Modern Oriental Lodge in a Meloo-pateh.
2. ri3!|bp, melunah' (fern, of p1>Q, an tm), agmfis properly a lodging-place, and is associated with the booth (** cottage") in the above pasaage (Isa. i, 8). where it is translated " lodge,''* beuig probably a sooh- what slighter structure, if possible, as a cocsBber patch is more temporary than a vineyard. It ako oc- curs in Isa. xxiv, 20, in the mistranslated exptessKa *^ and shall be removed [i. e. shaken about] like a ce^ tage," where it denotes a hanging-bed or hammodt sus- pended from trees, in which travellers, and especkDr the watchmen in gardens, were accustomed to sle^ during summer, so as to be out of the reach of wild animfds. The swinging of these aptly correspoiidi with the staggering of a drunken man. Or it may. perhaps, more appropriately denote here thoee frail structures of boughs, supported by a few poles, wki^ the Orientals use for the same purpose.
Modem Oriental Bootlis or Sheda.
Summer Sleeplng-plaee among the Kurdish UillB.
8. In Zeph. ii, 6» the original term is tH^, hertA (literally diggings'), i. e. pits for holding water, and, Ib- stead of '* dwellings [and] cottages for shepherds,*" it should be rendered " fields full of shepherds* ctsteiBS*"
COTTON
635
COTTON
foar watering their flocks ; that is, the sites of the cities of Philistia should be occupied for pastoral purposes. X*lii8 word does not occur elsewhere.
Cotton (from the Arab, name kuHm\ the well- known wool-like substance which envelops the seeds, and is contained within the roundish-pointed capsule or fruit of the cotton-shrub. Every one also knows tlutt cotton has, from the earliest ages, been character- istic of India. Indeed, it has been well remarked that, as from early times sheep's wool has been principally employed for clothing in Palestine and Syria, in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Spain, hemp in the northern countries of Europe, and flax in Egypt, so cotton has always been employed for the same purpose in India, and silk in China. In the present day, cotton, by the aid of machinery, has been manufactured in this conn- try on so extensive a scale, and sold at so cheap a rate, as to drive the manufactures of India almost en- tirely ont of the market. But still, until a very recent period, the calicoes and chintzes of India formed very extensive articles of commerce fh)m that country to £iirope. For the investigation of the early history of cotton, we are chiefly indebted to the earliest notices of this coomieroe ; before adducing these, however, we may briefly notice the particular plants and countries* from which cotton is obtained. India possesses two very distinct species : 1. Gostgpmm kerbaoeum of bota- nists, of which there are several varieties, some of which have spread north, and also into the south of Europe, and into Africa. 2. Goasjfjman arboreumy or cotton-tree, which is little cultivated on account of its small produce, but which yields a iine kind of cotton. This must not be confounded, as it often is, with the silk-cotton tree, or Bombyx heptaphyUum^ which does not yield a cotton fit for spinning. Cotton ttom these kinds is now chiefly cultivated in Central India, from whence it is carried to and exported f^m Broach. It is also largely cultivated in the districts of the Bombay Presidency, as also in that of Madras, but less in Ben- gal, except for home manufacture, which of course re- qaires a large supply, where so large a population are all clothed in cotton. American cotton is obtained from two entirely distinct species — GoBsypiwn Barbat' derue^ of which different varieties yield the Sea Island, Upland, Georgian, and the New-Orleans cottons ; while G, Perumanum yields the Brazil, Pemambnco, and oth- er South American cottons. These species are origin- al natives of America. — Kitto, s. v. The Gottjfpium herbacewny a figure of which is annexed, is probably
Cottan-plant.
the species known to the andents. (See Ptnrnt^ Cydo- pfBdia, s. V. Gossypinm.)
This substance is no doubt denoted by the term DB'nS, karpag' (whence 6r. copxa^oc, Lat earbatut, fipom Sanscr. karpaa), of Esth. i, 6, which the A. V. renders "green** (Sept. rapira<rcvoc, Vulg. carbasinus). There is considerable doubt, however, whether under WW, sheth, in the earlier, and y^^ buts, in the hiter books of the O. T. rendered in the A. V. »♦ white Imen," " flne linen," etc., cotton may not have been included as well. Both these latter terms are said by Gesenius to be fh>m roots signifying originally mere whiteness ; a sense said also to inhere in the word 12, bad, used sometimes instead of, and sometimes together with shesh to mean the fabric. In Ezek. xxvii, 7, 16, aheth is mentioned as imported into Tyre frx>m Egypt, and buts as from Syria. Each is found in turn coupled with 'I^Ji'^K (argamoH*), in the sense of " purple and flne linen," i. e. the most showy and costly apparel (comp. Prov. xxi, 22, with Esth. viii, 16). The dress of the Egyptian priests, at any rate in their ministrations, was without doubt of linen (Herod, ii, 87), in spite of Pliny *s assertion (xix, 1, 2) that they preferred cotton. Tet cotton garments for the worship of the temples is said to be mentioned on the Rosetta stone (Wilkinson, Anc, Eg. iii, 117). The same was the case with the Jewish ephod and other priestly attire, in which we cannot suppose any carelessness to have prevsiled. If, however, a Jew happened to have a piece of cotton cloth, he probably would not be deterred by any scru- ple about the heteroffenea of Deut. xxii, 11, ftt>m wear- ing that and linen together. There is, however, no word for the cotton plant (like ritnwfi for flax) in the Hebrew, nor any reason to suppose that there was any early knowledge of the fabric in Palestine. See