On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 237 
cloth of this color was so common as to be em x 
and for the covering of furniture, by all the better clase citizens. 
He also remarks, that so great was its antiquity that the introduction 
of it was unknown to him, and adds from the chronicles then extant, 
that Romulus and his successors used it—which was perhaps only 
the same as saying that the first invention of it could not be traced. 
The Grecian tradition, but which of course was merely a fable, was 
that Hercules Tyrius was the first discover of it, his dog by chance 
having eaten the shell fish, and returned to him with its lips tinged 
with the purple color. DaCosta imagines that the dying qualities of 
the periwinkle (Buccinum Lapillus, Linn.) were known to the an- . 
cient British, and quotes the authority of the venerable Bede, who 
lived (on the sea coast) in the early part of the eighth century.* 
Among the Greeks, Lycurgus ordered the Lacedemonians to clothe 
their soldiers with scarlet, [purple ;] the reason of which institution 
seems either to have been because this color is soonest imbibed by 
cloth, and most lasting and durable, or on the account of its bright- 
ness and splendor, which the lawgiver thought conducive to raise the 
men’s spirits, or lastly, because it was most proper to conceal the 
stains of blood. In war, a.purple garment was frequently placed on 
the end of a spear and used as a flag or signal. 
And though Jesus Christ was clothed in purple before his cruci- 
fixion, as a mark of derision, yet at this time it does not appear to 
have been either universally or necessarily worn by princes. Herod, 
when giving audience to the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon, is 
described as being dressed in ‘ royal apparel,” which was not pur- 
ple, but, as rachis tells us, was hice of silver.f 
* Sunt cochlee, satis laperébabinake. quibus tinctura coccinet coloris. confici- 
tur; cujus rubor pulcherrimus nullo unquam solis ardore, nulla valet pluviarum 
injuria pallescere, sed quo vetustior, eo solet esse venustior.” Bede, Hist. Eccles, 
éap. i. See Donovan’s British Shells, in loco B. Lapilius. Itis to be re- 
marked that Bede lived at Jarrow, about five miles from the mouth of the river 
Tyne, which there divides the counties of Durham and Northumberland, and the 
rocks on that coast at the present day abound with this shell: indeed, so plentiful 
are they, that it may almost be said that acres of rocks are hidden from sight by 
the clustering of the fish, intermixed with the Balanas elongatus, (Mont.) and 
young of the Mytilus edulis, and the supply is quite sufficient to haveserved for an 
extensive manafacture oft he dye. 
+ Potter’s A Greeca, 6th ed. vol. ii. p. 50. 
Eyvdvocpmevos *eo0nta Baciuxny. Acts ch xii. ver. 21. Zrodyy 
“evdvoauevos && re aenoinuervyvy ILAXAN. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. 
xviii. c. 8. § 2. 
