It seems still to maintain its ancient pre-eminence: Larcher refers to Chardin (tom. i. p. 115.), as saying, that the Prince of Mingrelia, a part of the ancient Colchis, paid in his time an annual tribute of linen to the Turks.
That flax was extensively cultivated in Babylonia appears from the testimony of Herodotus, who says (i. 195.), that the Babylonians wore a linen shirt reaching to the feet; over that a woollen shirt; and over that a white shawl. Strabo (l. xvi. cap. 1. p. 739. ed. Casaub.) shows where these linen shirts were chiefly made; for he informs us that Borsippa, a city of Babylonia, sacred to Apollo and Diana, was a great place for the manufacture of linen.
The cultivation of flax in the region of the Euphrates may also be inferred from the use of the linen thorax, as attested by Xenophon (Cyropedia, vi. 4. 2.).
From Joshua ii. 6. we have evidence, that flax was cultivated in Palestine near the Jordan. Rahab concealed the two Hebrew spies (according to the common English version) “with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.” According to the Septuagint translation, “the stalks of flax” were not merely “laid in order,” but “stacked.” Josephus says, she was drying the bundles. The Chaldee Paraphrast Onkelos also uses the expression מעוני כחנא, bundles of flax. Agreeably to these explanations, the history must be understood as implying, that the stalks of flax, tied into bundles, as represented in the painting at El Kab[526], were stacked, probably crossways, upon the flat roof of Ahab’s house, so as to allow the wind to blow through and dry them.
Other passages, referring to the use of flax for weaving in Palestine, are Levit. xiii. 47, 48. 52. 59, where linen garments are four times mentioned in opposition to woollen.
Proverbs xxi. 13. The virtuous woman, so admirably described in this chapter, “seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.” (See Part First, Chapter I. [p. 13.]). This proves, that flax was still an important article of cultivation in Palestine.
In 1 Chron. iv. 21. there is an allusion to a great establishment for dressing the fine flax, called Butz, or Byssus. It was conducted by certain families of the tribe of Judah[527].
[527] Hebr. משפחת בית־עבדת הבץ, i. e. “the families, or perhaps the partnerships, of the manufactory of Byssus;” Vulg. “Cognationes domus operantium byssum.”
Jeremiah (xiii. 1.) mentions אזור פשתים, “a linen girdle;” Lumbare lineum, Vulgate; περίζωμα λινοῦν LXX. זרז רכתן Jonathan; סוזרא רכהנא (sudarium) Syriac.