of the Sacred Writings. 437 



rlus xxvii. and 42, with Exodus xxxix. and 28, we find that. 

 shesh may denote linen, strictly so called, from this whiteness 

 artificially acquired. 



The truth is, if we look to the Hebrew derivation, shesh is 

 capable of expressing any white substance ; and accordingly 

 it is sometimes used to express white marble, which, like other 

 kinds of marble, is susceptible of a fine polish. 



In the reign of James the Sixth, when the common transla- 

 tion of the Bible was printed, the term cotton was unknown, 

 and it was not introduced into the English language till about 

 the beginning of the last century, though the manufacture 

 of cotton, on a small scale, had been attempted during the 

 civil wars, but had failed for want of capital or encourage- 

 ment. 



If our translators knew the thing, in all probability they 

 thought they could not better express what is now called cot- 

 ton, than by using the phrase fine linen, a phrase which all 

 used in their day, and which, as we have seen, had descend- 

 ed to them from the Greeks and Romans, as well as the later 

 Jews. 



Cotton cloths are more suited to warm climates than those 

 of linen. After the finest manufacture of linen, the hardness 

 of the fibre in some sort remains, and, on that account, linen 

 cloths are very disagreeable when the body is under perspira- 

 tion, and even favour the attacks of disease; whereas those of 

 cotton guard the health, and in warm climates are, with great 

 propriety, worn next the skin. 



The Egyptians, for this or some other reason, seem to have 

 wrapped cotton cloths about the bodies of the dead, after em- 

 balming. " After washing the dead man," says Herodotus, 

 lib. ii. c. 86, " they enclose the whole body in a wrapper of 

 byssos, or cotton, with thongs of leather," &c. In the same 

 manner, Mr. Greaves, who witnessed the opening of a mummy. 

 has these words, (Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 519,) "These pic- 

 tures with the gorget, were tied on with brownish lengths of 

 cotton. Under these, the whole body had a covering of fine 

 linen ; I think of cotton." 



The practice of wrapping the dead body in robes of cotton, 

 I have no doubt, was transmitted from the Egyptians to the 

 Jews, and when we read in the Gospels that the crucified body 

 of Christ was wrapped in fine linen (shulon is the original 

 word), we will not be thought too rash in asserting that this 

 fine linen was cotton. 



