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In war they use round targets of buffaloe hide, strengthened with some light bars of iron, having a wooden handle, and short broad-swords. At other times they use vestures of linen of divers colours, also of gossampine or xylon, otherwise named bomasine . In war every man carries a sling, whence he casts stones, after having whirled them frequently round his head.
When they come to forty or fifty years of age, they wreath their hair into the form of horns like those of goats. When the army proceeds to the wars, it is followed by 5000 camels, all laden with ropes of bombasine . Perhaps we ought to read gossamopine of Xylon, meaning cotton cloth from Ceylon.
Cotton early found its way into Egypt, then the seat of arts and of commerce; for Pliny in his "Natural History" informs us that "in Upper Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub which some call Gossypion and others Xylon. It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the filbert, within which is a downy wool that is spun into thread.
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