CHAPTER I. The Prehistory of Cotton. The earliest datable references to cotton are found in two inscriptions of the Assyrian Sennacherib, of the year 694 B. C.^ A great park, like one on Mt. Amanus, wherein were included all kinds of herbs, and fruit trees, and trees, the products of the mountains and of Chaldea, together with trees that bear wool {ise na-a§ Hpdti), I planted beside it. The miskannu-trees and cypresses that grew in the plantations, and the reed-beds that were in the swamp, I cut down and used for work, when required, in my lordly palaces. The trees that bear wool they sheared, and they shredded it for garments. It is a curious fact that neither here nor for centuries later in Greek literature do we get the name of the cotton-tree, but only the descriptive title **the tree that bears wool or linen. Herodotus tells of a corselet which Amasis, King of Egypt, had sent to the Lacedaemonians, and which was embroidered with gold and tree wool (eiQioiai djio \vikov)} However, minute microscopical investigations of the mummy bands have failed to show the presence of cotton in any of the ancient Egyptian graves.^ Herodotus similarly speaks of the Indians in Xerxes army as wearing cotton ^ L. W. King, An Early Mention of Cotton: The Cultivation of Gossypium arboreum, or Tree-Cotton, in Assyria in the Seventh Century B. C, in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. XXXI, p. 339 ff. 2 III. 47. » K. Ritter, TJeber die geographische Verbreitung der Baumwolle und ihr Verhdltnis zur Industrie der Volker alter und neuer Zeit, in Abhandlungen der Kgl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1851, p. 317. 4 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA dresses (eijiaxa djio ^vhx^v jr8jroiT]fieva)^and of the wildgrowing trees of India which bear wool finer in beauty and goodness than that of sheep. ^ There can be little doubt that in the V. century B. C. India was already manufacturing cotton cloth, even as Ctesias refers to cotton cloth (liiAiva iixdxia) in India.^ This is confirmed in the IV. century by Theophrastus, who says that the island of Tylos, the modern Bahrein, in the Persian gulf produces the *wool-bearing* tree (td SevSga xd egiocpoQa) in abundance. This has a leaf like that of the vine, but small, and bears no fruit; but the vessel in which the Vool is contained is as large as a spring apple, and closed, but when it is ripe, it unfolds and puts forth the wool, of which they weave their fabrics, some of which are cheap and some very expensive. This tree is also found, as was said, in India as well as in Arabia.^ But we are also specifically informed by him that the Indians cultivated these trees. The trees from which they make their clothes have a leaf like the mulberry, but the whole tree resembles the wild rose. They plant them in the plains in rows, wherefore, when seen from a distance, they look like vines. ^ There is no mistaking the description: we have here a correct characterization of the Gossypium arhoreum. There is no further reference to cotton in Greek literature until after the beginning of the Christian era. In the very valuable Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,^ of the end of the I. century, raw cotton is mentioned as xdQjtaaog, while the cheap manufactured goods are VII. 65. 2 «Td 6e bivboEa xd dvoia auxo^i qpepei xaojiov zigia, xoXX-ovfi TE Jteoq)£QovTa xcd dgexfi ^^ djio xcov otoov xai io^ti ol Iv8oi, djio xovxcov xwv 8sv8o£«v xQcwvt^ow-.^ Ill- 106. 3 Ivfiixd, XXII. * Enquiry into Plants, IV. 7. 7., in A. Horts translation, London 1916. IV. 4. 8. « W. H. Schoflf, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, London 1912. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 5 odovia.^ This is the more remarkable since both terms occur in Greek only as the designation for linen or some costly textile, while odoviov also occurs in the sense of ships sail, even as the Latin carbasus refers to linen or a sail. One cannot trust, especially in the Belles Lettres, any denomination of fabrics, because they are easily confused, and there is a general tendency to apply the same name to some substitute or cheaper material. The author of the Periplus was a merchant, and his transfer of ofloviov to cotton shows that just such a deterioration of the Eastern textiles was in progress and that they were manufactured in India from cotton, which in India was known as kdrpdsa; hence he is the only one of the Greek writers who uses HdQjtaaog in the proper sense. Strabo knew of the wool-growing trees of the Indians, and quoted Nearchus to the effect that their webs of fine cotton (aiv86veg) were made from this wool, and that the Macedonians used it for stuffing mattresses and the padding of saddles.^ This Nearchus was the Admiral of Alexanders Indian fleet, but there is some doubt about the genuineness of his work. He is also mentioned by Arrian: The dress worn by the Indians is made of tree-linen (Xivov dbio tcov 88v8q8(ov). But this cotton is either of a brighter white color than any cotton found elsewhere, or the darkness of the Indian complexion makes their apparel look so much whiter. ^ At a later time Philostratus called the cotton ^voooq and described the plant as a tree : * They describe the peoples beyond the Indus as dressed in indigenous flax, with shoes of papyrus and a hat for wet weather; distinguished persons wear cotton, which grows on a tree ^ «noXvq)6oo5 8e f| xdiQa . . . xaoJtdoov xcei xcav e| avxfic; Iv8tx6)v 6^ovicov xwv zv8aitov,> sec. 41; odovia is also mentioned in sees. 6, 14, 39, 49. 2 XV. 1. 20. » Iv8ixd. XVI. 6 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA resembling a poplar in the stump, and about corresponding to the willow in the leaf. Apollonius says he was pleased with the cotton, because it looked like the sad-colored habit of a philosopher. Cotton from India finds its way into many a temple in Egypt. ^ However fanciful the work of Philostratus may be, we have here the very important and unquestionably genuine statement that cotton was imported into Egypt, which may account for its absence in the mummy wrapping where the native product was used. It was this imported article in Egypt, which, no doubt, Philostratus knew from an older source, that had caused Pollux before him to call the Indian cotton ^vaooq, while in Egypt he placed tree-wool, epiov djto ^vkov, whereas in Egypt the only substance resembling cotton was obtained from the papyrus plant. ^ Cotton was unquestionably cultivated long before Sennacherib; but in Egypt and China substitutes in the form of linen and silk were early introduced, and in some cases the ancient appellation was transferred to the new products, even as the designation of ** linen, whatever its origin, and wool was transferred back to cotton. For this reason it is not always easy to determine whether a particular textile was made of cotton or linen. In Egyptian, flax and, possibly, linen are represented by pesht, while a garment made of fine linen, byssus, is called peg, and ** linen cloth, threads of flax is pir. There can be no doubt as to the origin of the words, not only from a study of these terms in Egyptian, but in all other languages in which they occur. In Egyptian we have the roots pek, peg, petchy pest *to spread out, which, as the final con- 1 Vita Apollonii, 62. * VII. 75. For a fuller account of cotton in Greek literature, see H. Brandes, Ueher die antiken Namen und die geographische Verbreitung der Baumwolle im Alterthum, in 6. Jahresbericht des Vereins von Freunden der Erdkunde zu Leipzig, 1866, p. 91 ff. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 7 sonant and a comparison with a vast number of languages show, go back to a root with a final cerebral r, namely par, per *to spread, cover.* The Egyptian terms for linen, etc. are found in other languages which, no doubt, borrowed them from Egyptian, although even here the relation to the older spread out remains unimpaired. We have Hebrew n^B pHet, riritf^B piUah, Talmudic I^^S Dri^B piUan, piUlm, Punic qpoiat linen, while for to spread out we have Hebrew ^*!)f pdra§, f!f para^, n\rB pa^ah, etc. Just as Egyptian pesht has produced Greek pvGGoq, so it led to Hebrew p;a 6tl§, which was some kind of fine linen, but may also have referred to cotton, even as Syriac ]\q^ hu^d not only refers to linen but also to silk, since the term apparently indicated a fine textile of whatever origin. We have also Hebrew ^^ had linen. In Arabic the forms of the word and the meanings run riot. Here we find >. hazz cloths or stuffs of linen or cotton, u^y. birs,^ Jyy. baguz^ cotton, u^j>. hir§ linen. This even developed the meaning white, at least in u^y. hara§ white specks in the skin, u^j» bar^ leprosy, a certain disease which is a whiteness. Here, too, (JJ fara§a he spread out bears witness to the original meaning, while in Assyrian we have pi^Uj paqu white, and par^ to fly, that is, to spread the wings. In Sumerian we get the simple bara, par to spread out, which is represented in Assyrian in the compound suparuru to spread out. 1 Thesaurus syriacus, cols. 2923, 1857. » Ibid., col. 3134. » Ibid., col. 1857. 8 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA In the Dravidian languages the original root-forms of the Asiatic languages are best preserved. Here we have Kannada pare, pari, hare, hari to spread, scatter, run, flow, pdru to leap up, run, fly about, pi.r, peru to scatter, spread in different directions, Tamil, Malayalam para to fly, run very swiftly, and similarly in all the other Dravidian languages. It is not necessary here to give the enormous mass of such derivatives, but Kannada pare a scale or coat of an onion, the skin or slough of a snake, the web of a spider at once shows how the idea of cloth was deduced from this root. In Kannada parti, patti, palti, hanji, hatti, Tamil pari, panji, panju, parutti, paraiie, Malayalam panni, parutti, Telugu pauttie, paratti, paritt cotton in the pod, cotton in general we have, just as is the case in Egyptian, derivatives from the root which means to spread out, but here the original meaning of cotton has not changed and bears witness to the antiquity of the term, which is older than the corresponding Egyptian, Semitic or Greek terms. In Persian and Turki pakhta cotton we have a survival of the Dravidian word, possibly through the Dravidian Brahui colony which preserved the memory of the ancient word. But this is not necessarily so, for various forms of this are scattered, as we have seen, from Egypt to India. The Dravidian paratie, pauttie found their way into China. In the first or second century of our era the Hou-Han-shu says that the Ai-lau aborigines in Yunnan manufactured ^ ^^ po-tie or ^ ^ pai-tie, but a later history (Wei-shu) tells that it was a textile fabric of hemp.^ In the VI. century the Liang-shu ^ F. Hirth and W. W. Rockhill, Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth Centuries, entitled Chu-fan-chi, St. Petersburg 1911, p. 218. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 9 says that *in Kau-chang (Turfan) there grew in great abundance a plant the fruit of which resembled a silk cocoon. In the cocoon is a silky substance like fine hemp which is called po-tie-tzi. The natives weave it into a cloth which is soft and white, and which they send to the markets (of China). ^ A little later we read for the same region, * there is here a plant called pe-tie; they pluck its flower, from which cloth can be woven. *^ In the V. century Fa-hi^n, who traveled in India, called the cotton fabrics there po-tie.^ There can be thus no doubt that originally cotton was introduced into China from India or from Turfan, and that it was at home in southern India. In Ceylon, cotton is called pichu, which is obviously a corruption of the Dravidian word, and the plant is called pichawya. It is interesting to observe that here pichu also means a cutaneous eruption, leprosy,* as in the corresponding word in Arabic. II. Josephus, in describing the vestments of the priest, says that over his nether clothes **he wore a linen coat of fine flax (aiv86vog Pvaaivrji;) doubled: it is called Chethomene (xe^ofxefW]), which denotes linen, for we call linen by the name of Chethon (xe&ov).* Here linen and linen flax are as general as in previous cases, but the name chethomene leaves no doubt behind that we are dealing here with an Egyptian name for a garment. Chethomene is the Egyptian ketn meni or het en meni linen tunic. Meni has not entered into any other languages, though it seems to be identical with Chinese mien soft, downy 1 Ibid. 2 E. Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux, St. P^tersbourg 1903, p. 102. 3 Hirth and Rockhill, op. ciL, p. 218. * Antiquitates Judaicae, III. 7. 2. 10 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA cotton;** but other forms of it, mdhj mhi flax, mehi flax, linen have had interesting developments. The usual Coptic form of this is mahi linen, make linen, girdle, and this also is recorded in a Coptic Bible translation as mhai spindle, and as mpai, empai, empay with the article as pempai linen, and the Lords cloth is translated as sudarion mpempa, that is, mpempa means * linens, linen. This leads at once to Persian pamhah cotton, whence it made its way into India. The Persians got this word from their mercantile colonies along the east coast of Africa, wherefore it is also found in Zanzibar as pamha cotton, mpamba the cotton shrub, hence pomba to adorn with fine dress, gold rings, to put a piece of cotton into the nose, etc., of a deceased, pombo finery, attire. This word is found in many Bantu languages: Sotho fapa to wrap around, P6di fapa, Swahili pambaja, Ganda wambatira to embrace, Bondei hamba to adorn, Herero pamba to weave, Tabwa ipamba to roll around one. ^ The European developments of Coptic pempai need not detain us long. It is first recorded in Greek in the beginning of the IX. century, in Ahmads Oneirocritica,^ after which it is very common. So far I have touched only on such par words as lead to cotton, leaving the enormous mass of derivatives for a separate work. It is now necessary to direct the attention to another enclosure, cover word, which leads to important results. By the side of par there is a pre-Sumerian kar word, which is widely represented. Here again I quote only such forms as will ultimately bear upon the determination of cotton in Asia, Africa, and Europe. ^ L. Homburger, ]^tude sur la phonetique historique du Bantou, in Bibliothdque de I^cole des hautes Hudes, Paris 1913, p. 379. 2 Theophrastus, IV. 7. 7, 8. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 15 The relation of Pliny to Theophrastus may equally be observed from the English translation of the two passages: ** In the same gulf, there is the island of Tylos, covered with a forest on the side which looks towards the East, where it is washed also by the sea at high tides. Each of the trees is in size as large as the fig; the blossoms are of an indescribable sweetness, and the fruit is similar in shape to a lupine, but so rough and prickly, that it is never touched by any animal. On a more elevated plateau of the same island, we find trees that bear wool, but of a different nature from those of the Seres ; as in these trees the leaves produce nothing at all, and, indeed, might very readily be taken for those of the vine, were it not that they are of smaller size. They bear a kind of gourd, about the size of a quince; which, when arrived at maturity, bursts asunder and discloses a ball of down, from which a costly kind of linen cloth is made. **In the island of Tylos, which is situated in the Arabian gulf, they say that on the east side there is such a number of trees when the tide goes out that they make a regular fence. All these are in size as large as a fig-tree, the flower is exceedingly fragrant, and the fruit, which is not edible, is like in appearance to the lupin. They say that the island also produces the wool-bearing tree (cotton-plant) in abundance. This has a leaf like that of the vine, but small, and bears no fruit; but the vessel in which the wool is contained is as large as a spring apple, and closed, but when it is ripe, it unfolds and puts forth the wool, of which they weave their fabrics, some of which are cheap and some very expensive. 16 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA **This tree is known by the name of gossypinus: the smaller island of Tylos, which is ten miles distant from the larger one, produces it in even greater abundance. *Juba states, that about a certain shrub there grows a woolly down, from which a fabric is manufactured, preferable even to those of India. He adds, too, that certain trees of Arabia, from which vestments are made, are called cynae,and that they have a leaf similar to that of the palm. Thus do their very trees afford clothing for the people of India. In the islands of Tylos, there is also another tree, with a blossom like the white violet in appearance, though four times as large, but it is destitute of smell, a very remarkable fact in these climates. J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, The Natural History of Pliny, London 1855, vol. Ill, p. 117 f. This tree is also found, as was said, in India as well as in Arabia. They say that there are other trees with a flower like the gilliflower, but scentless and in size four times as large as that flower. A. Hort, op, cit., p. 343 f. The part which is in Pliny, and not in Theophrastus, is an interpolation and partly a forgery. What is purported to be taken from Juba is really taken from Theophrastus, IV. 4. 8: «E^ div §8 xd Ifidxia Jtoiovai THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 17 TO |18V (fvXXoV OpiOlOV E%El xfj GDXafilVCp, TO bk O^OV qpVTOV Tolg Tivvo Qoboiq ofioiov. c^vxevovgi bk ev Toig jieSioig atJTO xaT OQ^ovq, bC o xai ji6qqco&8v dcpoQcoai aiiJieXoi qpaivovxai. s/ei bk xal qpoivixag evia h^qt] noh Xovq. xal Tama [xev ev 6£v8qov qplja8i.» *The trees from which they make their clothes have a leaf like the mulberry, but the whole tree resembles the wild rose. They plant them in the plains in rows, wherefore, when seen from a distance, they look like vines. Some parts also have many date-palms. So much for what comes under the heading of * trees. **Some parts also have many date-palms* was confused with the cotton-plant; xirvoQoSoig ofxoiov produced cynas vocari and so much for the nature of trees, which in Theophrastus refers to India, produced *sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt. The sentence arborem vocant gossypinum is merely an Arabic gloss for **wood, namely v^^ hahhun, pi. huihurij in the oblique case hu§bin, which produced gossypinus. The interpolator went even further and changed Theophrastus fxfi^ov eoQivov * spring apple to ** malum cotoneum, as though it were a quince apple; but in reality this is a reminiscence of the Arabic qutn * cotton. In another place we find in Pliny: ** Superior pars Aegypti in Arabiam vergens gignit fruticem, quem aliqui gossypion vocant, plures xylon et ideo lina inde facta xylina. parvus est similemque barbatae nucis fructum defert, cuius ex interiore hombyce lanugo netur. nee ulla sunt cum candore molliora pexiorave. vestes inde sacerdotibus Aegypti gratissimae.^ The upper part of Egypt, in the vicinity of Arabia, produces a shrub, known by some as gossypium, but by most persons as * xylon; hence the name of xylina, given to the tissues that are manufactured 1 XIX. 14. 18 AFRICA AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA from it. The shrub is small, and bears a fruit, similar in appearance to a nut with a beard, and containing in the inside a silky substance, the down of which is spun into threads. There is no tissue known, that is superior to those made from this thread, either for whiteness, softness, or dressing: the most esteemed vestments worn by the priests of Egypt are made of it. ^ Here we have a reminiscence of Greek PopiPa^, Coptic pempai, which now assumes the name of cotton,* and once more we get the Arabic word for E.vXov. The interpolator goes on to say that cotton garments were most acceptable to the Egyptian priests, whereas we have the specific statements in Herodotus^ and in Plutarch^ that the priests were allowed to wear linen garments only. Thus we are once more confronted with the fact that no cotton is recorded in Egypt before the arrival of the Arabs. III. In Africa we can trace the overwhelming Arabic influence upon the cotton industry through the geographical distribution of the Arabic terms for cotton. The ancient Egyptian conception of purification was connected with the use of water; hence uah to be innocent, clean, purified, wash clean, pure, holy has for its denominative water flowing from a vessel. The enormous significance of this term upon the religious conceptions of the Egyptians is found in the derivatives from this term. We not only have uah holy man, priest, libationer, but also udhu those who are ceremonially clean, uahtiu the holy ones, that is, the dead, uah holy raiment or vestment, apparel which is ceremonially pure, uaht the chamber in a 1 Bostock and Riley, op. ciL^ p. 134 f. 2 II. 37. 3 De Iside et Osiride, 3, 4. THE PREHISTORY OF COTTON 19 temple in which the ceremonies symbolic of the mummification of Osiris were performed, ta-uab-t **to purify. This latter factitive lies at the foundation of a large number of * purification words in Coptic: thhe **to purify, be clean, tbheu pure, sanctified, holy, teba ** purity, etouah, etthheu **pure. The Arabs took over this term as referring to death; hence we have Arab. s_iac ataha he died, perished, became spoiled,
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