It should be observed, that the leaf of the Banyan, or Indian fig, is probably here meant; if it is, the luxurious leaf of this tree is about three feet long, and proportionably wide; therefore, we may rationally conclude, much art was not required; probably a thorn might supply the place of a needle, and a blade of grass would do for a thread. Afterwards, we are told, in the same chapter,--“Unto Adam, also to his wife, did the Lord Jehovah make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The preceding is the earliest account of humanity; at the same time, it also furnishes the most ancient relation of the original of human clothing. From hieroglyphical inscriptions still extant, the most ancient inhabitants of Egypt wore sometimes clothing made of feathers, fastened together; sometimes of shells, also attached to each other; but the most general ancient clothing consisted of the skins of various animals. So is Hercules, and many of the heroes, clothed, in antique statuary. Although the sacred history is silent on this head, we may, perhaps, by inference, arrive at some clue or thread to guide us through the labyrinth of uncertainty. Accordingly we find in the first passages, which will admit of constructive inference, that thread, of some sort, must, of necessity, have had existence:--“And Ada bare Jubal: he was the father of such as dwell in _tents_, and of such as have cattle.”--Gen. iv., 20. Now, we submit, the inference of not only spinning, but also of weaving, and even sewing, must be conceded, before we can conceive the existence of tents. The cloth whereof they were made at that period, it is probable, was of the fleece of sheep; because of the early existence of woollen cloth among the Greeks, we have no doubt, from the following and numerous other passages in their poets; and also from the practice of Tyrian artisans, who were, we know, generally and confessedly eminent for their dying the imperial purple, and other scarce, valuable, and beautiful colours; and no substance better receives, or so well retains the most splendid of colours than does wool. But Homer speaks expressively in point, where, in his “Iliad,” he expresses the truce which took place between the belligerent armies of Greeks and Trojans. After the defeat of Paris by Menelaus, and where the laughter-loving goddess, Venus, is said to have rescued her favourite from the fate he deserved to find; after she had conveyed the recreant hero from the field to his apartment, she then, like a true friend to matrimonial infidelity, goes in search of the Spartan queen, for the purpose of bringing the lovers together. She discovered the beautiful adultress on the walls of the city, where she had been describing to Priam, and his ancient nobles, the Trojan councillors, the various persons of the heroes of Greece. Upon this occasion, Venus, to use the language of the poet (as translated by Pope), assumes a disguise.