CHAP. 20.—THE SERES.
After we have passed the Caspian Sea and the Scythian
Ocean, our course takes an easterly direction, such being the
turn here taken by the line of the coast. The first portion[1]
of these shores, after we pass the Scythian Promontory, is
totally uninhabitable, owing to the snow, and the regions adjoining are uncultivated, in consequence of the savage state
of the nations which dwell there. Here are the abodes of the
Scythian Anthropophagi,[2] who feed on human flesh. Hence
it is that all around them consists of vast deserts, inhabited by
multitudes of wild beasts, which are continually lying in wait,
ready to fall upon human beings just as savage as themselves.
After leaving these, we again come to a nation of the Scythians,
and then again to desert tracts tenanted by wild beasts, until
we reach a chain of mountains which runs up to the sea, and
bears the name of Tabis.[3] It is not, however, before we have
traversed very nearly one half of the coast that looks towards
the north-east, that we find it occupied by inhabitants.
The first people that are known of here are the Seres,[4] so
famous for the wool that is found in their forests.[5] After steeping it in water, they comb off a white down that adheres to the
leaves; and then to the females of our part of the world they
give the twofold task[6] of unravelling their textures, and of weav-
ing the threads afresh. So manifold is the labour, and so distant are the regions which are thus ransacked to supply a dress
through which our ladies may in public display[7] their charms.
The Seres are of inoffensive manners, but, bearing a strong resemblance therein to all savage nations, they shun all intercourse with the rest of mankind, and await the approach[8] of
those who wish to traffic with them. The first river that is
known in their territory is the Psitharas,[9] next to that the
Cambari, and the third the Laros; after which we come to the
Promontory of Chryse,[10] the Gulf of Cynaba, the river Atianos,
and the nation of the Attacori on the gulf of that name, a people
protected by their sunny hills from all noxious blasts, and living
in a climate of the same temperature as that of the Hyperborei. Amometus has written a work entirely devoted to the
history of these people, just as Hecatæus has done in his treatise
on the Hyperborei. After the Attacori, we find the nations
of the Phruri and the Tochari, and, in the interior, the Casiri,
a people of India, who look toward the Scythians, and feed
on human flesh. Here are also numerous wandering Nomad
tribes of India. There are some authors who state that in a
north-easterly direction these nations touch upon the Cicones[11]
and the Brysari.
1. This would apply to the north-eastern coasts of Siberia, if Pliny had
had any idea of land situate in such high latitudes; but, on the contrary,
as already remarked, he appears to have supposed that the continent of
Asia terminated a little above the northern extremity of the Caspian. It
would be a loss of time to guess what locality is meant by the Scythian
Promontory.
2. Or "man-eaters."
3. This, it would appear, he looks upon as the extreme north-eastern
point of Asia. Parisot suggests that the word Tabis is allied to the
Mongol Daba, which signifies "mountain;" or else that it may have some
affinity with Thibet."
4. The people of Serica, which country with Ptolemy corresponds to the
north-western part of China, and the adjacent portions of Tibet and Chinese
Tartary. The capital, Sera, is by most supposed to be Singan, on the
Hoang-ho, but by some Peking. Pliny evidently refers to the same people,
and has some notion of the locality of their country.
5. This is generally supposed to bear reference to the cloths exported by
the Seres, as Serica, and corresponding to our silks. On examination, however, it will appear that he rather refers to some textures of cotton, such as
calicos or muslins; it being not unknown to Pliny that silks or bombycina
were the produce of the bombyx or silk-worm; see B. xi. c. 22. The use
of the word "canities" points strongly to cotton as being the substance
meant.
6. Whether it is silk or cotton that is here referred to, Pliny seems in this passage to allude to some peculiarity in the texture, which was perhaps
so close, that when brought to the Western world it was the custom to draw
out a portion of tie threads. In such case it perhaps strongly resembled
the Chinese crapes of the present day. Speaking of Cleopatra in B. x.
141, of the Pharsalia, Lucan says, "Her white breasts are resplendent
through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by the sley
of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has separated, and has
loosened the warp by stretching out the web."
7. He either refers to dresses consisting of nothing but open work, or
what we may call fine lace, and made from the closely woven material imported from China, or else to the 'Coan vestments' which were so much
worn by the Roman women, especially those of light character, in the
Augustan age. This Coan tissue was remarkable for its extreme transparency. It has been supposed that these dresses were made of silk, as in
the island of Cos silk was spun and woven at an early period, so much so
as to obtain a high celebrity for the manufactures of that island. Seneca,
B. vii. De Benef. severely censures the practice of wearing these thin garments. For further information on this subject, see B. xi. c. 26, 27, and
B. xii. c. 22.
8. Meaning that they do not actively seek intercourse with the rest of
the world, but do not refuse to trade with those who will take the trouble
of resorting to them. This coincides wonderfully with the character of
the Chinese even at the present day.
9. Ptolemy speaks of it as the Œchordas.
10. The headland of Malacca, in the Aurea Chersonnesns, was also
called by this name, but it is hardly probable that that is the place here
meant.
11. See B. iv. c. 18.