"With Respect To
Nakhut And Nachidut, I May Observe That These Words Represent The
Mongol Plural Form Of Nakh And Nachetti....
I may finally mention that
in the Yuean shi, ch.
Lxxviii. (on official dresses), a stuff, na-shi-
shi, is repeatedly named, and the term is explained there by kin kin
(gold brocade)." - H. C.] The stuffs called Nasich and Nac are again
mentioned by our traveller below (ch. lix.). We only know that they were
of silk and gold, as he implies here, and as Ibn Batuta tells us, who
mentions Nakh several times and Nasij once. The latter is also
mentioned by Rubruquis (Nasic) as a present made to him at the Kaan's
court. And Pegolotti speaks of both nacchi and nacchetti of silk and
gold, the latter apparently answering to Nasich. Nac, Nacques, Nachiz,
Naciz, Nasis, appear in accounts and inventories of the 14th century,
French and English. (See Dictionnaire des Tissus, II. 199, and Douet d'
Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France, etc., 334.) We find no
mention of Nakh or Nasij among the stuffs detailed in the Ain
Akbari, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century. [Cf. Heyd,
Com. du Levant, II. p. 698; Nacco, nachetto, comes from the Arabic
nakh (nekh); nassit (nasith) from the Arabic necidj. - H. C.]
Quermesis or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar.
Kirmiz) found on Quercus coccifera, now supplanted by cochineal. The
stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but
apparently, like the mediaeval Purpura, if not identical with it, it
came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes
velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and
pourpres of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with
pourpre blanche. I may, however, point to Plano Carpini (p. 755), who
describes the courtiers at Karakorum as clad in white purpura.
The London prices of Chermisi and Baldacchini in the early part of the
15th century will be found in Uzzano's work, but they are hard to
elucidate.
Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for its
variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature of the
goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but Josephus
speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of Titus,
"gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom," and he also
describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a [Greek: peplos Babylonios]
of varied colours marvellously wrought. Pliny says King Attalus invented
the intertexture of cloth with gold; but the weaving of damasks of a
variety of colours was perfected at Babylon, and thence they were called
Babylonian.
The brocades wrought with figures of animals in gold, of which Marco
speaks, are still a specialite at Benares, where they are known by the
name of Shikargah or hunting-grounds, which is nearly a translation of
the name Thard-wahsh "beast-hunts," by which they were known to the
mediaeval Saracens.
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