478 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2 n d S. IX. June 23. '60. 



as he calls it, was in use in the early ages (be- 

 fore the discovery of the mineral reds known as 

 minium and cinnabar) for painting the statues of 

 Jupiter ; and he quotes the authority of Verrius 

 to show that victorious generals painted their 

 bodies with it, and that, so adorned, Camillus 

 celebrated his triumph after the conquest of the 

 Gauls (b. xxxiii. 36.). But Pliny falls into the 

 double error of confounding the earthy with the 

 metallic reds, identifying " minium" with /j.(atos 

 (although he states that the former was identical 

 with cinnabar) ; and of supposing that cinnabar, 

 instead of being a chemical product of quick- 

 silver, was the arboreal exudation still known by 

 the mythical name of "dragon's blood," because, 

 says Pliny, it consists of the " gore expressed from 

 the body of the dying dragon when crushed by 

 the elephants, mingled with the blood of both the 

 combatants" (xxxjii. 38.). Dioscorides was ac- 

 quainted with the true origin of cinnabar, and 

 says it was prepared from quicksilver, — vSpdpyvpov 



trK£va.£e<r6at airb rov a/.inlov Aeyo/xevov /caTaxpTJCTiKGtJs 5e 

 Kal rovTOV KtvvaSdpcws Aeyo/xevov, V. 110.) — but even 



he is confused between cinnabar and an/niov, minium; 

 and, in speaking of cinnabar, Vitruvius always 

 uses the term minium (de Archil, b. vii. 9.). But 

 the narrative of Pliny, however confused, serves 

 to establish the fact that the use of red ochre as a 

 paint was superseded by the discovery of vermi- 

 lion, the extraction of which from native cinnabar 

 he describes with accuracy as practised in his 

 time in Spain and Asia Minor. He proceeds to 

 explain that the painters, who were at first in- 

 duced by the superior brilliancy of vermilion to 

 adopt it in their monochrome pictures, finding its 

 tendency to discoloration, and the trouble thereby 

 entailed in protecting or renewing it, were forced 

 to discontinue its use, and to return to that of 

 ochre "rubrica" and sinopis (b. xxxiii. 39.). 

 Notwithstanding these errors of Pliny, however, 

 he avoided the mistake of confounding vermilion 

 with vermicidus, which latter he describes cor- 

 rectly as the produce of the insect which attacks 

 the oak (xxiv. 6.). 



The Hebrews were aware of the distinction be- 

 tween the two substances. There are but two 

 cases in the Old Testament in which the Hebrew 

 words for red paint are represented in our Eng- 

 lish version by " vermilion " ; and there is reason 

 to believe, notwithstanding the opposite opinion 

 of commentators, and a different rendering both 

 in the Septuagint and Vulgate, that this trans- 

 lation is correct, and that the pigment in question 

 was the true bisulphuret of mercury. The first 

 instance is that in which Jeremiah (ch. xxii. v. 

 1 4.) speaks of a ceiling of cedarwood " painted 

 with vermilion ; " and the other in Ezekiel, xxiii. 

 14., refers to " men pourtrayed upon the wall, 

 the images of the Chaldasans pourtrayed with 

 vermilion." The term in the Hebrew text in 



both cases is ~W& shdsher, a word not occurring 



elsewhere, and which the Septuagint renders 

 /xtATiji in Jeremiah, and ypa<pl5t in Ezekiel. The 

 Vulgate, with similar indecision, translates shdsher 

 in the first passage sinopide, which is equivalent 

 to the /xIatos of the Greeks, and the " rubrica " of 

 Pliny ; and in the second, substitutes for it the 

 comprehensive term " color ibus ." 



Kimchi, the Spanish Rabbi of the thirteenth 

 century, in his Commentary assumes shdsher to be 

 "dragon's blood;" and Gesenius believes it to 

 be red ochre. It is possible, however, that the 

 Babylonians may have ascertained the existence 

 and use of vermilion, the mode of preparing 

 which was known both to the Hindoos and Chi- 

 nese at a very remote period. And it is evident 

 that the Hebrews avoided the mistake of sup- 

 posing vermilion, or whatever pigment was meant 

 by shdsher, to be identical with the red tint ex- 

 tracted from the coccus ; for in the passages 

 which refer to the dyeing of cloth, the Old Testa- 

 ment writers use the term \3K> T)yf\Fl t tolaath 

 shani, literally the " scarlet worm." 



Tn the Apocryphal Book of the Wisdom of Solo- 

 mon, allusion is made to a carpenter carving an 

 image out of wood, and " laying it over with 

 vermilion and paint" (xiii. 14.) As no Hebrew 

 original exists of this book, which may have been 

 written in Greek by Alexandrian Jews, we can 

 only refer to the Septuagint, which renders the 



passage Karaxpiffas fxlATip Kal <pvK(i tpvdijvas, k. t. A. ; 



and to the Vulgate, which gives " rubrica " as the 

 equivalent of fiiATcp. 



The error of confounding the colours produced 

 from two such opposite sources was also avoided 

 by the Greeks, who discriminated between the 

 transparent red of the coccus, kSkkivov, and the 

 opaque scarlet of cinnabar, Kivv&fiapi. 



The Persians and Arabs were equally clear in 

 referring the crimson dye of their dresses to the 

 kermez and kermesi, which Salmasius believed to 

 be a derivative from the Latin " vermis." 



But the Romans, whilst they themselves avoided 

 the error of confounding the distinct origins of 

 the earthy and insect pigments, mainly contributed 

 to the confusion which afterwards arose, in con- 

 sequence of their applying one and the same term, 

 " vermiculus" to denote the several varieties of 

 red colours, obtained from such dissimilar sub- 

 stances. At what precise time this confusion was 

 introduced it is difficult at the present day to 

 determine ; but proofs are abundant that at a 

 very early period the whole of these substances, 

 including the dye of the coccus, the red oxide of 

 lead known as minium, and cinnabar the bisul- 

 phuret of mercury, were indiscriminately called 

 by one common epithet of vermiculus, which be- 

 came vermilium in mediasval Latin, vermiglia in 

 Italian, vermellon in Spanish, vermelh in Pro- 



