Sea Silk

I am a visitor, said Pliny the Elder. Yet you have never offered the use of that jacket to me.

It is a ladies jacket, I replied. But you are welcome to wear it whenever you like. As for me, I shall only be wearing it on very dark nights from now on.

It looks alright to me, said Pliny. I don't understand why you've taken against it.

The baleful child, I said darkly.

There could be many reasons why a little girl might grimace in the circumstances you describe. Her mother may have placed her on the stool in order to punish her, or she may have had an itching sensation in her nose.

It doesn't matter now, I said. She was simply the means by which I became aware of my own feelings towards the jacket.

Well, said Pliny, I still think it's a fine jacket. A Roman woman would have envied you for possessing it. It appears to be made of sea silk.

Sea silk. No, I think it's made from polyester. What's sea silk, Pliny?

A luxurious fabric highly prized in my day. It was obtained from a mollusc, the pinna nobilis, that attached itself to rocks by means of fine strong fibres, called byssus. These were collected, treated with lemon juice, and woven into a cloth with a beautiful golden sheen that would never fade. Unfortunately it used to attract moths.

If my jacket had attracted moths, it would have saved me some embarrassment, I said. But tell me Pliny, how would you feel about wearing this jacket yourself?

Well, said Pliny, it is not what I would normally wear, but late at night it would certainly keep out the chill. I shall borrow it sometimes, if I may.

Fine Pliny, but remember, it's a slippery slope.