164 DYEING 



dyed blue, and purple, and scarlet, and of sheepskins dyed red, circumstances which 

 indicate no small degree of tinctorial skill. He enjoins purple stuff for the works 

 of the Tabernacle and the vestments of the high priests. 



In the article CALICO-PRINTING it has boon shown, from Pliny, that the ancient 

 Egyptians cultivated the art of dyeing with some degree of scientific precision, since, 

 they knew the use of mordants, or those substances which, though they impart no 

 colour themselves, yet enable white robes (candida vela) to absorb colouring drugs 

 (colorcm sorbcntibus medicamentis). 



Tyre^ however, was the nation of antiquity which made dyeing one of its chief 

 occupations and a staple of its commerce, and it is asserted by all writers upon the 

 subject, that the invention of the celebrated purple dye, known as the Tyrian purple 

 was made in that city, and the king of Phoenicia, being so captivated with the 

 colour, it is stated that ho made it one of his principal ornaments, and it became 

 afterwards, and continued to be for many centuries, a badge of royalty. 



The discovery of the purple dye is said to have been made 1,500 years before the 

 Christian era. It must have met with a very early and general appreciation, and 

 rapid commercial progress, as we find that, nine years after the above date, the 

 Children of Israel, an enslaved people, on their leaving Egypt, had in their possession 

 large quantities of this dye ; it was extensively used by them, a short time after, 

 for the furniture of the tabernacle and the vestments of the priests ; and in after 

 years this dye was always named amongst the valuable spoils of war. That it was the 

 dress of royalty at a very early period, is indicated by the mention, amongst the 

 spoils of the Midians collected by the Israelites, of the purple garments worn by their 

 kings. 



_ The juice employed for communicating this dye was obtained from two different 

 kinds of shell-fish, described by Pliny under the names of Purpura and Buccinum ; 

 being extracted from a small vessel, or sac, in their throats, to the amount of only 

 one drop from each animal. A darker and inferior colour was also procured by 

 crushing the whole substance of the buccinum. A certain quantity of the juice col- 

 lected from a vast number of shells being treated with sea-salt, was allowed to 

 ripen for three days ; after which it was diluted with five times its bulk of water, 

 kept at a moderate heat for six days more, occasionally skimmed to separate the 

 animal membranes, and when thus clarified was applied directly as a dye to white 

 wool, previously prepared for this purpose by the action of lime-water, or of a species 

 of lichen called Fucus. Two operations were requisite to communicate the finest 

 Tyrian purple : the first consisted in plunging the wool into the juice of the purpura ; 

 the second, into that of the buccinum. Fifty drachms of wool required one hundred 

 of the former liquor, and two hundred of the latter. Sometimes a preliminary tint 

 was given with coccus, the ' kermes ' of the present day, and the cloth received merely 

 a finish from the precious animal juice. The colours, through probably not nearly 

 so brilliant as those producible by our cochineal, seem to have been very durable, for 

 Plutarch says, in his 'Life of Alexander' (chap. 36), that the Greeks found in the 

 treasury of the king of Persia a largo quantity of purple cloth, which was as beautiful 

 as at first, though it was 190 years old. ^ 



The quantity of purple, said to be found by Alexander in the treasury of tho king 

 of Persia, is differently stated : 1st, as amounting to 5,000 talents ; 2nd, as being 

 of the value of 5,000 talents ; 3rd, as weighing 5,000 quintals. Besides these dis- 

 crepant statements, it is not clear whether those values or weights refer to cloth dyed 

 or to the dye-drug, although it would be an important fact to know that the dye could 

 be thus preserved for a length of time. Horace celebrates the Laccnian dye in the 

 following lines : 



Nee Laconicas milii 



Trahunt honestas purpuras clienttc ; 



which have been translated as 



' No honourable lady dependents 

 Spin Laconian purple for my use.' 



Notwithstanding its almost universal use in more ancient times, it gradually de- 

 clined, so that, either from the difficulty of collecting the dye, or the tedious com- 

 plication of the dyeing process, so expensive was it that, about tho commencement 

 of the Christian era, one pound of the purple wool of Tyre cost, in Rome, about thirty 

 pounds of our money. 



Notwithstanding this enormous price, such was tho wealth accumulated in that 

 capital, that many of its leading citizens decorated themselves in purple attire, till th'< 

 emperors arrogated to themselves the privilege of wearing purple, and prohibited 

 its use to every other person. This prohibition operated so much to discourage this 

 curious art as eventually to occasion its extinction, first in the Western and then in tho 



