396 PURPLE DYEING, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



which occasioned the discovery of the beautiful Tyrian purple. As Hercules (so 

 runs the fable) walked one day on the sea-shore with the fair object of his love, 

 her pet dog, playing around them, seized an open sp.a-snail, and dyed his mouth 

 of so beautiful a color that the lady uttered a wish to have a dress of that self- 

 same hue. Hercules, of course, succeeded in granting her desire. It is as- 

 sumed that this discovery dates frum the year 1500 B. C. 



For nearly all that we know of purple dyeing we are indebted to Aristotle, 

 Pliny, and Vitruvius. Pliny mentions two shell-fish that yield the "purple," 

 the "buccinum," so called, on account of its resemblance to a trumpet, and 

 the " purpura." The coloring substance was said to be contained in a trans- 

 parent and branching vein at the back of the creature's neck, and while the 

 animal was alive, the fluid had a mucous or creamy consistence. If the fish 

 were small, they were pounded ; but if large, containing so much as an ounce 

 of the highly valued fluid, the vein was detached, its contents mixed with five 

 or six times its weight of water, and to the mixture thus formed soda was added, 

 in the proportion of twenty ounces to every hundred pounds. The whole was 

 then put into lead or tin vessels and kept in a moderately warm place for five 

 or six days, the scum being from time to time carefully removed. As soon as 

 the fluid assumed the precise tone of color that was desired, the wool was dyed- 

 The proc-ess was very simple. The wool, being thoroughly cleansed from grease 

 and all other im[)urities, was plunged into the dye for some five or six hours, 

 or even longer if the object was to double dye the material, {dlbaphes,) in which 

 ease it was highly esteemed and proportiouably high in price. W^ool thus dyed 

 commanded in ihe reign of the Emperor Augustus the enormous price of two 

 hundred dollars per pound, nearly its weight in gold ! 



We learn from Vitruvius that various countries had their peculiar shades of 

 purple. At the north, the shade approached to violet, while at the south it 

 became the vivid red which we now term a bright scarlet. Pliny also dis- 

 tinguishes two different shades of purple — the tyrium or purpura, a dark crim- 

 son like that of coagulated blood ; and the amethystinum, the light violet blue 

 of the amethyst. Both authors agree in stating that an excellent purple was 

 obtained from some plants; our own madder, it would seem, being among them. 

 Madder (Rubia tinctorum) was undoubtedly known and cultivated in several 

 ancient countries — Italy and Judea, for instance. Woad, too, (Isatis tiactosria,) 

 was well knuwn to the ancients, and served to give to the purple that fine violet 

 tint which was so much prized. 



The purple-yielding shell-fish were found on all the coasts of the Old World; 

 and in Ureece, Italy, Dalmatia, Istria, and Egypt, there were large dyeing 

 houses. Of course they used up an immense number of these minute animals ; 

 but the supply was equal to the demand. For instance, Mount Testaceo, near 

 Tarentum, consisted almost entirely of the shells of the Murex brandaris, which 

 we believe to be tlu shells from which the Roman dyers extracted their color- 

 ing matter. Accorcing to Tacitus, the Germans had a purple dye which was 

 especially in reqiiest for linen. But above all the purple dyes of the ancients, 

 that of Tyre and Sidon was admired, and it was a very important item in the 

 commerce of the merchant princes of Tyre. No color has ever been so long 

 valued and so profusely lauded as the purple. In the days of Moses it was the 

 distinctive color of the great and the wealthy; Homer makes iEneas offer a su- 

 perb purjjle robe to Bcllerophen ; Dives, in the New Testament, is " clothed in 

 purple and fine linen;" and it was in a robe of purple that the stern Roman 

 Imperator triumphantly returned to the seven-hilled city, after vanqiiishing and 

 subjugating some far barbarian foe. Pliny speaks of "the Tyrian purple" as 

 being a color so representative of dignity and majesty that Roman lictors made 

 way for it with their fasces and their followers. Not only was it the distinctive 

 mark for both young and old of high rank or great wealth, but was still fur- 

 ther honored by being the indispensable color of the robes of those who reve- 



