_Examitum_, _xamitum_, or, as it is called in old English documents, _samit_, is made up of two Greek words, ἑξ, “six,” and μίτοι, “threads;” the number of the strings in the warp of the texture. It is evident that stuffs woven so thick must have been of the best quality. Hence, to say of any silken tissue that it was “examitum” or “samit” meant that it was six-threaded, and therefore costly and splendid. At the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries “examitum” was much used for vestments in Evesham abbey, as we gather from the chronicle of that house, published lately for the Master of the Rolls. About the same period among the best copes, chasubles, and vestments in St. Paul’s, London, many were made of samit. So, again among the nine gorgeous chasubles bequeathed to Durham cathedral by its bishop in 1195, the chief was of red samit superbly embroidered. And, to name no more, we find in the valuable inventory, lately published, of the rich vestments belonging to Exeter cathedral in 1277 that the best of its numerous chasubles, dalmatics, and copes, were made of samit. In a later document, A. D. 1327, this precious silk is termed “samicta.” The poets did not forget to array their knights and ladies in this gay attire. When Sir Lancelot of the lake brought back Gawain to king Arthur: Launcelot and the queen were cledde In robes of a rich wede, Of samyte white, with silver shredde: * * * * * The other knights everichone, In samyte green of heathen land, And their kirtles, ride alone. In his ‘Romaunt of the rose,’ Chaucer describes the dress of Mirth thus: Full yong he was, and merry of thought And in samette, with birdes wrought, And with gold beaten full fetously, His bodie was clad full richely. Many of the beautifully figured damasks in the South Kensington collection are what anciently were known as “samits;” and if they really be not six-thread, according to the etymology of their name, it is because at a very early period the stuffs so called ceased to be woven of such a thickness. The strong silks of the present day with the thick thread called “organzine” for the woof, and a slightly thinner thread known by the technical name of “tram” for the warp, may be taken to represent the old “examits.”