(Ptolemy); a people of the Farther Asia; bounded on the west by Scythia extra Imaum; on the north and east, by Terra Incognita; and on the south, by India extra Gangem. According to these limits, their country answers nearly to Cathay or North China. Other authors vary greatly in placing them, though the generality agree in placing them far to the east. Mela places them between the Indi and Scythae; and perhaps beyond the Indi, if we distinguish the Sine from them. The ancients commend them for their cotton manufactures, different from the produce of the bombyces or silk-worms, called seres by the Greeks; whence serica, "silk."