Gesner says in the note: "Serici ratio adhuc ignota eo tempore, et cum xylino s. gossypio confusa: Justiniani demum ætate innotuit: filis fineis, vel laneis ita subtilia inducuntur fila metallica, ut concreta hæc illis, et velut innata videantur: illa jam fila lanca squalent auro, i. e. aureis velut squamis obducta et tecta sunt.” Vobis rubra dabunt pretiosas æquora conchas; Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres. De Tertio Cons. Honorii, v, 210. Gesner here says: "Quæ sunt apud antiquiores V. G. Pausaniam El. 2 extr. de natura serici, ab hodierna experientia abhorrentia, ca mercatoriæ vanitati videntur adscribenda, quorum interesset, veram rationem non vulgari." Tu licet extremos late dominere per Indos, Velamenta lapis, pretiosaque fila smaragdis De Quarto Consulatu Honorii, v. 585. Pars infecta croco velamina lutea2 Serum De Nuptiis Hon. et Mariæ, v. 211. "Age The curious reader may compare with this ample description of Claudian, the following passage from Tertullian De Cultu Feminino, L. 1. c. 10. nunc si ab initio rerum et Milesii oves tonderent, et Seres arbores nerent, et Tyrii tinguerent, et Phryges insuerent, et Babylonii intexerent, et margaritæ canderent, et ceraunia coruscarent.” 2 I shall digress a little here to observe that the wedding garments of the ancients were white, as Professor Brunings observės in his admirable Compendium Antiquitatum Græcarum e Profanis Sacrarum Francofurti ad Mænum, 1745, p, 93. 2d edition. "Vestes nuptiales in nuptiis Hebræorum summe necessariæ sunt habitæ jam Samsonis ævo Judic. XIV, 12. clarissimus est locus Matth. XXII. 11. ubi occurrit in convivio nuptiali homo οὐκ ἐνδεδυμένος ἔνδυμα γάμου, non indutus nuptiali vestitu: occurrunt ibidem tenebræ exteriores, extra coenaculum lampadum splendore illustratum: albas fuisse vestes nuptiales puritatis et gaudii indices, probat ex Athenæo Dougtæus Anal. 1. p. 23.; hic color optime vestem spiritualem repræsentat, purissimam Christi justitiam et niveam sanctitatem per fidem et sanctimoniæ studium induendam; huc pertinet locus insignis Apoc. XIX. 7. 8. ubi vestis nuptialis allegatur et describitur: Aristophanes γαμικὰς χλαμίδας memorat, Homer. καλὰ ἔννυσθαι, pulcra veste indui ob nuptias jubet, Odyss. VI. v. 28." "The following extract," says Mr. Burder in his Oriental Customs, vol. 2. p. 307. 3d Ed. "will show the importance of having a suitable garment for a marriage-feast, and the offence taken against those who refuse it, when presented as a gift: The next day, Dec, 3, the king Gesner here says: "Hic puto aurea, et purpureos ad colorem filorum vestis simpliciter respicere." Quod picturatas galeæ Junonia.cristas Ornet avis, vel quod rigidos vibrata per armos De Sexto Consulatu Honorii, v. 575. I shall conclude this article with an extract from a letter written by the Rev. Dr. Vincent, and addressed to the Editor of the CLASSICAL JOURNAL: "I trust that I have proved from authentic documents the points this writer labors: he has few citations, which have escaped me, except that from Pliny, at the commencement, respecting the silkworm: I may have mistaken him, but I think he has fallen into an error in regard to the Shathaioi and Sopithes: they were on the Indus, and I have hinted that they were not Hindoos, but a foreign tribe-Tartars, I suspect, from their moving in waggons, and using them for a rampart, but their women burn themselves, which is Hindoo: the Tartars on the west of China were always called Kathai, and all the travellers who approached Tartary by land on the north of Imaus, always found Kathai, as M. Polo, Rubriquis, and Carpini: the horde of Zinghis was Kathai, whose grandson Koblai was the conqueror of China in the sent to invite the ambassadors to dine with him once more: the Mehemander told them, it was the custom that they should wear over their own clothes the best of those garments which the king had sent them: the ambassadors at first made some scruple of that compliance; but when they were told that it was a custom observed by all ambassadors, and that no doubt the king would take it very ill at their hands, if they presented themselves before him without any marks of his liberality, they at last resolved to do it; and after their example, all the rest of the retinue.' Ambassador's Travels, p. 188." "Dr. Macknight," as Dr. Harwood observes in his New Introduction to the Study and Knowledge of the New Testament, vol. 2. p. 123. "hath well illustrated this parable: it seems, says this learned and judicious commentator, that before the guests were admitted into the hall of entertainment, they were taken into some apartment of the palace, where the king viewed them to see that they were all dressed in a manner suitable to the occasion: here he found one that had not on a wedding garment, and being provoked at the affront, he ordered him to be immediately thrust out of the palace," as Prof. Brunings says above-" Extra coenaculum lampadum splendore illustratum." The relamina lutea Serum mentioned in this passage of Claudian, may be explained by the following passage in that monument of ingenuity, eloquence, and learning, Mr. Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. 7. p. 245.: he observes, that "the greatest part of the silk produced in Bengal, and other parts of India, is exported raw" [the angixò va of the classic writers]," and in its original yellow color." 13th century; and this name of Kathai extended with their conquests even to Poland; the Tartars, who subdued Russia, were Kathai; and one of the divisions of Moscow at this day is Kitai: Cambalu, the capital of these conquerors, is placed by D'Anville in Tartary; but I have proved from Goez, the Jesuit, that it was Pekin: I have shown, likewise, from Ptolemy, that the Romans traded direct with China; for he mentions that Maës, a Macedonian, whose Roman name was Titius, sent his agents from the Bay of Issus, through Mesopotamia to the Caspian, and thence through the whole of Tartary north of Imaus, to the confines of China; this passage of Ptolemy I never saw quoted, till I advanced it; but it is a matter-of-fact-proof, better than a thousand inferences" [Here I would suggest to the learned Dr. that in the fol-lowing passages there is a direct allusion to this immediate intercourse between China and Rome: Seneca says, in book 7. c. 9. de Beneficiis : Video sericas vestes, si vestes vocandæ sunt, in quibus nihil est, quo defendi aut corpus, aut denique pudor possit: quibus sumtis, mulier parum liquido, nudam se non esse jurabit: hæc ingenti summa ab ignotis etiam ad commercium gentibus accersuntur, ut matronæ nostræ, ne adulteris quidem plus sui in cubiculo, quam in publico ostendunt:" Lipsius rightly understands the Seres by these ignoti, and appositely refers to Ep. 90. "Posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serum :" Pliny says, in the Prooem to the 12th book of his Nat. Hist. "Quo magis, ac magis admirari subit, ab iis principiis, cædi montes in marmora, vestes ad Seras peti:" Dr. Vincent thus proceeds]: "There is a strange misprint in your p. 306 of the Cocoa-nut for the Areka-nut; and a strange quotation from Pausanias by the writer, to prove that the Chinese were black, which shows the ignorance of Pausanias; for they are white, strictly white, so white, that they call the Europeans red men: the brown tint of the lower orders in the southern provinces is caused from labor in the sun; but, if you look to any ordinary drawing on China-ware, fans, or screens, you will see all the superiors white, and the women without a tint of rose in their cheeks: this is a proof that their origin is from the north, not from India (as Sir William Jones supposed), nor from the Golden Chersonese, but undoubtedly from Tartary, and, after all their refinement and delicacy, after 3000 or 4000 years, their eyes have all the Tartar form, so curiously noticed by Barrow My remarks on the sequel to the Periplus are, perhaps, the most curious part of my work; and the writer of the article might have profited from them much." Islip, July 16. 1811. In the next number of the CLASSICAL JOURNAL, I shall submit to the reader some observations upon the passage of Pausanias, upon the latter part of this Letter, upon the origin of the term Oriental Ethiopia, and upon the Indi Colorati of Virgil, and introduce to his notice a very able and interesting Letter, which I have received from Mr. Barrow, upon this subject. Hatton, Jan. 10. 1812. EDMUND HENRY BARKER. ANTIQUITIES. THE Class of Fine Arts of the French Institute have, for several years past, devoted a considerable degree of attention to the subject of ancient Architecture. But their inquiries have not been confined to these monuments of ancient grandeur which bespeak the remains of regular public edifices: the uncouth military monuments of antiquity, which have been denominated by some writers, Cyclopean monuments, have been the peculiar objects of their investigation. Before giving a sketch of the proceedings of this department of the Institute for 1810. it may not be amiss to inform our readers, that so far back as the year 1804. the following set of Queries was printed, and copiously circulated among the learned of all nations, as pointing out. the precise objects of the researches of the Class: 1.-In what parts of Greece and Italy do we find inclosures, or ancient walls, constructed of large blocks of stone, hewn into the form of parallelograms, and arranged in horizontal layers, without cement? 2.-In what parts of Greece and Italy do we find similar walls constructed of large blocks of stone hewn into irregular polyhedra, and what was the nature of the erections, which ancient authors, in speaking of the walls of Argos, Mycenae, and Tyrinthia, have designated by the name of the works of the Cyclops? 3.-When we find these two kinds of structures united in ancient ruins, what is the order observed in their respective arrangements, i. e. by what means can we distinguish between the original construction, and the repairs which have been made at periods subsequent to their foundation? Answers to the above questions have been received in the course of the year 1810. not only from Greece and Italy, but from Spain, Asia Minor, and Chersonesus Taurica. We shall now briefly notice the information which has been received, beginning with Italy. The ruins of Norba, situated on an eminence which overlooks the Pontine marshes, still exist in the state to which they were reduced on the day when the inhabitants put each other to death rather than fall under the power of Sylla, by whose forces they were besieged. The ramparts of Norba are of Cyclopean construction, in blocks of Appenine marble. Mr. Dodwell, a learned English architect, and Mr. Middleton, an American antiquarian, both at present in Italy, have transmitted elegant drawings of the above ruins to the Institute. The same gentlemen have examined the walls of the cities of Alatri, Segni, and Ferentino. In several places of the walls of Alatri there are bas-reliefs, representing phallic subjects. One of these bas-reliefs is upon the architrave of the gate of the citadel. As the ramparts of the Etruscan and Roman cities do not present similar subjects, it has been conjectured, that they allude to the worship of the god Hermes, who was revered by this symbol in Elis; and it is well known that from that place the Pelasgian columns which have existed in Italy from the earliest times, have been derived. The rudeness of the more ancient Greek sculpture has been bastion of the same gate. ship of Mars or Hermes. recognised in two other bas-reliefs on the It is supposed that they allude to the wor The walls of Segni and Ferentino were generally supposed to have been of Cyclopean origin, but Mr. Dodwell, by discovering a Latin inscription on the walls of Ferentino, thinks he has proved them to be of Roman structure. In some places, however, the foundations seem to have been of Pelasgian origin. Mr. Dodwell has also transmitted drawings of several Cyclopean erections discovered in that part of the country of the Sabines which adjoins Tivoli. These monuments are similar to those which have been discovered in other parts, which have been occupied by the Pelasgians or Aborigines. M. Simelli, an architect, residing at Rome, and a Sabine by birth, has also transmitted to the Institute drawings and topographical descriptions of a similar nature. M. Simelli's inquiries were made in the neighbourhood of Torano, on the very spot where Dionysius of Halicarnassus places the ruins of Tiora, and a sacred inclosure, in which the ancient Aborigines interrogated their oracles, which were similar to those of Dodona. These monuments consist of extensive areas, raised upon walls of Cyclopean construction. In the centre of the largest are some large blocks of stone, which seem to have been part of an altar. To the eastward of Amitermum, two walls have been discovered which seem to have marked the boundaries between the countries of the Sabines and the Vestines, as a Roman inscription with the words Fines Sabinorum has been found on one of the stones. Baron Degerando has transmitted from Rome, a drawing of part of the walls of Spoleto, in Ombria: their foundation is Cyclopean; but in the superstructure, which is Roman, an inscription has been found which contains the names of the magistrates, under whose inspection the walls were rebuilt. Spain. The question proposed by the Class, having been distributed among the officers of the French army of Spain, M. Brianchon, a lieutenant of artillery, has transmitted some observations on the walls of Toledo. The foundations seem to be Cyclopean; the superstructure is composed of square stones, and the whole is surmounted by brickwork. It is already well known that the walls of Tarragona are constructed in a similar manner; and it is remarkable, that Livy, when speaking of the walls of Saguntum, characterises by the word camenta, the irregular form of the construction of part of the walls which he supposes to be very ancient. The French antiquaries think it of the utmost importance that these inquiries should be prosecuted in Spain, because that country was known to the Pelasgians of Zacynthos two hundred years before the siege of Troy, although it was very little known to the Helleni in the days of Strabo. 1 Greece.-The learned are once more indebted to Mr. Dodwell for some valuable information on the subject of Grecian Antiquities. Accurate drawings of the walls of the cities of Argos, Tyrinthia, and above all, of Lycosuræ, the most ancient city of Arcadia, were much wanted. A particular degree of interest was attached to the ruins of |