In all the colder regions the well-furred skins of several families of beasts could, by the ready help of a thorn for a needle and of the animal’s own sinews for thread, be fashioned after a manner into various kinds of clothing.
2 Sheep, in a primitive7 period, were bred for raiment perhaps as much as for food. At first, the locks of wool torn away from the animal’s back by brambles were gathered: afterwards shearing8 was thought of and followed in some countries, while in others the wool was not cut off but plucked by the hand away from the living creature. Obtained by either method the fleeces were spun generally by women from the distaff. This very ancient daily work was followed by women among our Anglo-saxon ancestors of all ranks of life, from the king’s daughter downwards9. Spinning from a distaff is even now common in many countries on the continent, particularly so all through Italy. Long ago the name of spindle-tree was given in England to the Euonymus plant, on account of the good spindles which its wood affords: and the term “spinster” as meaning every unmarried woman even of the gentlest blood is derived10 from the same occupation. Every now and then from the graves in which women of the British and succeeding epochs were buried, are picked up the elaborately ornamented11 leaden whorls which were fastened at the lower end of their spindles to give them a due weight and steadiness.
A curious instance of the use of woollen stuff not woven but plaited, among the older stock of the Britons, was very lately brought to light while cutting through an early Celtic grave-hill or barrow in Yorkshire: the dead body had been wrapped, as was shown by the few unrotted shreds12 still cleaving14 to its bones, in a woollen shroud15 of coarse and loose fabric16 wrought by the plaiting process without a loom.
As time passed by it brought the loom, fashioned after its simplest form, to the far west, and its use became general throughout the British islands. The art of dyeing soon followed; and so beautiful were the tints17 which our Britons knew how to give to their wools that strangers wondered at and were jealous of their splendour. A strict rule limited the colour of the official dress assigned to each of the three ranks into which the3 bardic18 order was distinguished20 to one simple unbroken shade: spotless white, symbolic21 of sunlight and holiness, for the druid or priest; sky-blue, emblem22 of peace, for the bard19 or poet; and green, the livery of the wood and field, for the teacher of the supposed qualities of herbs and leech-craft. Postulants, again, asking leave to be admitted into either rank were recognized by the robe barred with stripes of white, blue, and green, which they had to wear during the term of their initiation23. With regard to the bulk of the people, we learn from Dion Cassius (born A. D. 155) that the garments worn by them were of a texture24 wrought in a square pattern of several colours; and, speaking of Boadicea, the same writer tells us that she usually had on, under her cloak, a motley tunic25 chequered all over with many colours. This garment we are fairly warranted in deeming to have been a native stuff, woven of worsted after a pattern in tints and design like one or other of the present Scotch26 plaids. Pliny, who seems to have gathered a great deal of his natural history from scraps27 of hearsay28, most likely included these ancient sorts of British textiles with those from Gaul, when he tells us that to weave with a good number of threads, so as to work the cloths called polymita, was first taught in Alexandria; to divide by checks, in Gaul.
The native botanical home of cotton is in the east. India almost everywhere throughout her wide-spread countries arrayed, as she still arrays, herself in cotton, gathered from a plant of the mallow family which has its wild growth there; and in the same vegetable produce the lower orders of people dwelling29 still further to the east also clothed themselves.
Hemp, a plant of the nettle30 tribe and called by botanists31 “cannabis sativa,” was of old well known in the far north of Germany and throughout the ancient Scandinavia. More than two thousand years ago we find it thus spoken of by Herodotus: “Hemp grows in the country of the Scythians, which, except in the thickness and height of the stalk, very much resembles flax; in the qualities mentioned, however, the hemp is much superior.4 It grows in a wild state, and is also cultivated. The Thracians make clothing of it very like linen32 cloth; nor could any person, without being very well acquainted with the substance, say whether this clothing is made of hemp or flax.” From “cannabis,” its name in Latin, we have taken our word “canvas,” to mean any texture woven of hempen33 thread.
Although flax is to be found growing wild in many parts of Great Britain, it is very doubtful whether for many ages our British forefathers34 were aware of the use of this plant for clothing purposes: they would otherwise have left behind them some shred13 of linen in one or other of their many graves. Following, as they did, the usage of being buried in the best of the garments they were accustomed to, or most loved when alive, their bodies would have been found dressed in some small article of linen texture, had they ever worn it.
We must go to the valley of the Nile if we wish to learn the earliest history of the finest flaxen textiles. Time out of mind the Egyptians were famous as well for the growth of flax as for the beautiful linen which they wove out of it, and which became to them a most profitable, because so widely sought for, article of commerce. Their own word “byssus” for the plant itself became among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latin nations, the term for linens35 wrought in Egyptian looms36. Long before the oldest book in the world was written, the tillers of the ground all over Egypt had been heedful in sowing flax, and anxious about its harvest. It was one of their staple37 crops, and hence was it that, in punishment of Pharaoh, the hail plague which at the bidding of Moses fell from heaven destroyed throughout the land the flax just as it was getting ripe. Flax grew also upon the banks of the Jordan, and in Jud?a generally; and the women of the country, like Rahab, carefully dried it when pulled, and stacked it for future hackling upon the roofs of their houses. Nevertheless, it was from Egypt, as Solomon hints, that the Jews had to draw their fine linen. At a later period,5 among the woes39 foretold40 to Egypt, the prophet Isaiah warns her that “they shall be confounded who wrought in combing and weaving fine linen.”
How far the reputation of Egyptian workmanship in the craft of the loom had spread abroad is shown us by the way in which, besides sacred, heathenish antiquity41 has spoken of it. Herodotus says, “Amasis king of Egypt gave to the Minerva of Lindus a linen corslet well worthy42 of inspection:” and further on, speaking of another corslet which Amasis had sent the Laced?monians, he observes that it was of linen and had a vast number of figures of animals inwoven into its fabric, and was likewise embroidered43 with gold and tree-wool. This last was especially to be admired because each of the twists, although of fine texture, contained within it 360 threads, all of them clearly visible.
But we have material as well as written proofs at hand to show the excellence44 of old Egyptian work in linen. During late years many mummies have been brought to this country from Egypt, and the narrow bandages with which they were found to have been so admirably and, according even to our modern requirements of chirurgical fitness, so artistically45 swathed have been unwrapped. These bandages are often so fine in their texture as fully38 to verify the praises of old bestowed46 upon the beauty of the Egyptian loom-work. We learn from Sir Gardiner Wilkinson that “the finest piece of mummy-cloth, sent to England by Mr. Salt, and now in the British museum, of linen, appears to be made of yarns47 of nearly 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in an inch in the warp48 and about 64 in the woof.” Another piece of linen, which the same distinguished traveller obtained at Thebes, has 152 threads in the warp and 71 in the woof.
Although from all antiquity upwards49, till within some few years back, the unbroken belief had been that such mummy-clothing was undoubtedly50 made of linen woven out of pure unmixed flax, some writers led, or rather misled, by a few stray words in Herodotus (speaking of the corslet of Amasis, quoted just now)6 took that historian to mean wool, and argued that Egyptian textiles wrought a thousand years before were mixed with cotton. While the question was agitated51, specimens52 of mummy-cloth were submitted to the judgment53 of several persons in the weaving trade deemed most competent to speak upon the matter. Helped only by the fingers’ feel and the naked eye, some among them agreed that such textures54 were really woven of cotton. This opinion was but shortlived. Other individuals, more philosophical55, went to work on a better path. In the first place they clearly learned, through the microscope, the exact and never-varying physical structure of both these vegetable substances. They found cotton to be in its fibre a transparent56 tube without joints57, flattened58 so that its inward surfaces are in contact along its axis59 and also twisted spirally round its axis; flax on the contrary is a transparent tube, jointed60 like a cane61 and not flattened or twisted spirally. Examined in the same way, old samples of byssus or mummy-bandages from Egypt in every instance were ascertained62 to be of fine unmixed flaxen linen.
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1
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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3
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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hemp
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| n.大麻；纤维 | |
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filaments
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| n.（电灯泡的）灯丝( filament的名词复数 )；丝极；细丝；丝状物 | |
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6
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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7
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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8
shearing
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| n.剪羊毛，剪取的羊毛v.剪羊毛( shear的现在分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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11
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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13
shred
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| v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少 | |
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14
cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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shroud
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| n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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18
bardic
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| adj.吟游诗人的 | |
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bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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20
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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initiation
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| n.开始 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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27
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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hearsay
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| n.谣传，风闻 | |
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29
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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30
nettle
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| n.荨麻；v.烦忧，激恼 | |
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botanists
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| n.植物学家，研究植物的人( botanist的名词复数 ) | |
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32
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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33
hempen
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| adj. 大麻制的, 大麻的 | |
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34
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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linens
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| n.亚麻布( linen的名词复数 )；家庭日用织品 | |
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36
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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37
staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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38
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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39
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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40
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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42
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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43
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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44
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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45
artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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46
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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48
warp
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| vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见 | |
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49
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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50
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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51
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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52
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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53
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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54
textures
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| n.手感( texture的名词复数 )；质感；口感；（音乐或文学的）谐和统一感 | |
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55
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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56
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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57
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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58
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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59
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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60
jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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61
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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62
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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