The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: A Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant. / To Which Is Added a Sketch of the History of Cotton and the Cotton Trade

B (p. 8).
Odoricus of Friuli.

Odoricus did not write his account of his travels with his own hand, but dictated it to his brother friar, William de Solanga, who wrote it as Odoricus related it. Having “testified and borne witness to the Rev. Father Guidolus, minister of the province of S. Anthony, in the Marquesate of Treviso (being by him required upon his obedience so to do), that all that he described he had seen with his own eyes, or heard the same reported by credible and substantial witnesses,” Odoricus prepared to set out on another and a longer journey “into all the countries of the heathen.” He, therefore, determined to present himself to Pope John XXII., and to obtain his benediction on his missionary enterprise. Accordingly, at the commencement of the year 1331, he left Utina with this intention. On his way, however, he was met, near Pisa, by an old man who, hailing him by his name, told him that he had known him in India, and warned him to return to his monastery, “for that in ten days thence he would depart from this present world.” Having said this, he vanished from sight. Odoricus obeyed the admonition, and returned to Utina “in perfect health, feeling no crazednesse nor infirmity of body. And being in his convent the tenth day after the forsayd vision, having received the Communion, and prepared himself unto God, yea, being strong and sound of body, he happily rested in the Lord, whose sacred departure was signified to the Pope aforesaid under the hand of the public notary of Utina.” Odoricus died January 14th, 1331, and was beatified.

C (p. 11).
Sigismund von Herberstein.

Sigismund von Herberstein was born at Vippach, in Styria, in 1486. He distinguished himself so greatly in the war against the Turks that the Emperor entrusted him with various missions, and made him successively commandant of the Styrian cavalry, privy councillor, and president of finance of Austria. During two periods of residence at Moscow, in all about sixteen months, as ambassador from the Emperor Maximilian to the Grand Duke of Muscovy, Vasilez Ivanovich, he earnestly studied and sagaciously observed everything that came under his notice, and neglected nothing which could instruct or profit him. His work on Russia, above referred to, is universally regarded as the best ancient history of that State. He renounced public life in 1555, and died in 1556.

D (p. 14).
Julius Cæsar Scaliger.

Julius Cæsar Scaliger, born in 1484, probably at Padua, was one of the most celebrated of the many great writers of the sixteenth century. He was a man of real talent, but of unbounded vanity and unscrupulous ambition. Originally baptized “Jules,” he added “Cæsar” to his name, and, to enhance his own merits by the éclat of high birth, made for himself a false genealogy, and asserted that he was the hero of adventures in which he had taken no part. In order to force himself into notice he attacked Erasmus, and in two harangues, which the latter disdained to answer, used towards him the grossest invectives. Scaliger next directed his insolent hostility against Girolamo Cardano. Jealous of the fame of the great Pavian physician and mathematician, he, in a critique containing more insults than arguments, ferociously assailed Cardano’s treatise, “De Subtilitate”; and so exaggerated was the estimate he formed of the effect of his diatribes on the objects of his malice, that when Erasmus died, and a false rumour of the decease of Cardano was spread abroad, he believed, or affected to believe, that the death of both had been caused by his conduct towards them, and in the course of a fulsome eulogy expressed his regret for having deprived the world of letters of two such valuable lives. Scaliger died in 1558, aged seventy-five years.

E (p. 21).
Jans Janszoon Strauss, otherwise Jean de Struys.

Jean de Struys, in 1647, shipped at Amsterdam as sailmaker’s mate on board a vessel bound to Genoa. On arriving there the ship was bought by the Republic, equipped as a privateer, and sent to the East Indies. She was, however, captured by the Dutch, and Struys took service on board a ship belonging to the Dutch East India Company, and after visiting Siam, Japan, Formosa, &c., he returned to Holland in 1681. Having stayed at home with his father for four years, he went to sea again, but finding at Venice an armed flotilla on the point of departure to fight the Turks, he joined it, was several times taken prisoner, and as often escaped or was rescued. In 1657 he returned to Holland, was married, and led a quiet life for ten years, but hearing that the Tzar was fitting out at Amsterdam some vessels to go to Persia by the Caspian Sea, “nothing,” to use his own words, “could hold him back.” He therefore started in a vessel bound to the Baltic, landed at Riga, and found his way overland, through Moscow and by the Oka and Volga to Astrachan. In June, 1670, the fleet in which he served set sail for the Caspian. His vessel went ashore on the coast of Daghestan, and he was made prisoner and taken to the Kan or Tchamkal of Bayance, by whom he was sold as a slave to a Persian. After passing through the possession of several masters he was bought by a Georgian, an ambassador to the King of Poland, who allowed him to purchase his freedom. On the 30th of October, 1671, he joined a caravan travelling to Ispahan, made his way to the coast, embarked for Batavia, and, after innumerable adventures, arrived in Holland in 1673, and retired to Ditmarsch, where he died in 1694. His memoirs of his life were published in Dutch, at Amsterdam, in 1677, and translated into German in the following year, and into French in 1681.

F (p. 28).
John Bell of Autermony.

Furnished with letters of introduction to Dr. Areskine, chief physician and privy councillor to the Czar Peter I., Bell “embarked at London in July, 1714, on board the Prosperity of Ramsgate, Captain Emerson, for St. Petersburg.” As the Czar was about to send an ambassador, Artemis Petronet Valewsky, to “the Sophy of Persia, Schach Hussein,” Bell, by the good offices of Dr. Areskine, obtained an appointment in his suite, and set out from St. Petersburg on the 15th of July, 1715. He kept a diary, and was evidently an enlightened, discriminating and careful observer.

G (p. 52).
The Three Black Crows.
By Dr. John Byrom.

The following is the story referred to in the text. It well illustrates the process by which the first rumour concerning cotton—that “wool as white and soft as that of a lamb grew on trees”—was exaggerated to a statement that “lambs grew on certain trees,” and were, therefore, partly animal and partly vegetable.

H (p. 71).
The Destruction of the Alexandrine Library.

This magnificent collection, founded by Ptolemy Soter, and added to by his successors, was twice partially dispersed before its total destruction by the Saracens. A great portion of it was burned during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Cæsar, B.C. 48. The lost volumes were in some measure replaced by Antony, who (B.C. 36) presented to Cleopatra, the library of the Kings of Pergamus. At the death of Cleopatra, Alexandria passed into the power of the Romans, and this second collection was partly destroyed by fire when the Emperor Theodosius I. suppressed paganism, A.D. 390. The Alexandrine Library met its memorable fate in 638, when, after a vigorous resistance for fourteen months, the city was taken by Amru, the general of Caliph Omar. Abdallah, the Arabian historian, and favourite of Saladin (1200), gives the following account of this catastrophe. “John Philoponus, surnamed the Grammarian, being at Alexandria when the Saracens entered the city, was admitted to familiar intercourse with Amru, and presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, but contemptible in that of the barbarians,—and that was the royal library. Amru was inclined to gratify his wish, but his rigid integrity scrupled to alienate the least object without the consent of the Caliph. He accordingly wrote to Omar, whose well-known answer is a notable example of ignorant fanaticism. ‘If,’ said he, ‘these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree with the book of God they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.’ The sentence of destruction was executed with blind obedience; the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the 4,000 baths of the city; and so great was their number that six weeks was barely sufficient time for the consumption of this precious fuel.”

INDEX.

• Ahasuerus, cotton hangings in the palace of, at Shushan, 66
• Alexander the Great, descent of the Indus and Hydaspes by, 68
• Alexa„nder th„ Great,sagacity and wise policy of, 67, 72
• Alexa„nder th„ Great,opens up the Euphrates and Tigris, 71
• Alexa„nder th„ Great,selects the site of Alexandria, 68
• Alexa„nder th„ Great,Europe indebted to, for the introduction of cotton, 72
• Alexandria made the centre of the Indian trade, 72
• Alex„ndria Lighthouse, Library, and Temple of Serapis at, 71
• Alex„ndria destruction of the Library of—Appendix H, 105
• Amasis II., Corselet padded with cotton presented to Sparta by King, 46
• Aristobulus mentions “a tree bearing wool, which was carded,” 47
• Arist„bulus report by, of the great heat at Susiana-Shushan, 66
• Arrian’s account of the cotton trade in his day, 73
• Barnacle Geese, the fable of, compared with that of the Barometz, 52
• Barometz the, described by Sir John Mandeville, 2
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Claude Duret, 5, 16
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Talmudical writers, 6
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Odoricus of Friuli, 8
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Fortunio Liceti, 11
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, 11
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Sigismund von Herberstein, 11
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Guillaume Postel, 13
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Michel, the Interpreter, 13
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Girolamo Cardano, 13
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Julius Cæsar Scaliger, 14
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Antonius Deusingius, 15
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Athanasius Kircher, 21
• Baro„etz, t „e, descri„ed by Jean de Struys, 21
• Baro„etz, t „e, in verse by Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur du Bartas, 17
• Baro„etz, t „e, in ve„se by Joshua Sylvester, translator of the above, 18
• Baro„etz, t „e, in ve„se by Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 35
• Baro„etz, t „e, in ve„se by Dr. De la Croix, 36
• Baro„etz, t „e, sought for by Dr. Engelbrecht Kaempfer, 23
• Baro„etz, t „e, sou „ ht f„r byJohn Bell, of Autermony, 28, Appendix F, 103
• Baro„etz, t „e, sou „ ht f„r bythe Abbé Chappe d’Auteroche, 30
• Barometz, origin of the word, 23
• Baro „ etz, the fable of the, 1
• Baro „ etz, th„ fable o„ the, compared with that of the “Barnacle Geese,” 52
• Baro „ etz, th„ fable o„ the, its various phases and transformations, 1, 53
• Bartas, the Sieur du, lines by, on the Barometz, 17
• Bell, John, seeks ineffectually the “Vegetable Lamb,” 28
• Borametz. See Barometz.
• Breyn, Dr., describes to the Royal Society his Chinese artificial “Lamb,” 30
• British Museum, specimen of the “Scythian Lamb” in, 24, 43
• Buckley, Mr., Chinese articles presented to the Royal Society by, 27
• Buc„ley, M „., his Chinese dog fashioned from rhizome of a fern, 27
• Canal from Suez to the East Nile commenced by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 71
• Ca„al fr„m Su „ z toAden, constructed by De Lesseps, 94
• Cape route, the, discovered by Vasco da Gama, 83, 88
• Cardano describes the “Vegetable Lamb,” 13
• Car„ ano exposes the unreasonableness of believing the fable, 14
• Central America, ancient use of cotton in, 85, 86
• Chappe d’Auteroche, the Abbé seeks for the “Barometz,” 30
• Chinese artificial dogs made from root-stocks of ferns, 27, 28, 34, 39, 44
• Columbus finds cotton in use in America, 84
• Cotton, its use of great antiquity in India, 65
• Cot„on,reaches Persia from India, 66
• Cot„on,hangings of, in the palace of Ahasuerus at Shushan, 66
• Cot„on,found in use in India by Alexander the Great, 58
• Cot„on,piece-goods introduced into Europe by the Macedonians, 72
• Cot„on,shipped from Patala and Barygaza to Aduli, 72
• Cot„on,conveyed by a circuitous coasting route, 73
• Cot„on,con„eyed in a straight course by Hippalus, 73
• Cot„on,con„eyed by the Romans viâ Palmyra, 74
• Cot„on,the trade in, through Egypt, checked by the Saracens, 74
• Cot„on,ancient Egyptians unacquainted with, 75
• Cot„on,breast-plate padded with, sent by King Amasis to Sparta, 46, 75
• Cot„on,Mark Antony’s soldiers wear, in Egypt, 76
• Cot„on,Egyptians, till the 17th century, importers, not growers of, 77
• Cot„on,in Rome and Greece manufactured by slaves, 78
• Cot„on,vestments presented to ancient Emperors of China, 79
• Cot„on,manufactured by the Moors and Saracens in Spain, 80
• Cot„on,paper made from, by the Spanish Arabs, 80
• Cot„on,manufacture in Spain relapsed after the conquest of Grenada, 80
• Cot„on,conveyed by Tartar caravans from India to Europe, 56, 57, 58, 81, 82
• Cotton conveyed again through Egypt by the Venetians, 82
• Cot„on manufacture in Saxony, the Netherlands, and Germany, 83
• Cot„on found by Columbus in daily use in the West Indies, 84
• Cot„onfou „ d by Magalhaens in use in Brazil, 84
• Cot„on used by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, 85, 86
• Cot„on mummy cloths brought from ancient Peruvian tombs, 86
• Cot„on imported into England in the 16th century through Antwerp, 91
• Cot„on statistics, 92
• Cot„on now crosses from India by the route planned by Alexander, 95
• Cotton-plant, the, described by Theophrastus, 47
• Cotto„-plant, t„e, desc„ibed by Pomponius Mela, 48
• Cotto„-plant, t„e, desc„ibed by Julius Pollux, 49
• Cotto„-plant, botany of the, 63
• Cotto„-plant, the, indigenous to India, 64
• Cotto„-plant, t„e, noticed in India by Alexander and his army, 58
• Cotto„-plant, culture of the, in China encouraged by the Mongols, 79
• Cotto„-plant, cult„re of t „ e in Arabia and Syria, 77
• Cotto„-plant, cult„re of t „ e in Spain by the Saracens and Moors, 80
• Cotto„-plant, cult„re of t „ e in Sp „in relapsed after the conquest of Grenada, 80
• Cotto„-plant, the, still grows wild in the Peninsula, 81
• Cotton-wool the fleece of the “Scythian Lamb,” 63
• Ctesias writes of the “trees that bear wool,” 46
• Danielovich, Demetrius, describes the “Vegetable Lamb” to Von Herberstein, 12
• Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, lines by, on the “Barometz,” 35
• De la Croix, Dr., Latin lines by, on the Barometz, 36
• Deusingius, Antonius, disbelieves the animal-plant monstrosity, 15
• Dicksonia barometz a tree-fern, 40
• Dick„onia bar „metz toy dogs made from rhizomes of, by the Chinese, 41
• Dick„onia bar „metz does not grow in Tartary or Scythia, 44
• Duret, Claude, describes the “Barometz,” 3
• Du„et, Cl„ude, avows his entire belief in the rumour, 16
• East India Company incorporated, 92
• Egypt, the route from India to Europe planned by Alexander, 68, 93, 95
• Egy„pt,conquest of, by the Saracens, 7
• Egy„pt,the country of flax, 75, 79
• Egy„pt,the high road to India to be guarded, 96
• Egyptian maritime traffic with the East lasted 1000 years, 74
• Egyptians, the ancient, unacquainted with cotton, 75
• Egyp„ians, till the 17th century importers not growers of cotton, 77
• Ferns, models of dogs made of, by the Chinese, 27, 28, 34, 39, 44
• Fe„ns, their economic value, 40, 41
• Flemish weavers settle in Manchester, 90
• General belief in the “Vegetable Lamb,” 2
• Hebrew, ancient, version of the fable, 6
• Herberstein, Sigismund von, describes the “Vegetable Lamb,” 11
• Herodotus writes of trees bearing for their fruit fleeces of wool, 46
• Hippalus notices the monsoons, 73
• India, use of cotton in, mentioned by Herodotus, 46
• In„ia, use of„cotton in,„mentio„ed by Ctesias, 46
• In„ia, use of„cotton in,„mentio„ed by Nearchus, 46
• In„ia, use of„cotton in,„mentio„ed by Aristobulus, 47
• In„ia, use of„cotton in,„mentio„ed by Strabo, 47
• In„ia, the Indo-Scythia of the ancients, 57
• In„ia, cotton indigenous to, 64
• In„ia, trade with opened by Alexander viâ Egypt, 68
• In„ia,trad „ with viâ the Euphrates and Tigris, 71
• In„ia,trad „ with restored to Egypt by the Venetians, 82
• In„ia, the Cape route to, discovered by Vasco da Gama, 83, 88
• Indo-Scythia, identical with Scinde and the Punjab, 57
• Japanese artificial mermaids compared with Chinese toy-dogs, 42, 54
• Jadua, or Jeduah, the, 7
• Kircher, Athanasius, declares the Barometz to be a plant, 21
• Kaempfer, Dr. Engelbrecht, searches ineffectually for the Vegetable Lamb, 23
• Kaem„fer, D„. Engel„ recht, suggests that the fable refers to Astrachan lamb skins, 23
• Lamb, the “Scythian,” why so called, 56
• La „ b, t„e “Scyt„ian,” see “Barometz.”
• La „ b, t„e, “Tartarian,” why so called, 59
• La „ b, t„e “Tart „rian,” see “Barometz.”
• La „ b, t„e, Vegetable, its fleece cotton wool, 60
• La „ b, t„e, Vege„able,see “Barometz.”
• Lesseps, De, constructs the Suez Canal, 94
• Liceti, Fortunio, says the “Vegetable Lamb” was “as white as snow,” 11
• Loureiro, Juan de, describes the making of artificial dogs from ferns, 44
• Magalhaens, Fernando, discovers the route round Cape Horn, 84
• Manchester, Flemish weavers settle in, 90
• Mandeville, Sir John, describes the “Vegetable Lamb,” 2
• Mand„ville, S„r Jo„n, biographical sketch of—Appendix A, 97
• Mela, Pomponius, describes the cotton-plant, 48
• Mermaids, Japanese, compared with Chinese dogs, 42, 54
• Mexicans, the ancient, use of cotton by, 85, 86
• Michel, the Interpreter, describes the “Vegetable Lamb” and its uses, 13
• Monsoons, the, noticed by Hippalus, 73
• Museum, British, supposed “Scythian Lamb” in the, 24, 43
• Mus„um, Natural History. See Museum, British.
• Mus„um, Hunterian, R. Coll. Surgeons, supposed Scythian Lamb in the, 43
• Nearchus mentions the “wool-bearing trees,” 46
• Nea„chus descent of the Indus by, 68
• Nieremberg, on the “Vegetable Lamb,” 11
• Odoricus of Friuli describes the “Vegetable Lamb,” 8
• Odo„icus of Fr„ulicurious incident in the life of—Appendix B, 100
• Peruvians, the ancient, use of cotton by, 86, 87
• Pliny confuses cotton with flax, 48
• Pollux, Julius, describes the cotton-plant, 49
• Postel, Guillaume, informs von Herberstein of the “wool-bearing plant,” 13
• Ptolemy Soter follows Alexander’s policy and takes possession of Egypt, 71
• Pto„emy So„erfounds the lighthouse, library and temple at Alexandria, 71
• Pto„emyPhiladelphus commences a canal from Suez to the East Nile, 71
• Royal Society, supposed “Scythian Lamb” laid before the, by Sir Hans Sloane, 24
• Royal Society, supposed “Scythian Lamb” laid before the, by Dr. Breyn, 30
• Saluste, Guillaume de, Sieur du Bartas. See “Bartas.”
• Scaliger, Julius Cæsar, attacks Cardano on the subject of the “Barometz,” 14
• Scythian Lamb, the, why so called, 56
• Scy „ian La „b, t „e, see “Barometz.”
• Scythians, the, describe snow as “feathers,” 51
• Scythia-Indo the same as Scinde and the Punjab, 57
• Scy„hia-in Asia identical with Tartary, 57
• Scy„hia-Parva identical with certain districts of Silistria and Bessarabia, 57
• Shushan, cotton hangings in the palace of Ahasuerus at, 66
• Sloane, Sir Hans, lays before the Royal Society a supposed “Scythian Lamb,” 24
• Slo„ne, S„r H„ns, identification of the above by, unsatisfactory, 28
• Slo„ne, S„r H„ns, bequest by, to the Nation, 43
• Strabo mentions the “wool-bearing trees,” 47
• Strauss Jans Janszoon. See “Struys.”
• Struys, Jean de, mentions the “Barometz,” 21
• Str„ys, Jea „ de doubts the “animal” version of the story, 22
• Suez Canal completed by De Lesseps, 94
• Talmudical writers mention the “Barometz,” under the name of “Jadua,” 7
• Tartary identical with Scythia in Asia, 57
• Tartar caravans, cotton conveyed by, to Europe, 56, 57, 58, 81, 82
• Tartarian Lamb, the, why so called, 59
• Tart„rian La„ b, t „e, see “Barometz.”
• Theophrastus writes of the cultivation of the “wool-bearing tree,” 47
• Theop„rastus exactly describes the cotton-plant, 48
• Trees, wool-bearing, described by Herodotus, 46
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Ctesias, 46
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Nearchus, 46
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Aristobulus, 47
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Strabo, 47
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Theophrastus, 47
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Pomponius Mela, 48
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Pliny, 48
• Tre„s, wool-„earing, descr„bed by Julius Pollux, 49
• Vasco da Gama opens the Cape route to India, 83, 88
• Vegetable Lamb, the, its fleece cotton wool, 60
• Vege„able La„b, t„e, see “Barometz.”
• Waghorn, Lieut., opens the route across the desert, 93
• Wool-bearing trees. See Trees, wool-bearing.
• Zavolha, the, a renowned Tartar horde, 12, 14

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