138 Beginnings of Porcelain 



we meet "several kinds of glass and other murrine vases, which are 

 made in Diospolis." 1 The latter city is regarded as identical with 

 Thebae in upper Egypt. Here the substance murra is designated as a 

 kind of glass, but it is "another" kind of glass, different from ordinary 

 glass. There is no doubt in my mind that it denotes here the vitreous 

 paste employed for the glazing of pottery, and this conclusion per- 

 fectly agrees with all that we know about the thriving industries of 

 ceramics and glass in Egypt of that period. 2 



Chapter XLVIII of the Periplus mentions the trade of Ozene, — 

 that is, Ujjayini (Ujjain), — the chief city of Malva, in India, whence 

 onyx-like and murrine stones 3 are brought to the port Barygaza on 

 the west coast. In the following chapter it is stated that these articles, 

 among others, are exported from Barygaza. Again, in this case, we 

 have not to understand by the murrine material a pure mineral of 

 uniform character, but an artificial composition of partially mineral 

 origin, turned to glazing-purposes, and introduced into commerce in the 

 shape of cakes, which, on the surface, appeared to the uninitiated as a 

 mineral substance resembling onyx. The Periplus thus opens our eyes 

 to the fact that substances for glazing were traded as far as India, and 

 this is confirmed both by Indian traditions and by the Chinese annals. 



The Chinese, indeed, were acquainted with the murra of the ancients; 

 and Chinese records point in the same manner to the home of the sub- 

 stance, — the anterior Orient, styled by them Ta Ts'in ("Great Ts'in"). 

 The glassy paste for the production of ceramic glazes was called liu-li 

 ${t 5JU (in the Han Annals $fc III) or pH-liu-li, derived from Prakrit 

 veluriya, Maharashtri verulia (Sanskrit vaidurya). 4 The Wei lio, 



1 At0tas uaXfjs 7r \tlova ykvt] Kai aWrjs fiovppivrfs rrjs yivop.hi]s ev AtooTroXa 

 (ed. of B. Fabricius, p. 42). 



2 Compare T. Reil, Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Gewerbes im hellenistischen 

 Agypten, pp. 37-50. The mass is well described by W. M. Flinders Petrie 

 (Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt, p. 117): "Quartz rock pebbles were pounded 

 into fine chips after many heatings which cracked them. These were mixed with 

 lime and potash and some carbonate of copper. The mixture was roasted in pans, 

 and the exact shade depended on the degree of roasting. This mass was half fused 

 and became pasty; it was then kneaded and toasted gradually, sampling the color 

 until the exact tint was reached. A porous mass of frit of uniform color results. 

 This was then ground up in water, and made into a blue or green paint, which was 

 either used with a flux to glaze objects in a furnace, or was used with gum or white 

 of egg as a wet paint for frescoes." 



3 'Ovvxivy Xi0ia Kai pjovpp'ivrj. 



4 Palladius (Chinese-Russian Dictionary, Vol. I, p. 367), our foremost authori- 

 ty on Chinese lexicography, has given as the principal meaning of liu-li "glaze" 

 (Russian glazur). Several writers accept the term liu-li in the too narrow sense of 

 "glass" only, and construe a theory that quantities of glass vessels were imported 

 at the Han time from the workshops of Syria and Egypt (for instance, S. W. Bushell, 



