364- Mr. Thomson on the Mummy Cloth of Egypt, 



purpose of making paper. The inquiries, therefore, which 

 form the subject of this communication are not affected by any 

 question of the integrity of those mummies from whence the 

 specimens were derived, of which, however, no doubt is enter- 

 tained. 



The period during which the custom of embalming pre- 

 vailed in Egypt, embraces a long succession of ages. From 

 the first of thePharaohs to the last of the Ptolemies, with whom 

 this ancient rite is supposed to have become almost extinct, 

 chronologists reckon more than twenty centuries during 

 which the art was practised which has handed down to us 

 these scanty remains of Egyptian industry, the only vestiges 

 of the labours of the ancient loom now in existence. They 

 prove the arts of spinning and weaving flax to have attained 

 a high degree of perfection, many of the specimens of mummy 

 cloth here described being of a quality to excite admiration 

 even at the present day, and the finest of these fabrics ap- 

 proaching in excellence our delicate muslins. The coloured 

 borders establish the fact of indigo having been known and 

 used as a dye in Egypt, from a remote aera. 



During this long period, industry and the arts of life con- 

 nected with civilization must have made considerable pro- 

 gress, which we shall, however, remain unable satisfactorily 

 to trace till more accurate knowledge of the ancient language 

 and characters of the Egyptians shall have interpreted the 

 dates, and fixed the chronology of their monuments and 

 paintings. In the tomb of Beni Hassan is a representation 

 of a loom (figured in Count Minutoli's Travels) of such pri- 

 maeval simplicity as to resemble the first rude efforts of savage 

 art to form a web, such as Don Ulloa in his voyages has de- 

 scribed as used by the native Indians of South America. 

 Between this loom, and that in which the corslet of Amasis 

 was woven, mentioned by Herodotus, and more particularly 

 described by Pliny as a wonderful specimen of manufacturing 

 art, the distance is immense. 



It is not improbable that future researches directed to this 

 object may discover, in the ancient sepulchres and mummy 

 pits, fragments of cloth, now trodden under foot and unheeded 

 by the traveller, which would throw much light on the inter- 

 esting subject of ancient manufactures. 



The question debated amongst the learned of the nature of 

 the Byssus of the ancients, I may in conclusion be permitted 

 to observe, appears to me to be finally settled by the present 

 communication. Herodotus states that the Egyptians wrapped 

 their dead in cloth of the Byssus. It has been shown that 

 without exception every specimen of mummy cloth yet ex- 



