[201] Translation of the Sacontăla, Sir W. Jones’s Works, vol. vi. pp. 217. 225. 289. Original, ed. Chézy, Paris, 1830, p. 7, l. 10.; p. 9, l. 10; p. 24, l. 7.; p. 131, l. 14. Chézy’s translation, pp. 10. 27. 142. 143. See also Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. p. 648. “Valcălas” are mentioned in precisely the same manner in the Ramayana, one of the most noted of the heroic poems of ancient India. They are represented as coarse garments worn by ascetics. If the explanation now given be admitted as applicable to the Molochina of the Periplus, it may throw light upon some other passages of ancient authors. Ctesias, in his _Indica_[202], mentions “_sheets made from trees_.” [202] Cap. 22. Fragmenta, ed. Bähr. p. 253. 326. Strabo’s account of the webs, which he calls _Serica_, an account derived from the writings of Nearchus, admiral of Alexander the Great, represents those webs as made from fibres, _which were scraped from the bark of trees_. This would apply exactly to the supposed use of the Hibiscus for making cloth. The bark must have been first stript from the tree, and the fibres then scraped from the _inside of the bark_. To the same source we may, we think, trace the idea of Arethas (_in Apoc._ _c._ 57.), that the Byssus, Rev. xix. 8., was “_the bark of an Indian tree made into flax_.” Although the date of the following inscription, found at Rome, is uncertain, it may be conveniently brought in here. It is published by Muratori, _Novus Thesaurus Vet. Inscriptionum_, _tom._ ii. _p._ 939. P. AVCTIVS P. L. LYSANDER. VESTIARIVS. TENVIARIVS. MOLOCHINARIVS. VOT. SOL. Muratori in his Note says, that “Vestiarius Tenuiarius” was the man who made thin garments, and “_Molochinarius_” the man who made such garments of a mallow color. The authors, next in regard to antiquity, who make mention of _Molochina_, are the writers of the Latin Comedy, Statius Cæcilius, who died 169 B. C., and Plautus, who died 184 B. C. Nonius Marcellus (_l._ xvi.) quotes the following line from the _Pausimachus_ of the former dramatist: Carbasina, molochina, ampelina.[203] [203] See C. C. Statii Fragmenta, a Leonhardo Spengel, Monachii 1829, p. 35. Statius chiefly copied Menander (_Gellius_, ii. _c._ 16.); but it is not certain that Menander wrote any play called _Pausimachus_. The passage of Plautus is in the Aulularia (_Act_ iii. _Scene_ v. _l._ 40.), where we have a ludicrous enumeration, extending through more than ten lines, of all the persons concerned in the manufacture or sale of garments. Solearii astant, astant molochinarii. All the lexicographers and commentators explain _Molochinarius_ to be one who dyes cloth of the color of the mallow. _Lanarius_ was a woollen-draper; _Coactiliarius_, a dealer in felts, a hatter; _Lintearius_ a linen-draper; and _Sericarius_ a silk-mercer. According to the same analogy, _Molochinarius_ would mean _a dealer in Molochina_, i. e. _in all kinds of cloth made from mallows_.