CHAPTER II.

THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA.


The Umbrella is derived from a stately family, that of the Parasol,
the legitimate use of the Umbrella, though sufficiently obvious,
being almost ignored in those countries whence it derives its being,
since it was as a protection against the scorching heat of the sun
that it was first used. The Parasol, then, or Umbrella--since for all
practical purposes the two are really identical--dates from the
earliest ages, some commentators on the Bible fancying they can
discover it in places where a shade protecting from the sun is
mentioned. This is not unlikely, but it is certain that the Parasol
has been in use from a very early period.

Chinese history goes a very long way back, inasmuch as it places the
invention of these elegant machines many thousand years anterior to
the Mosaic date of the world's creation. Their antiquity among the
Hindoos is more satisfactorily proved by the following passage from
the dramatic poem of _S'akuntâla_, the date of which is supposed
to be the 6th century of the Christian era:--

("The cares of supporting the nation harass the sovereign, while he
is cheered with a view of the people's welfare, as a huge Umbrella,
of which a man bears the staff in his own hand, fatigues while it