The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water, and again in tepid water, then spread on a table to dry: while yet moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and then through a narrow one. That which is destined for very fine works is also drawn through iron combs, called _scarde_ (_cards_). It is then spun with a distaff and spindle. As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality, the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings and gloves, are expensive. They are esteemed excellent preservatives against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly carried on at Taranto, the ancient _Tarentum_[188]. [188] Riedesel’s Travels through Sicily and Græcia Magna, translated by J. R. Forster, London, 1773, p. 178-180. De Salis, Travels in the Kingdom of Naples. Keppel Craven, Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, p. 185. D’Argenville, Lithol. et Conchologie, p. 183, and Plate 25. The _Lana Penna_, having been spun, is now almost universally knit. But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this process prior to the second century, whatever garments they made of this material must have been woven. The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Tertullian, who lived in the second century (_De Pallio_, iii. _p._ 115, _Rigaltii_). Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says, Nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosæ lanusitatis plautiores conchæ comant. Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was necessary also to fish for one’s dress. For fleeces are obtained from the sea, where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mossy hair[189]. (See Fig. 7, Plate II.) [189] In this passage _piscari_ is rather fancifully opposed to _pangere_ and _serere_. The former of these two terms (_pangere_) refers to tunics of wool, which was _pacta_ or _pexa_; the latter to tunics of cotton and flax, which were _sata_. The epithet _plautiores_, (etymologically allied to _latiores_, and to πλατὺς,) well describes the large size and expanded form of the Pinna.