380 r THE HIS'tORY Book I. was afterwards fteeped in a river or a pool. When the plant was Efficiently macerated in the water, it was dried in the fun . and was beaten upon a ftone with a mallet. The interior and finer filaments being extracted, and fifteen pounds of filaments being deduced from fifty of bundles, it was carried to the diftaff . and wound into thread. This was lbftened and fmoothed by being frequently taken out of the water and dafhed againft ftints, was woven into cloth, and was beaten with keys * This linen or flaxen manufactory muft have been introduced into the ifland with the firft fettlements of the Romans in it. And the w co^rfer^ manufactory of hertip muft have been equally introduced by the Ronc&ns. Hence the Roman appellation for hemp, Can- nabis, is ftrtfngly refounded in the Kanab of the Arraoricans and the Kan&aib of the Irifli, and is fcftly echoed in the Saxon Ifenep acid the Engltih Hemp. . The plant feems equally with -flax to have been brought from the eaft. In the firft century, the beft European hemp was imported from Alia, and the plant was not very common in Italy xs * The naval cordage of the firft ages was in all probability" thongs of leather. The hide which covered the tent, formed . the bed> and cloathed the body, would naturally' offer the moft obvious fupply of cordage to the mind of man/ And as the northern inhabitants, of Rrkain actually retained thefe primitive v topes in the. third century '% fb the nations to the north of the . Baltic retained them to the ninth or tenth * 7 . hi other nations t theie had been early fuperfeded by the ufe of vegetable threads and the. arts pi combining them into ftrength* In. this manner the Gr,eoks ; appear to* have ufed the common rufties, of their country. In this manner the Carthaginians appear to have ufed
- the fpartum or broom of Spain IJ . And as all- the cordage of the Ro-
mans was made of thefe materials at the aera of their laft defceot upon our country 19 , fb muft the art of forming then into cordage . have beqn neceflarily introduced with the Romans at die period pf their fettlements .among us. Beneath the direction of the Roman artifts, our thongs of leather muft have been laid' afide* a*#ithp jupcior ryfl^es of our plains, haye been^ worked up into cordage.
