world, that a tolerably accurate account of the revolutions in the Persian and Parthian kingdoms may be found in Chinese histories.*

The silk was imported from China in packages, which caravans of merchants brought across the extreme breadth of Asia, in a journey of two hundred and forty-three days, to the seacoast of Syria. The Persians who supplied the Romans, usually made their purchases from the Sogdians, on the banks of the Oxus, and their traffic was liable to be interrupted by the White Huns and the Turks, who successively conquered that industrious people. But the difficulties of the road between the Sogdian capital, Maracanda (Samarcand), and the first Chinese city in the province of Shensí, led to frequent efforts for opening a new and less perilous route, which, however, proved unsuccessful. From the time they passed the Jaxartes, the enterprising Sogdians had to contend, not only with the dangers and difficulties of the intervening deserts, but also against the wandering hordes, who have always considered the citizen and traveller as objects of lawful rapine.

It is recorded as a proof of the vast expense of the magnificent spectacles with which Julius Cæsar sought at once to dazzle and conciliate the populace, that he decorated the actors in his varied pageants with a profusion of silk dresses, which were viewed by the Italians with equal wonder and admiration. In consequence of the difficulties of transit, the vast length of desert which the caravans had to traverse, and, probably, the limited supply of silk in China itself, this article bore a very high price in Rome, and was often sold for its weight in gold. Silken dresses were esteemed too expensive and delicate for men, and were appropriated wholly to ladies of eminent rank and opulence. In the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was passed enacting, that " no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silk dress." This might, however, have been a religious as well as a sumptuary ordinance, for it is a singular circumstance in the history of silk, that, on account of its being the excretion of a worm, several religious bodies in the East, but more especially the Mohammedans, consider it an unclean dress. Indeed, it has been decided by the unanimous consent of all the Sonnite doctors, that a person wearing a garment made entirely of silk, can not offer up the daily prayers enjoined by the Koran.

The profligate and effeminate Heliogabalus was the first of the Roman emperors who wore a garment entirely of silk; and, in consequence of his example, the custom of wearing silk soon became general among the wealthy citizens of Rome, and even extended to the provinces. It seems probable, also, that the price of the article had diminished in consequence of its beginning to be imported by the maritime route through Alexandria, instead of by caravans through the arid deserts of Tartary and Turkestan. Chinese histories inform us, that an

• The Armenians call the Chinese Jenk, and China Jenistán. Their relations with this country ascend to the beginning of the third century of our era. About that time a Chinese colony was established in Armenia. The chief of this colony was probably one of the imperial dynasty of the Huns: driven from his country by civil wars, he at first sought refuge at the court of Ardeshir, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty in Persia, thence he passed into Persia, where he was received about A. D. 260, by Tiridates, the Armenian sovereign, who gave him the province of Jaron. This personage, whose name was Mamkon, became the founder of the family of the Memigonians, who are justly celebrated in Armenian history.

ambassador from one of the Antonines came to their remote country for the purpose of concluding a commercial treaty, and this is rendered highly probable by the fact that oriental commodities became both plentiful and cheap under and after their dynasty. Ammianus Marcellinus informs us, that in his age (A. D. 370) silk was generally worn even by the lower classes.

After the restoration of a native dynasty in Persia under the Sassanides, and the establishment of the eastern empire at Constantinople, a long series of wars ensued between the Persian sovereigns, who deemed themselves legitimate inheritors of the power of Cyrus, and the Byzantine emperors, who wished themselves to be considered successors of Alexander the Great. The command of the sea of Oman gave the Persians a decided advantage over the Egyptian merchants, who were forced to import oriental commodities by the tedious and dangerous navigation of the Red sea. Until the introduction of steam navigation, the Red sea, or Yam Suph,* as it is called by the Orientals, was universally dreaded by voyagers. The strait at its entrance was significantly named by the Arabs Bab-el-Mandeb, or, "the gate of tears;" and it was a common proverb with eastern sailors, "Yam Suph is a double-locked sea; there are six months in the year that you can not get into it, and six more that you can not get out of it." But the Persians were not satisfied with this natural superiority; having it in their power to molest or cut off the caravans, which, in order to procure a supply for the Greek empire, travelled by land to China through the northern provinces of their kingdom, they laid such onerous transit duties on foreign merchants, that the Greeks were forced to abandon this branch of commerce, and purchase their silk from the Persians and Sogdians. These, with the usual rapacity of monopolists, raised the price of silk to such an exorbitant height, that the Greek manufacturers, whose looms depended on a supply of this raw material, were thrown out of employment and nearly ruined.

The Emperor Justinian, eager, not only to obtain a full and certain supply of a commodity which was become of indispensable use, but solicitous to deliver the commerce of his subjects from the exactions of his enemies, endeavored, by means of his ally the Christian monarch of Abyssinia, to wrest some portion of the silk trade from the Persians. In this attempt he failed; but when he least expected it, he, by an unforeseen event, attained his great object of procuring his subjects an abundant supply of silk, independent both of ships and caravans.

Two Persian monks having been employed as Christian missionaries by some of the churches which had been established in India, pursued their evangelical labors until they had penetrated into the remote country of the Seres, or Chinese (A. D. 551). There they observed the labors of the silkworm, the mode in which these animals were fed on the mulberry-leaf; the care bestowed upon them in the several periods of insect transformation, and the attention necessary to obtaining perfect cocoons. Without such knowledge, the mere possession of the insects would have been useless; for the time that elapses while the silkcaterpillar is undergoing its changes varies according to the temperature and the quantity of nourishment with which it is supplied; the * That is, "the Sea of Weeds."

1

health also of the insect and the subsequent perfection of the silk depends upon the mode in which these changes are made, and the intervals between the successive moultings of the skin, which take place before the animal attains its full growth. The Chinese calculate that the same number of insects which would, if they had attained the full size in twenty-three or twenty-four days, produce twenty-five ounces of silk, would produce only twenty ounces if their growth occupied twenty-eight days, and only ten ounces if forty days. In order, therefore, to accelerate their growth, they supply the insects with fresh food every half hour during the first day of their existence, and then gradually reduce the number of meals as the worms grow older. It deserves to be remarked as an unnoticed fact in natural theology, that the substance on which this valuable caterpillar feeds, is the leaf of the mulberry-tree; and Providence, as if to ensure the continuance of this useful species, has so ordained it, that no other insect will partake of the same food; thus ensuring a certain supply for the little spinster.

Having made themselves acquainted with these particulars, the monks repaired to Constantinople, and revealed the information they had acquired to the Emperor Justinian. Encouraged by the liberal promises of that monarch, they undertook to bring to his capital a sufficient number of those wonderful insects to whose labors man is so much indebted. They proceeded to China, and finally accomplished the object of their mission by obtaining a competent supply of the eggs of the silkworm, which they concealed in a hollow cane. Having returned safe to Constantinople, the eggs were, under their direction, hatched by the artificial heat of a dunghill, and the insects were fed on the leaves of the wild mulberry-tree. Such care was bestowed upon them, that they soon multiplied, and worked in the same manner as in those climates where they first became the objects of human attention and care.

Justinian at first attempted to monopolize this source of profit, but the rapid increase of the worms opened the trade. A singular circumstance enables us to appreciate the speedy success of the Greeks in the manufacture of silk. Before the sixth century closed, the Turks, descending from the Altaian mountains, conquered Sogdiana. The conquered people had found the demand for silk rapidly diminishing, which they attributed to the commercial jealousy of the Persians. They complained of their losses to their new master, the Turkish khakan, who sent ambassadors to form a commercial treaty with the Persian monarch, the celebrated Nushirván. It was obviously unwise policy to strengthen the power of the new state which had been formed beyond the Oxus; and Nushirván was, besides, eager to open a direct communication with China, through the Persian gulf. To show his contempt for the offers of the Sogdians, he purchased up all their goods, and committed them to the flames. The khakan next sent ambassadors to Justinian II., who, after a toilsome journey, reached Constantinople (A. D. 571), just twenty years after the introduction of the silkworm; when, to their great astonishment, they found the Byzantines in the possession of silk of their own growth, and so skilled in its use, that their manufactures already rivalled those of China. From this time the Sogdian carrying trade declined; it was totally annihilated about the middle of the ninth century, when a fanatic insurgent, in China, murdered the foreign mer

chants, and cut down the mulberry-trees, to destroy the silk that enticed strangers to the celestial empire.

For nearly six hundred years, the Greeks were the only Europeans who possessed the silkworm: at length, Roger I., king of Sicily, engaged in war with the Byzantine empire, having captured some persons skilled in the production and manufacture of silk, established factories at Palermo, which rose rapidly into celebrity. Thence the trade spread into Italy, Spain, and France; but in most of these countries the manufacture was long deemed of greater importance than the production of the raw material. France owes her present superiority in the trade to the patriotic exertions of Henry IV., who made extensive nurseries of mulberry plants, and distributed them gratuitously to all desirous of establishing plantations. James I. endeavored to introduce the production of raw silk, as a trade, into England; since his time the experiment has been frequently repeated, but it never has been attended with complete success. Similar trials have also been made in Ireland, but the result has not yet answered the expectations of the patriotic projectors.

SECTION V.-The Monarchy of the Franks under the Merovingian Dynasty.

THE history of the Franks properly begins with the establishment of a large body of that nation in Belgic Gaul, under a chief named Merewig,* from whom the dynasty received the name Merovingian.f He was succeeded by his son Hilderik, a brave warrior, but the slave of his passions. An insult that he offered to the wife of one of his officers occasioned a revolt; Hilderik was dethroned, and a Count Egidius, or Giles, proclaimed king. After an exile of eight years, Hilderik was restored, and the remainder of his reign appears to have passed in tranquillity. Hlodowig was the next sovereign: his harsh German name was softened by the Latins into Clodovecus, or Clovis, the origin of the modern Ludovicus, or Louis. At his accession (A. D. 481), Clovis had scarcely reached his twentieth year; the ardor of youth combined with the circumstances of his position to urge him to foreign conquests; for the fertility of the Belgic soil, the purity of its waters, and its atmosphere, continually attracted fresh hordes to the lower Rhine, who sought admission into the Belgic colony. Clovis found it necessary to enlarge his frontiers, and invaded the Roman province. Near Soissons he encountered Syagrius, the son of his father's rival, Egidius, and gained a decisive victory. Syagrius sought refuge with the Visigoths, but that nation had lost much of its martial spirit; Alaric II., unworthy of the name he bore, sent the unfortunate general bound to Clovis, by whom he was beheaded.

The conqueror was now the most powerful monarch of his age, and the neighboring princes eagerly sought his alliance: he chose for his queen, Hlodohilde,§ or Clotilda, whose uncle was king of the Burgundians. Clotilda was a Christian; she labored earnestly to convert her husband, and especially urged him when his crown and life were enMere-wig, eminent warrior.

The other Franks were named Ripe-Warians; that is, inhabitants of the banks of the Rhine.

Hilde-rik, bold in combat.

§ Hlodo-hilde, brilliant and noble.

|| Hlodo-wig, famous warrior.

dangered by an invasion of the Germanic confederation of tribes, called the Allemans. Clovis, persuaded that he owed the great victory of Tolbiac to the prayers of Clotilda, became a convert, and received the sacrament of baptism from the bishop of Rheims (A. D. 496). He gave the prelate, as a fee, all the land he could ride round while he himself slept after dinner, a gift very characteristic of a conqueror, who felt that he had only to wake and acquire new dominions. Soon afterward he undertook new conquests. Advancing in the direction of Genabum (Orleans), he crossed the Loire, spreading everywhere the terror of his name. The Bretons, long subject to the Romans, consented without reluctance to a change of masters. Clovis, having traversed their country, entered Aquitaine, pillaged the houses, laid waste the fields, plundered the temples, and returned to Paris, "leaving," as the cotemporary historian says, "nothing to the wretched inhabitants but the soil, which the Franks could not take away."

The kingdom established by Clovis extended from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, from the Alps to the ocean, but its security was very uncertain. Wherever the conqueror appeared, he met nothing but submission from the various races settled in Gaul; as soon, however, as he passed onward, his nominal subjects closed upon his rear, retaining no more trace of his march than the furrowed wave does of a vessel's keel. Neither was the Frankish monarch absolute over his own soldiers; his army was composed of freemen, who disdained to submit to despotic rule. They gave to their monarch his share of the booty, and nothing more.* When they disapproved of the expedition for which they assembled, they abandoned it without scruple; or if the monarch refused to undertake a war which they deemed advisable, they forced him to comply with their wishes, not merely by menaces, but by actual force.†

On the death of Clovis (A. D. 511), his dominions were divided between his four sons, Hildebert‡ (Childebert), Hlodomer (Chlodomer), Hlodhers (Clotaire), and Theodoric, who respectively occupied the capitals of Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz. This distribution gave rise to a new geographical division; all the districts between the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle, received the name of Oster-rike,** since corrupted into Austrasia; and the country between the Meuse, the Loire, and the ocean, was named Ni-oster-rike,ff or, as it was latinized,

Gregory of Tours furnishes us with a curious anecdote on this subject. "About this time the army of Clovis pillaged a great number of churches and houses. His soldiers had taken away, from one of the cathedrals, a vase of surprising size and beauty. The bishop of the diocese sent a messenger to reclaim it. To this man, the king said, Follow me to Soissons, where the plunder will be shared, and should chance give me the vase, I will do what your prelate requires.' When they reached Soissons, they went to the place where the plunder was piled, and the king said, 'I entreat you, my brave warriors, to give me this vase in addition to my share. Upon this, a presumptuous soldier exclaimed, 'You shall have nothing but the portion assigned you by lot.""

ans.

The historian quoted in the preceding note says, "After this, Clotaire and Childebert (sons of Clovis) formed the design of marching against the BurgundiTheir brother, Theodoric, was unwilling to engage in the expedition, but the Franks who followed him, said unanimously, If you will not join your brothers, we will quit you, and choose another leader.'"

Hilde-berth, brilliant warrior.

§ Hlod-her, celebrated and excellent. ** That is, Eastern kingdom.

Hlodo-mer, celebrated chief.

Theod-e-rik, brave among the people.
That is, Northeastern kingdom.