[239] Khotan or Little Bucharia would, in common parlance, be included in Serica; and therefore silk exported thence to Europe would have been perfectly described as coming from the Seres. Yates, p. 231, 232.
[240] Yates, p. 231.
[241] While in Europe the arts of daily use and decoration were struggling for life after many interruptions and revolutions, the civilization of Japan, which is nearly contemporary with Christianity, spent itself in perfecting to the most exquisite finish the arts which had been imported from China and Corea. Japan also inherited the power and the tradition of concealment, and so Europe remained unconscious, until the last century, of the miraculous arts which a semi-barbarous people were cultivating—not for commercial purposes. Auberville, “Tissus,” pp. 2-4.
[242] Yates, pp. 175-184.
[243] Yates, p. 176. The silken flags attached to the gilt standards of the Parthians inflamed the cupidity of the army of Crassus. The conflict between them took place 54 B.C. About thirty years after this date, Roman luxury had reached its zenith—
“The insatiate Roman spreads his conquering arm
O’er land and sea, where’er heaven’s light extends.”
“Petronius Arbiter,” c. cxix.
After these words he says that among the richest productions of distant climes, the Seres sent their “new fleeces.”
[244] Yates, p. 183.
[245] “Holosericum,” whole silk; “subsericum,” partly cotton, hemp, or flax. The longitudinal threads or warp, cotton; the cross threads, silk. Rock, “Textile Fabrics,” p. xxxvii (ed. 1870).