Cammellotti Appear To Have Been Fine Woollen Textures, By No Means What
Are Now Called Camlets, Nor Were They Necessarily Of Camel's Wool, For
Those Of Angora Goat's Wool Were Much Valued.
M. Douet d'Arcq calls it "a
fine stuff of wool approaching to our Cashmere, and sometimes of silk."
Indeed, as Mr. Marsh points out, the word is Arabic, and has nothing to do
with Camel in its origin; though it evidently came to be associated
therewith.
Khamlat is defined in F. Johnson's Dict.: "Camelot, silk and
camel's hair; also all silk or velvet, especially pily and plushy," and
Khaml is "pile or plush." Camelin was a different and inferior
material. There was till recently a considerable import of different kinds
of woollen goods from this part of China into Ladakh, Kashmir, and the
northern Panjab. [Leaving Ning-hsia, Mr. Rockhill writes (Diary, 1892,
44): "We passed on the road a cart with Jardine and Matheson's flag,
coming probably from Chung-Wei Hsien, where camel's wool is sold in
considerable quantities to foreigners. This trade has fallen off very much
in the last three or four years on account of the Chinese middlemen
rolling the wool in the dirt so as to add to its weight, and practising
other tricks on buyers." - H. C.] Among the names of these were Sling,
Shirum, Gurun, and Khoza, said to be the names of the towns in China
where the goods were made. We have supposed Sling to be Sining (note 2,
ch.
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