Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions Part 22

Pliny, who, most probably, obtained the most of his ideas from Pausanias and Aristotle, was of opinion that silk was the produce of a worm which built clay-nests and collected wax. At first these worms, he says, a.s.sume the appearance of small b.u.t.terflies with naked bodies, but soon after, being unable to endure the cold, they throw out bristly hairs, which a.s.sume quite a thick coat against the winter, by rubbing off the down that covers the leaves, by the aid of the roughness of their feet.

This they compress into b.a.l.l.s by carding it with their claws, and then draw it out and hang it between the branches of the trees, making it fine by combing it out, as it were: last of all, they take and roll it round their body, thus forming a nest in which they are enveloped. It is in this state that they are taken; after which they are placed in earthen vessels in a warm place, and fed upon bran. A peculiar sort of down soon shoots forth upon the body, on being clothed with which they are sent to work upon another task.[810]

The first kinds of silk dresses worn by the Roman ladies were from the Island of Cos, and, as Pliny says, were known by the name of _Coae vestes_.[811] These dresses, of which Pliny says in such high praise, "that while they cover a woman, they at the same time reveal her charms," were indeed so fine as to be transparent, and were sometimes dyed purple, and enriched with stripes of gold. They had their name from the early reputation which Cos acquired by its manufacture of silk. But silk was a very scarce article among the Romans for many ages, and so highly prized as to be valued at its weight in gold. Vospicius informs us that the Emperor Aurelian, who died A.D. 125, refused his empress a robe of silk, which she earnestly solicited, merely on account of its dearness. Galen, who lived about A.D. 173, speaks of the rarity of silk, being nowhere then but at Rome, and there only among the rich.

Heliogabalus is said to have been the first Roman that wore a garment entirely of silk.

We learn from Tacitus, that early in the reign of Tiberius, about A.D.

17, the Senate enacted "that men should not defile themselves by wearing garments of silk."[812] Pliny says, however, that in his time men had become so degenerate as to not even feel ashamed to wear garments of this material.[813]

The mode of producing and manufacturing silk was not known to Europe until long after the Christian era, being first learned about the year 555 by two Persian monks, who, under the encouragement of the Emperor Justinian, procured in India the eggs of the Silk-worm Moth, with which, concealing them in hollow canes, they hastened to Constantinople. They also brought with them instructions for hatching the eggs, rearing and feeding the worms, and drawing, spinning, and working the silk.[814]

From Constantinople, the culture of the Silk-worm spread over Greece, so that in less than five centuries that portion of this country, hitherto called the Peloponnesus, changed its denomination into that of Morea, from the immense plantations of the _Morus alba_, or white mulberry.[815] Large manufactories were set up at Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. The Venetians, soon after this, commencing a commerce with the Grecians, supplied all the western parts of Europe with silks for many centuries. Several kinds of modern silk manufactures, such as damasks, velvets, satins, etc., were as yet unknown.

About the year 1130, Roger II., King of Sicily, having conquered the Peloponnesus, transported the Silk-worms and such as cultivated them to Palermo and to Calabria. Such was the success of the speculation in Calabria, that it is doubtful whether, even at the present moment, it does not produce more silk than the whole of the rest of Italy.[816]

By degrees the rest of Italy, as well as Spain, learned from the Sicilians and Calabrians the management of Silk-worms and the working of silk; and at length, during the wars of Charles VIII., in 1499, the French acquired it, by right of neighborhood, and soon large plantations of the mulberry were raised in Provence. Henry I. is reported to have been the first French king who wore silk stockings. The invention, however, originally came from Spain, whence silk stockings were brought over to England to Henry VIII. and Edward VI.

It is stated, that at the celebration of the marriage between Margaret, daughter of Henry III., and Alexander III. of Scotland, in the year 1251, a most extravagant display of magnificence was made by one thousand English knights appearing in suits of silk. It appears also by the 33d of Henry VI., cap. 5, that there was a company of silk-women in England as early as the year 1455; but these were probably employed rather in embroidering and making small haberdasheries, than in the broad manufacture, which was not introduced till the year 1620.

Sir Thomas Gresham, in a letter to Sir William Cecil, Elizabeth's great minister, dated Antwerp, April 30th, 1560, says: "I have written into Spain for silk hose both for you and my lady, your wife, to whom, it may please you, I may be remembered." These silk hose, of a black color, were accordingly soon after sent by Gresham to Cecil.[817]

Hose were, in England, up to the time of Henry VIII., made out of ordinary cloth: the King's own were formed of yard-wide taffata. It was only by chance that he might obtain a pair of silk hose from Spain. His son, Edward VI., received as a present from Sir Thomas Gresham--Stow speaks of it as a great present--"a pair of long Spanish silk stockings." For some years longer, silk stockings continued to be a great rarity. "In the second year of Queen Elizabeth," says Stow, "her silk-woman, Mistress Montague, presented her Majesty with a pair of black knit-silk stockings for a New-Year's gift; the which, after a few days' wearing, pleased her Highness so well, that she sent for Mistress Montague, and asked her where she had them, and if she could help her to any more; who answered, saying, 'I made them very carefully, of purpose only for your Majesty, and, seeing these please you so well, I will presently set more in hand.' 'Do so,' quoth the Queen, 'for indeed I like silk stockings so well, because they are pleasant, fine, and delicate, that henceforth I will wear no more cloth stockings.' And from that time to her death the Queen never wore cloth hose, but only silk stockings."[818]

James I., while King of Scotland, is said to have once written to the Earl of Mar, one of his friends, to borrow a pair of silk stockings, in order to appear with becoming dignity before the English Amba.s.sador; concluding his letter with these words: "For ye would not, sure, that your King should appear like a scrub before strangers." This shows the great rarity of silk articles at that period in Scotland.

In 1629, the manufacture of silk was become so considerable in London, that the silk throwsters of the city and parts adjacent were incorporated; and in 1661, this company employed above forty thousand persons. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, contributed in a great degree to promote the manufacture of this article; and the invention of the silk-throwing machine at Derby, in 1719, added so much to the reputation of English manufactures, that even in Italy, according to Keysler, the English silks bore a higher price than the Italian.[819]

Rev. Stephen Olin tells us that the Mohammedans of Arabia will not allow strangers to look into their coc.o.o.neries, on account of their superst.i.tious fear of the evil eye, of the influence of which the Silk-worms are thought to be peculiarly susceptible.[820]

The silk of the nests of the social caterpillar of the _Bombyx Madrona_, was an object of commerce in Mexico in the time of Montecusuma; and the ancient Mexicans pasted together the interior layers, which may be written upon without preparation, to form a white, glossy pasteboard.

Handkerchiefs are still manufactured of it in the Intendency of Oaxaca.[821]

A complete nest of these Silk-worms, called in Brazil _sustillo_, was sent by the Academy of Sciences and Natural History to the King of Spain. The naturalist, Don Antonio Pineda, sent also a piece of this natural silk paper, measuring a yard and a half, of an elliptical shape, which, however, is peculiar to them all.[822]

The Chinese fix on rings with threads the females of two species of wild _Bombyx_, whose caterpillars produce silk, and place these insects on a tree, or on some body situated in the open air, to allow the males, guided by their scent, to visit them.[823]

"The manner of the Chinese is," we read in Purchas's Pilgrims, "in the Spring time to revive the Silke-worms (that lye dead all the Winter) by laying them in the warme sunne, and (to hasten their quickening, that they may sooner goe to worke) to put them into bagges, and so hang them under their childrens armes."[824]

In China, the pupae of the Silk-worms after the silk is wound off, and the larvae of a species of Sphinx-moth, furnish articles for the table, and are considered delicacies.[825] The natives of Madagascar, who eat all kinds of insects, consider also Silk-worms a great luxury.[826]

Aldrovandus states that the German soldiers sometimes fry and eat Silk-worms.[827]

Dr. James says: "Silk-worms dried, and reduced to a powder, are, by some, applied to the crown of the head for removing vertigos and convulsions. The silk, and case or coat, are of a due temperament between heat and cold, and corroborate and recruit the vital, natural, and animal spirits."[828] The coc.o.o.ns are also the basis of G.o.ddard's _Drops_, and enter into several other compositions, such as the _Confectio de Hyacintho_, when made in the best manner.[829]

With respect to the coloring of silk, we find in "Tseen Tse Wan," or thousand character cla.s.sic, a work that has been a school-book in China for the last 1200 years, that an ancient sage by the name of Mih, seeing the white silk colored, wept on account of its original purity being destroyed.[830]

Some of the eggs of a wild species of Silk-worm being sent overland from China to Paris, proved a source of considerable anxiety to different parties who received them during the transit, the instructions on the box, instead of simply stating that it contained the eggs of the _wild_ Silk-worm Moth, was couched in the following manner by the French savant who forwarded them: "Must be kept far from the engines; this box contains _savage_ worms."[831]

About twenty-five years ago, during a mania for rearing Silk-worms, to meet the demand for the eggs of these insects, fish-sp.a.w.n was distributed throughout the country. The humbug was quite as successful as it was curious.

It has been said that the search after the "Golden Fleece" may be ascribed to the desire to obtain silk.[832]

As a protection against rifle-b.a.l.l.s, the Chinese, who were engaged in the rebellion of 1853, state that they wore dresses thickly padded with floss silk; they said that while the ball had a twist in it, revolving in its course, it caught up the silk and fastened itself in the garment.

One man declared that he took out six so caught, in one day, after a severe fight. They said the dress was of more use within a hundred yards than at long range, when the ball had lost its revolving motion.[833]

Vaucanson, the inventor of the famous "automaton duck," to revenge himself upon the silk-weavers of Lyons, who had stoned him because he attempted to simplify the ordinary loom, is said to have invented a loom on which a donkey worked silken cloth.[834]

The following curious Welsh epigram on the Silk-worm is composed entirely of vowels, and can be recited without closing or moving lips or teeth:

O'i wiw wy i e a, a'i weuaw O'i wyau y weua; E' weua ei wi aia', A'i weuau yw ieuau ia.

I perish by my art; dig mine own grave; I spin the thread of life; my death I weave.[835]

Arctiidae--Wooly-bear Moths.

In 1783, the larvae of the Moth, _Arctia chrysorrha_, were so destructive in the neighborhood of London that subscriptions were opened to employ the poor in cutting off and collecting the webs; and it is a.s.serted that not less than eighty bushels were collected and burnt in one day in the parish of Clapham. And even in some places prayers were offered up in the churches to avert the calamities of which they were supposed by the ignorant to be the forerunner.[836]

If a caterpillar spins its coc.o.o.n in a house, it foretells its desolation by death; if in your clothes, it warns you you will wear a shroud before the year is out. This superst.i.tion obtains in the Middle States, Virginia, and Maryland.

If Moths, flying in a candle, put it out, it forebodes a calamity amounting to almost death. This superst.i.tion is pretty general.

Why Moths fly in a candle: Kempfer tells us, there is found in j.a.pan an insect, which, by reason of its incomparable beauty, is kept by the j.a.panese ladies among the curiosities of their toilets. He calls it a Night-fly, and describes it as being "about a finger long, slender, round-bodied, with four wings, two of which are transparent and hid under a pair of others, which are s.h.i.+ning as it were polished, and most curiously adorned with blue and golden lines and spots." The following little fable, which accounts so beautifully for the flying of Moths in a candle, owes its origin to the unparalleled beauty of this insect, and is well worthy of being preserved: The j.a.panese say that all other Night-flies (Moths, etc.) fall in love with this particular one, who, to get rid of their importunities, maliciously bids them, under the pretense of trying their constancy, to go and bring to her fire. And the blind lovers, scrupling not to obey her command, fly to the nearest fire or candle, in which they never fail to burn themselves to death.[837]

The following verses, embodying the above fable (except in several minor particulars) are from the pen of Mrs. A. L. Ruter Dufour:

One summer night, says a legend old, A Moth a Firefly sought to woo: "Oh, wed me, I pray, thou bright star-child, To win thee there's nothing I'd dare not do."

"If thou art sincere," the Firefly cried, "Go--bring me a light that will equal my own; Not until then will I deign be thy bride;"-- Undaunted the Moth heard her mocking tone.

Afar he beheld a brilliant torch, Forward he dashed, on rapid wing, Into the light to bear it hence;-- When he fell a scorched and blighted thing.--

Still ever the Moths in hope to win, Unheeding the lesson, the gay Firefly, Dash, reckless, the dazzling torch within, And, vainly striving, fall and die!

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., June 24, 1864.

Moufet says: "Our North, as well as our West countrymen, call it (the Moth, _Phalaina_) _Saule_, _i.e._ _Psychen, Animam_, the soul; because some silly people in old time did fancy that the souls of the dead did fly about in the night seeking light."[838] "Pliny commends a goat's liver to drive them away, yet he shews not the means to use it."[839]

One of the most highly prized curiosities in the collection of Horace Walpole, was the silver bell with which the popes used to curse the caterpillars. This bell was the work of Benvenuto Cellini, one of the most extraordinary men of his extraordinary age, and the relievos on it representing caterpillars, b.u.t.terflies, and other insects, are said to have been wonderfully executed.[840]

In Purchas's Pilgrims, we read of worms being sprinkled with holy water to kill them.[841]

Apuleius says, that if you take the caterpillars from another garden, and boil them in water with anethum, and let them cool, and besprinkle the herbs, you will destroy the existing caterpillars.[842]

Pliny says, that "if a woman having a catamenia strips herself naked, and walks round a field of wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin, will fall off the ears of the grain!" This important discovery, according to Metrodurus of Scepsos, was first made in Cappadocia; where, in consequence of such mult.i.tudes of "Cantharides"

being found to breed there, it was the practice for women to walk through the middle of the fields with their garments tucked up above the thighs.[843] Columella[844] has described this practice in verse, and aelian[845] also mentions it. Pliny says further that in other places, again, it is the usage of women to go barefoot, with the hair disheveled and the girdle loose: due precaution, however, he seriously observes, must be taken that this is not done at sunrise, for if so the crop will wither and dry up.[846] Apuleius,[847] Columella,[848] and Palladius[849] relate the same story. Constantinus, likewise, whose verses, as translated in Moufet's Theater of Insects, are as follows:

But if against this plague no art prevail, The Trojan arts will do't, when others fail.

A woman barefoot with her hair untied, And naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s must walk as if she cried, And after Venus' sports she must surround Ten times, the garden beds and orchard ground.

When she hath done, 'tis wonderful to see, The caterpillars fall off from the tree, As fast as drops of rain, when with a crook, For acorns or apples the tree is shook.[850]