122 On the Mamifacture ofGlass^ Porcelain^ S^c. 



workmanship leave no doubt of the bottles themselves being the 

 productions of Egyptian artists. 



It is uncertain of what stone the murrhine vases, mentioned 

 bj Pliny,* Martial, and other writers, were made ; it was of 

 various colours, beautifully blended, and even iridescent, and 

 was obtained in greater quantity in Carmania than in any- 

 country. It was also found in Parthia and other districts of 

 Asia, but unknown in Egypt ; a fact quite consistent with the 

 notion of its being fluor-spar, which is not met with in the val- 

 ley of the Nile ,• and explaining the reason why the Egyptians 

 imitated it with the composition known under the name of false 

 murrhine, said to have been made at Thebes,t and Memphis. 

 The description given by Pliny certainly bears a stronger re- 

 semblance to the fluor-spar, than to any other stone, and the 

 only objection to this having been murrhine, arises from our 

 not finding any vases, or fragments, of it ; and some may still 

 be disposed to doubt if the stone is known to which the na- 

 turalist alludes. But the fluor-spar appears to have the 

 strongest claim ; and the porcelain of Egypt, whose various 

 colours are disposed in waving lines, as if to imitate the natural 

 undulations of that crystallized substance, may perhaps be 

 looked upon with reason as the false murrhine of the ancients. 

 It is difficult to say whether the Egyptians employed glass for 

 the purpose of making lamps or lanterns : ancient authors give 

 us no direct information on the subject ; and the paintings 

 offer no representation which can be proved to indicate a lamp 

 or torch, or any other kind of light. t 



Herodotus§ mentions a " fete of burning lamps," which took 



• Plin. xxxvii. 2. 



+ Arrian, in his Periplus of the Red Sea (p. 3), mentions " XiSiat vaXns 

 vXttova ymv, xai aXXns fAoppivns t>j; yivafjbtvrn iv Aiotr^oXti." At Medeenet Ha- 

 boo are numerous agatised pebbles, which were evidently brought there (the 

 nearest known spot where they are found being Nubia), but at what period is 

 uncertain. Were they not for some purpose connected with art ? If so, it 

 is not probable they were brought there by the Christians, though generally 

 found upon the surface of the mounds. 



:!: In the funeral processions, one person carries what seems to be a candle 

 or torch. 



§ Herodot. ii. 62. 



