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CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE PURPLE OF THE ANCIENTS. 
IN the palmy days of Rome, her patricians and her kings wore 
togas dyed with the far-famed Tyrian purple. So universally was 
it the custom for the chiefs of the state to dress in robes of this 
beautiful colour, that “to be invested with the purple” became the 
synonym for assuming the royal power. It must not, however, be 
supposed that the wearing of this colour was positively restricted 
to men of rank; but it was so costly that only such men could 
afford to purchase it. Fabric dyed by the Tyrians was sold in 
the marts of Corinth for its weight in silver. 
The colour of the celebrated dye was scarcely that which we 
know by the name of purple; it was a much deeper tint, and the 
play of the sunlight upon it made it almost iridescent. It would 
appear that, at first, a deep violet was given to the fabric, and, by 
various subsequent manipulations, more or less red was mingled 
with the original tint; this brighter colour the sunlight seemed 
to evoke. 
M. Lacaze-Duthiers reports that when, in 1858, he was in Port 
Mahon, his attendant fisherman, Alonzo, was in the habit of occu- 
pying his spare time by marking the sails and his own clothes 
with a colouring matter froma shell-fish. The naturalist happened 
to see the fisherman thus amusing himself, pointing a stick, he 
thrust it into the mollusk, and drew the characters he wished with 
the liquid which adhered to it; the marks were slightly yellow. 
“You can hardly see it,” said M. Lacaze-Duthiers. 
“Tt will become coloured,’ answered Alonzo, “when the sun 
strikes upon it.” And so it did. 
The naturalist requested the man to mark some linen for him, 
in order that he might watch the process. In about two or three 
