THE TYRIAN PURPLE. 69 



l)ing with the hands. " It is then passed through combs of 

 bone, and afterwards, for hner purposes, through iron combs, 

 or cards, so that a pound of the coarse filaments is usually 

 reduced to about three ounces of fine thread. Wlien mixed 

 with about one-third of real silk, it is spun on the distaff, and 

 knit into gloves, caps, stockings, vests, &c., forming a stuff of 

 a beautiful brownish-yellow colour (resembling the burnished 

 golden hue on the back of certain flies and beetles), but very 

 liable to be moth-eaten, and requiring to be wrapped in fine 

 linen. A pair of gloves costs on the spot about six shillings, 

 and a pair of stockings eleven ; but its sale is not very exten- 

 sive, and the manufacture is peculiar to Taranto." * You 

 can see a pair of gloves made of this material in the British 

 Museum. 



The most costly and brilliant dye of which we read in his- 

 tory was procured from shell-fish. This is the Tyrian purple 

 — " that glorious colour, so full of state and majestic, that 

 the Roman lictors with their rods, halbards, and axes, make 

 way for : this is it that graceth and setteth out the children 

 of princes and noblemen : this maketh the distinction between 

 a knight and a counsellor of state : this is called for and put 

 on when they offer sacrifice to pacific the gods : this giveth a 

 lustre to all sorts of garments : to conclude, our great gene- 

 rals of the field, and victorious captaines, in their triumphs 

 weave this purple in their mantles, enterlaced and embroi- 

 dered with gold among. No marvel therefore if purples be 

 so much sought for : and men are to be held excused, if they 

 run a madding after Purples."-!- The dye was discovered by 

 the Phoenicians; and Aristotle and Pliny give nearly the 

 same account of the process by which it was procured. 

 They tell us that the liquor was contained in a transparent 

 branching vessel or vein placed behind the neck of the 

 animal, and that it was at first of the colour and consistence 

 of thick cream. When the shells were small, the whole were 

 bruised together in a mortar; but when large, the fish were 

 first removed, the receptacle of the dyeing liquor taken out, 

 and this mixed with a considerable quantity of salt to keep it 

 from putrefying : " It was then diluted with five or six times 

 as much water, and kept moderately hot in leaden or tin ves- 

 sels, for eight or ten days, during which the liquor was often 

 skimmed to separate all the impurities. After this, the wool 

 to be dyed, being first well washed, was immersed and kept 

 therein for five hours ; then taken out, cooled, and again 

 immersed, and continued in the liquor till all the colour was 



* Edin. Encyclop. xii. 372. t Holland's Plinie, i. 258. 



