The Legend of Silk

For most people when China is mentioned they think silk and exotic clothing. Silk has been China's main fabric staple for thousands of years. While now it's known that silk comes from silkworms back in the 30th Century BC the Chinese had their own theories.

Here are some of the legends of how silk came about.

Once there lived a father with his daughter. They had a magical horse that could fly and understand humans. One day, the father left for business and didn't return. The daughter asked that if the horse would find her father she would then marry him. But when her father returned, he wouldn't allow his daughter to fulfill her promise to the horse. The father killed the horse to prevent him from taking her. But magically the horse's skin carried the daughter away. They flew and flew, finally landing on a tree. Once the daugther touched the tree, she turned into a silkworm. Everyday she would spit long, thin silks. These silks represents her missing her father.

Another story is...

One day a group of women were picking fruits from trees when they found a special kind of fruit. It was white but too hard to eat, so they boiled the fruit in order to soften it. But it was still too hard. Soon they became impatient and beat the fruit with sticks. The fruit cracked open and revealed the silk worms.