122 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



death against any of his ambitious subjects Tvho dared to 

 usurp the prerogative of the throne. The penalty^ so tyran- 

 nically inflicted, doubtless occasioned the loss of the art 

 of dyeing purple ; first in the west, afterwards in the east, 

 where it flourished till the eleventh century. 



The finest kind of purple preserved its brilliancy for a 

 considerable time, and long survived those for T^hom it 

 was designed. Plutarch relates, in his life of Alexander, 

 that the Greeks found in the treasury of the King of Persia 

 a quantity of pui'ple, which had not lost its beauty, though 

 nearly one bundred and ninety years old. 



The ancients also obtained from the coccus, now known 

 by the name of kermes, a colour neai'ly equal to the Tman 

 dye, with which, according to Pliny, it was indeed occasio- 

 nally blended, under the name of scarlet. The use of the 

 coccus in dyeing is very ancient, since it appears, from com- 

 mentators, to be alluded to in Exodus : — 



'"'And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made 

 cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made 

 the holy garments for Aaron. 



" And a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and pur- 

 ple, and scarlet, of needle work : as the Lord commanded 

 Moses.^^ — xxxix. 1 and 29. 



