SILK.
Seolc . ANGLO-SAXON. Seta, Kuz,'IChuz, Ffarir, ARAB. Sericum, . . . LAT.
See, SzU, . . Stara, . . . . MALAY.
Sir COREAN. Sirghe, . . IlLuccnu.
Silke, . . . DAN., SW. Sirkek, . . . MONGOL.
Zijde . . . DOT. Abresham, . . . PERS. Sole, l'abrique de sole, FR. Sheolk, Chelk, . . Rus. Seiden, . . . . GER. Seda, . . . SP., PORT.
Seiden fabrique, . Siden, Sw.
Serikon, . . . . GR. Pattu, TAM.
ReSlun, . . . HIND. Spek, Harir, . TURK.
Baron von Mueller has mentioned that in 1870, the value of the produce of cocoons of the silk worm amounted in Europe to 1116,588,000 ; in Asia, £28,112,000 ; in Africa, £44,000 ; in the South Sea Islands, £24,000 ; and in America, £20,000 total, £44,788,000. This amount is the representative of many forms of industry, giving employment to numbers of men, women, and chil dren. In the Rajashaline district of Bengal, in 1875, the yield of raw silk was estimated at 1400,000, the plantations extending over about 150 square miles, employing 12,000 people. In that district alone 250,000 people derived their support from the trade and other branches of the silk industries.
The arts of rearing silk-worms, of winding off the threads spun by them, and of manufacturing those threads into clothing, seem to have been first practised in China. Many of the names applied • to this substance by the several nations of the earth being from one Toot, proves that they, at least, obtained the substance and its name from one region ; and the name Seres, by which China was known to the western nations, was either applied to it from silk being a product of that country, or the country gave its name to the sub stance known as silk. The Chinese terms see and szu, silk, are found in the Corean lano-uage or dialect in the form of sir •, in Mongol, sirkel ; in Manchu, sirghe. Klaproth supposes this word to have given rise to the Greek ser, the silk-worm, and seres, the people furnishing silk, and hence seric um, serikon, silk. The eggs were brought to Europe by monks. The country from which they brought their precious charge is called by Theophanes simply that of the Seres, but by Procopius Ser inda. But it is possible that the term was meant to express a compound like Indo-China, some region intermediate between Serica and India, and if so not improbably Khoten. It would be curious,' says Klaproth, to kuow at what period the word silk was introduced into the English language. It appears to be the same as Russian chelk, which is believed to be derived from the Mongol for silk ; this is so much the more likely as Russia was for a long period under the Mongol yoke.' Silk, then, seems to have given its name to the people who first fabricated it, and sent it to the west ; and the Seres of the Greeks and Romans were seemingly the Chinese, whose' empire was formerly separated by the Oxus from that of Persia.
In China, the silk industry is said to have been in its most flourishing state for a period of 4000 years previous to the introduction of cotton from India, at the beginning of the Yuan dynasty, A.D. 1260. The Shi-king contains this distich, The legitimate wife of Hwang-ti, named Si-ling Shi, began to rear silk-worms.' M. P. Mania, in his l'Histoire generale de la Chine, also mentions that, B.C. 2602, Si-ling-chi, wife of the emperor of China, Hwang-ti, was enjoined by him to utilize the thread of the silk-worm,in which she succeeded. This lady did not disdain to share in the labours attending the care of the insect, as well as in those of the loom, the invention of which seems to be attributed to her, and raised her to the position of a tutelary genius, with special altars of her own. But whatever the precise date of the discovery, there can be no question of the very high antiquity of the knowledge in China of the worm and its product. A series of imperial edicts, and a volu minous literature of practical treatises, testify to the importance of the industry, and the care that was taken to foster an art which was considered, according to M. de Rosny, best fitted to promote the morality of the people and extinguish pauper ism in the empire. The original cradle of sericul ture in China included the country of Yen, lying • south-west of the present province of Shan-tung ; the country of Ts'ing, answering to the north-west region of the same province ; the country of Siu, covering the south of Shan-tung and the northern portion of Kiang-si ; and lastly the country of King, which now constitutes the province of Hukong. The industry now extends to the whole of China, even into Manchuria. According to Captain Bowers, of Colonel Sladen's expedition, large quantities used to be raised in Yunnan and Sze-chuen, but the industry suffered from the Panthay revolt. In China, besides exporting millions of pounds annually by sea, the yield is sufficient to clothe in silk all but the lowest classes of a population estimated to nunaber 400,000,000. Shanghai and Canton are the only ports from which any considerable quantity of silk is exported to foreign countries. From Ningpo only 21 kilos. in 1879. But in 1878, in the Ningpo districts, the produce was 2,935,328_kilos., and in 1879 it Was 3,334,751 kilos. The best silk is found in the provinces of Sze-chuen, Hu-peh, Che kiang, and Kiang-nan ; but every province south of 45° N. produces it of different degrees of fine ness. Probably the kind called tsa-tle, brought from lItt-peh, is the 'finest silk found in the world.