a people of the Farther Asia, bounded on the west by Scythia without Imaus, on the north and east by Terra Incognita, and on the south by India beyond the Ganges. According to these limits, their country answers nearly to Cathay or Northern China. Mela places them between the Indi and Scythia; and perhaps beyond the Indi, if we distinguish them from the Sinæ. The ancients commend them for their cotton manufactures, different from the produce of the bombyce or silk-worms, called seres by the Greeks; and hence serica means silk.

or Strate, a city of European Turkey, in the province of Rumelia, and the circle of the Bay of Contessa. It stands on a fine plain watered by the rivers Egrifiu and Stromza; but it is considered as unhealthy. It is surrounded with walls, which are in a neglected state. It contains ten mosques, several Greek and Armenian churches, and about thirty thousand inhabitants. It is the chief market for cotton wool, which is extensively cultivated on the fertile plains around it. It has also a considerable trade in rice, tobacco, and fruits of all kinds.