'Some years travels into divers parts of Africa, and Asia the great. Describing more particularly the empires of Persia and Industan: interwoven with such remarkable occurrences as hapned in those parts during these later times. As also, many other rich and famous kingdoms in the oriental India, with the isles adjacent. Severally relating their religion, language, customs and habit: as also proper observations concerning them.' [‎184] (205/448)

84. Sill^Worms.Ferrabaut.
c i-nKionrp in fiv months fpace it twice changes. The male after copuMpn-dies •, whom
the fcnuk ^ felCrro as Ihe has Inici her eggs or feed, whrch yon pkafe to catt
it Her food is atolty the leaves and boughs of Mulberry-trees, the white moft de-
her ftrewed every day frelh over her fted, which mult be kept fweet and
warm The Worm being Ihnt np eats greedily, frequently raifing her httk head and
bein" as it were tired, lleeps two days together •, during which fhc cafts her skm, and
then D eats with a frelh appetite: Soon after that fhe four feveral times cafts her coat* and
then having difcharged her belly falls to work; in; fhort fpace making her Lawn both
winding-fbeet and fepulcher. The Silk happens to be of fuch colours as are commonly
laid before her, and is ufnally either white, yellow, green or tend-coloiu ed > but berng
ihut up, fuch is the tranfpareney of the excrement that the is difcernable; The exte-
riour part is in colour like pale Gold mixed with Lemon-, the Silk rough and hairy, the
interiour part more hard and of an oval form, the better to inhume the Fly: whofe
task being done, fometimes fhe dies, other times fhe breaks forth i and then the Worm
is metamorphofed into a Butter-Fly. Sometimes the filken-balls are expofed to the
fcorchin? SUn, through whofe ardour the poor Worm is broiled to death j not unlike ,
a Mifer that voluntarily facrificeth himfelf to death, fo it be to contemplate his rich
Idolatry: but by this expanfion the Silk (they fay) becomes aner than it lurrered to break
her habitacle. After this, the cods are thrown into a cauldron,the Water being mode
rately hot j then with a cane the People ftir them about, at once drawing the flimy Silk
from as many as the Inftrument can conveniently lay hold upon, and with a wheel draw
off the Silk, raw, which being dry is folded. During the Winter feafon the Silk-worms
fleep without eating, fo as they feem dead v but in the Spring being laid in the Sun, re
vive again: A perfed type of the Refurrefiim- From the Seres or Regio Senca ( part of
Scythia towards Indufim) this Worm firft came into Perj?^, not long before Alexanders
time : but until the Emperour Jnfiiniarfs time (which was about the Year of our Lord
5 30.) it was not known in Europe •, the firft being prefented by the Perfians unto the Em
perour at as a rarity. That they afford honey, yield wax, build nefts, and are
a fort of Spider, jiriflotle and P%fo think*, but I think the Perjiari King finds itmoft,
from hence extrading 7600 Batmans of raw Silkyeiarly.
Upon W^itfort-Monday we bade farewell to J.jharaff, Shaw-Abbas the fame time remo
ving his Court to Cashyn. The realbn why he went one way and we another, was (as I
fuppofe ) that we might have the better profped of his Countrey: for he went by Pm-
fcoW) we by Larry-Joon. The firft night after we left Ajharaff , we lodged in Ferrabdut-,
which is five miles from Ajharajf.
FERRABAUT is a Town upon the South-eaft fide of the Cajpian Sea, probably
taking name from Ferrag-hant or Eerrag-z.ed, (Bant fignifies a Garden, Zed a Son,) who
fucceeded Shezyr or Shaw-zyr Son to Jazjin-Zeddah, that was predeceltbr to Te-Jgird
the Hyrcanian King flain by the Romans about the Year of our Lord 595. five and twenty
Years before the zy £ra of the Mahometans took beginning. Some (how truly I know
not) take this for the remains of old but 1 rather imagine it the reliques of
that Socanda I find mentioned by Ptolomy : Neverthelefs, other fome there be that writ
ing this City Phraat-baut, fuppofe it to be that Phraata which Marcus Antonim befieged
fuch time as he invaded Media, to be reveinged for the death of Crajfus that rich and
powerful General who with thirty thoufand of his Men were flain but lately
before by Phraartes the Parthian, returning re infeUa with but half his Men, the
Bridges being broken by the Parthians that gave him palfage over the River Araxiszn&
Cyrus, Vlaghheff calls it Strabaf, and Teixtra, Eftrahautj Names borrow'd (as I ima-
gine)from the 6.//^. of Pliny c. 16. where 'tis faid, Stmri gentes fmt circa Mare Caftmw.
The Icituation of this City is upon a flaf, the foil rich and beautified with Gardens full
of fruif, watered by a ftream of fweet water about forty paces broad, which fpring-
ing from Taurus (the Mother of a fruitful womb) after :a long and circling'race, at this
Town incorporates with the briny Cajpian. The air rievertluelefs is not fo pure here as
we could find it was in moft other places higher up: But whether caufcd from fome in-
falubrious Marifhes that are there, or from the vapours that ufually arife from the Sea
( a little mile thence) I am not able to determine. In ftead of walls it hath a deep Moat
or Graff; Willows and other Trees being planted upon the banks, which are broad
enough to walk on, fo as jt gives bothlhade and ornament. The iloufes differ from
the common form of Terjia .- for they are not flat above, but like ours in England in tne
roof^ alfo tiled and glazed.according to the Englijh faihion.
This Town has about three thoufand Families: the ftreets are broad enough not re
gularly built. The Mefchh is not extraordinary; and two Buz.zjtrs it has, yet neither