, so we have in modern times all fabrics whether of
silk, cotton, wool, or linen, curiously woven and designed, known as
damask, and diaper, which means pattern, is almost forgotten, or only a
part of the elaborate design on damask. Bandekin, a costly cloth, took
its name from Bagdad. Dorneck an inferior damask woven of silk, wool,
linen, thread and gold, was made in Flanders at the city of Dorneck.

[Sidenote: Muslin]

From the Asiatic city Mosul came the muslin used then as it is now
throughout the world. So skilled were its weavers that the threads were
of hair-like fineness. This was known as the invisible muslin, the
weaving of which has become a lost art. To this beautiful cloth were
given many fanciful and poetic names. It was woven with strips of gold
and silver.

[Sidenote: Calico]

Calico derives its name from the city of Calicut in India. The city is
scarcely known to-day; it was the first Indian city visited by
Europeans.

In the thirteenth century Arras was famous for its areste or tapestry,
"the noblest of the weaving arts"; in it there is nothing mechanical.
Mechanical weaving repeats the pattern on the cloth within comparatively
narrow limits and the number of colors is in most cases limited to four
or five.

Silks and cottons are distinguished through their colors and shades.
Tarsus was a purple silk. Other cities gave their name to various
shades, according as they were dyed at Antioch, Alexandria, or at
Naples. Watered or moire silk takes its name from the finish.

From "canabis," the Latin name for hemp or flax, we have the word
"canvas" to mean any texture woven of hempen thread.

To this list of fabrics might be added many others of cotton, linen,
wool,