Camels’-wool and Camels’-hair--Ctesias’ account--Testimony of modern travellers--Arab tent of Camels’-hair--Fine cloths still made of Camels’-wool--The use of hair of various animals in the manufacture of beautiful stuffs by the ancient Mexicans--Hair used by the Candian women in the manufacture of broidered stuffs--Broidered stuffs of the negresses of Senegal--Their great beauty. We are informed by Ctesias, in a fragment of the 10th Book of his Persic History, that there were camels in a part of Persia, whose hair, soft as Milesian fleeces, was used to make garments for the priests and the other potentates[402]. [402] Apollonii Mirabilia xx. Ælian, Hist. An. xvii. 34. Ctesiæ Fragmenta, a Bähr, p. 224. John the Baptist wore a garment of camels’-hair; but this must be supposed to have been coarse. (_Matt._ iii. 4., _Mark_ i. 6.)[403]. This passage of scripture is illustrated by Harmer in the following observation[404]: “This hair, Sir J. Chardin tells us (in his MS. note on 1 _Sam._ xxv. 4.) is not shorn from the camels like wool from sheep, but they pull off this woolly hair, which the camels are disposed to cast off; as many other creatures, it is well known, change their coats yearly. This hair is made into cloth now. Chardin assures us the modern dervishes wear such garments.” [403] “And the same John had his raiment of camels’-hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”--_Matt._ iii. 4, also in Mark: “And John was clothed with camels’-hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey.”--_Mark_ i. 6. [404] Ch. xi. Obs. 83. vol. iv. p. 416. ed. Clarke. Campbell, the poet, mentions a tent of camels’-hair cloth, which he saw at an Arab encampment between Oran and Mascara in the kingdom of Algiers. It was 25 feet in diameter and very lofty. (_Letters from the South_, 1837, _vol._ ii. _p._ 212.) He also mentions (_vol._ i. _p._ 161.) that the Kabyles or Berbers, who live in the vicinity of Algiers, and are descended from the original occupants of the country, dwell in “tents of camels’-hair.” We are informed that the Chinese make _carpets_ of the same material[405]. _Coverlets_ of goats’ or camels’-hair are used by the soldiers in Turkey to sleep under[406]. “The Circassians, when marching, or on a journey, always add to their other garments a cloak made from camel or goats’-hair, with a hood, which completely envelopes the whole person. It is impenetrable by rain; and it forms their bed at night, and protects them from the scorching sun by day[407].” [405] China, its Costume, Arts, Manufactures, &c., by Bertin: translated from the French. London, 1812, vol. iv. [406] Travels in Circassia, by Edmund Spencer, vol. i. p. 202. [407] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 219.