turn into a yellowish matter.

He maketh the best marks of their maturity for spinning to be, when they
begin to quit their white Colour, & their green and yellow Circles, and
grow of the Colour of Flesh, especially upon the tail; having a kind of
_consistent_ softness shewing that they have something substantial in their
Stomachs.

As for their _Working_, he gives this account of it, that the first day
they make only a _Webb_; the second, they form in this _Webb_ their
_Cases_, and cover themselves all over with Silk; the third day, they are
no longer seen, and the dayes following they thicken their _Cases_, alwayes
by one _end_ or _thread_, which they {90} never break off, themselves.
This, he affirms, they put out with so much quickness, and draw it so
subtle and so long, that without an _Hyperbole_, the _end_ or _thread_ of
every _Case_ may have two Leagues in length. He advertiseth, that they must
be by no means interrupted in their work, to the end, that all the Silk,
they have in their bellyes, may come out.

Some eight dayes after they have finished their Work, as many of the best
_Cases_, as are to serve for _seed_, _viz._ the first done the hardest, the
reddest and best coloured, must be chosen, and put a-part; and all
diligence is to be used to winde off the silk with as much speed, as may
be, especially if the _Worms_ have nimbly dispatched their work.

Here he spends a good part of his Book, in giving very particular
Instructions, concerning the way of winding off the silk, setting also down
the form of the Oven and Instruments necessary for that work, which is the
painfullest and nicest of all the rest.

Touching their _Generation_, he prescribeth that there be chosen as many
male as female _Cases_ (which are discerned by this, that the males are
more pointed at both ends of the _Cases_, and the females more obtuse on
the ends, and bigger-bellyed) and that care be had, that no _Cases_ be
taken, but such wherein the _Worms_ are heard rolling; which done, and they
being come forth in the form of _Butterflies_, having four wings, six feet,
two horns, and two very black eyes, and put in a convenient place, the
males fluttering with their wings, will joyn and couple with the females,
after that these have first purged themselves of a kind of reddish humour
by the fundament: in which posture they are to be left from Morning (which
is the ordinary time of their coming forth) till evening, and then the
females