1 11 flory of the Art of Dyeing i io^ 



merly w.is hekl in fo much eftimation ; which is mentioned 

 fo often by profane as well as facred writers; which ftill 

 makes a figure in our poetry, or which is fo often ufed as a 

 figure in common life, and which many are acquainte(f With 

 only by name. ■ : : 



The fubftance employed for dyeing this expenfive colour 

 was the liquor of a kind of fliell-fifli called by the Hebrews 

 argaman^ by the Greeks Tros^w^a, and by the Romans fur^ 

 pura, murex, and ojirum. It has been often defcribed, and 

 the ihell of it may often be feen in colle6tions of natural 

 curioiitics. There were two kinds of this fliell-fifh, both of 

 which were employed in dyeing purple. One of them, from 

 its figure, was called buccinum. The other was the purple 

 (liell-fifli properly fo called {purpura, pelagmm), and con- 

 fifled of fcveral kinds, fome of which were fitter than others 

 for dyeing f. The heft were found in the neighbourhood of 

 Tyre, on the coafl of Gaetulia, and near Lacedemon. It is 

 defcribed by Pliny in the following manner J: 



'^ The purple (licll-fifh has a conical (hell furrounded with 

 a feven-fold row of prickles which proceed to the mouth, 

 through which the animal can project its tongue. The latter 

 is as long as the finger, and fo hard that it can penetrate the 

 (liells of other fiih and nourifh itfelf on their fubftance. This 

 alfo affords an eafy method of catching it. The fifhermen 

 take a net with wide mefhes, into which, inftead of bait, a 

 few mufcles are put. As foon as thefe are immerfed in the 

 water they again become frefh, and when the purple fifli 

 obfcrve that they open their (hells they thruft thejr tongue 

 into them ; butfcarcely do the mufcles perceive this when they 

 again flmt their fliells, and in that manner they are caught. 



*' In frcfli water thefe fliell-fifh foon die ; but they can live 

 fifty days oi) their own faliva. In the fpring they emit a fort 



• Michaclis ufed to qbferve in his leftures, that this word formerly 

 fij^nified a funeral monument. 



t Plinius, Hitt Nat. lib. ix. c. 36. 



X A more circumftantial account may be found in the following 

 fcarce works : Fabii Columtue Lynca:i Purpura cum jig. an. Romae 1616. 

 4to. ; and G. Ootlob Kichter Progr. de Purpura ant'iquo et 710^0 Pigmcnto, 

 Ci't. 1 74 1, j^io. 



Qc. % of 



