236 On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 
makes mention of it in several places, and he used much wool of a 
purple color in the works of the tabernacle, and in the garments of 
the High Priest.* This the Israelites must have brought out from 
Egypt with them, and from the quantity in their possession it cannot 
have been very scarce in that country. It was used as royal robes 
by the kings of Midian, B. C. 1249 ;+ and B. C. 606, the Baby- 
lonians covered their idols with garments of purple.{ At the same 
time it was also the royal color among these people, and we find that 
Daniel, after explaining the writing on the wall, as a special mark of 
, was clothed in it.4 Alexander Balus, king of Syria, sent 
Jonathan Maccabeus a crown of gold, and a purple robe, allowing 
him to take the title of king? s friend.|| The band or Cydaris, which 
formed the essential part in the old Persian diadem, was composed 
of a twined substance of purple and white ; and any body below the 
royal dignity presuming to wear these colors, unsanctioned by the 
king, was guilty of a transgression of the law deemed equal to high 
treason. 
Although in after times it was almost exclusively known by the 
name of Tyrian purple, yet it appears to have been only on the de- 
cline of that great commercial city that it was manufactured there. 
It is mentioned by Ezekiel,** B. C. 588, as being imported from the 
Isles of Elisha, (Peloponnesus ;) and Aristotle,++ as late as B. C. 
340, makes no mention of its being brought from Pheenicia. In his 
time the ‘best and largest shells were from Sigeum and Lectum on 
the promontory of Troas, and tke smaller and inferior from Enuripus 
and Caria. When, however, Tyre had lost its commerce, and be- 
come an inferior place, the chief supply of Europe was drawn from 
it, though we find it imported i into Rome from Lacedemon, and 
manufactures of it in various parts of Italy as late as A. D. 14. tf 
During the earlier periods of the Roman republic it was solely wort 
= the kings and patricians, but in later times Pliny§§ informs us that 
* Exodus xxv. 14. xxviii. 5—6. Josephus, Act. Jud. a. iii. e. vii. $7- 
+ Judges viii. 26, om remiah x.9.. Baruch vi. 1 § Daniel v.7- 
ii Maccabees i.20. These references are from Boer s Dictionary, Art. Por- 
PLE, where they are Scioedly pa to refer to the dye from the shell. ‘ 
‘I Sir Robert Ker Porter’s Travels in Georgia, &c. Volume ii. p. 154, quoted ™ 
Home's Introd. to the Holy Scriptures, Vol. i. ch. iii. sec. 3. § 
eo sregs xvii. 7. tt Aristot. de Hist. Animal, lib. v. ra 15. 
erson’s Annals of Commerce, Vol. i. p. 124. Juvenal, Sat. v: i. 101. 
Pin Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 36. lib. xxx, cap. 10. from which all the informe 
+ 
