362 Mr. Thomson on the Mummy Cloth of Egypt ; 



These tests prove the colouring matter of these stripes to be 

 indigo. 



This dye was unknown to Herodotus, for he makes no 

 mention of it. It was known to Pliny, who, though ignorant 

 of its true nature and the history of its production, has cor- 

 rectly described the most characteristic of its properties, the 

 emission of a beautiful purple vapour when exposed to heat. 

 Had his commentators been acquainted with the sublimation 

 of indigo, it would have saved many learned doubts. We 

 learn from the " Periplus," that it was an article of export 

 from Barbarike on the Indus to Egypt, where its employment 

 by the manufacturers of that country, probably from a remote 

 period, is clearly established by the specimens here described. 



Amongst the various cloths for which I am indebted to the 

 curators of the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, is one of a 

 pale brick or red colour. My attention was lately recalled to 

 this specimen by observing a similar colour in the outer co- 

 verings of two fine mummies presented to the University of 

 London by Mr. Morrison, one of which has been recently 

 unrolled. Having obtained specimens of both, I subjected 

 them, with that from Glasgow, to the following experiments. 

 Treated with cold water the colour was not affected. Boiling 

 distilled water in a few minutes nearly removed the whole. 

 Diluted sulphuric or muriatic acid had no action on it; but 

 a feeble alkali, whether carbonated or caustic, destroyed the 

 colour immediately. Examined with a lens, the specimens 

 from Glasgow exhibited small distinct grains or concretions, 

 of a red colour, disseminated through the fibres of the cloth. 

 Notwithstanding the fugitive nature of the colouring matter 

 of Safflower, the Carthamus tinctorius of botanists, I am 

 strongly disposed to consider the three specimens here ex- 

 amined as having been dyed with that plant. The small 

 granular particles of a red colour observed in the Glasgow 

 specimen are sometimes found in cloth dyed with Carthamus. 

 There is also in the covering of the mummy of the London 

 University which is unstripped, a rosy hue peculiar to this 

 dye. The resistance of the colour to acids and its instant 



iielding to the weakest alkalies is characteristic of Safflower. 

 ,astly, Carthamus has long been an article of cultivation in 

 Egypt, and the first processes employed by the European 

 dyers were derived, with the dye itself, from that country, 

 where in all probability it has been cultivated and used for 

 ages, and is to this day an article of considerable export. 



In the Glasgow mummy there was, moreover, a narrow 

 slip of cloth about four inches broad, extending from the 

 crown of the head to the feet, of a yellowish colour, of which 



