DYES. 



of this argument in the story told hy Herodotus of the admiration of 

 Darius for the scarlet cloak (x^avis -rrvppd amiculum rutilum, Latin 

 trans. scarlet cloak, Rawlinson's trans.) of Syloson the Samian, the 

 fiery colour of which was probahly derived from Kermes, and which 

 certainly would not have excited the cupidity of Darius, had the dye 

 of Tyre been red . 



They generally describe Kermes as a berry, and they have been sneered 

 at for this, but considering its ambiguous development, and that a modern 

 writer has from personal observation of the insect in Algeria expressly 

 described it as a berry, the sneer is supercilious. Coccus, also, besides being 

 used by them for berry generally, meant especially Kermes. Dioscorides 

 describes it under the name of KOKKOS /SCK^IKJ), and states that it was found 

 in Spain, Galatia, Armenia, Asia (Asia procon solaria), and Cilicia ; and in 

 Cilicia, he writes, the women gather the Kermes with their mouths, and 

 call it Coccus. Pliny in one place (lib. xvi. 12) describes it thus 

 " Grauum hoc, primoque ceu scabies fruticis, parvse aquifolise ilicis : 

 cusculinum vocant." Again (lib. ix. 65) " Coccum Galatise rubens 

 granum, ut dicemus in terrestribus, aut circa Erneritam Lusitanise, in 

 inagna laude est." Again (lib. xxii. 3) " Atque ut sileamus Galatiae, 

 Africae, Lusitaniee granis, coccurn imperatoriis dicatum paludamentis." 

 Again (lib. xxiv. 4) " Coccum ilicis vulneribus recentibus ex aceto im- 

 ponitur. * * * Est autem genus ex eo in Attica fere et Asia nascens, 

 celerrime in vermiculum se mutans, quod ideo solecion vocant." From 

 Pliny we learn that Kerrnes was obtained from Africa, Attica, and Lusi- 

 tania and it is found in all these countries, and in those mentioned by 

 Herodotus, and throughout the Levant, and in Persia at present. Beck- 

 mann states that it is indigenous also to India, but I find no confirmation 

 of the assertion. 



The Arabic name of the insect, and it has now passed to Cochineal, is 

 Kirmij ; and hence it is said vermeil, vermilion, and carmine are derived. 

 But Quer is the Celtic for Oak, whence Quercus, and Mes the Celtic for 

 Acorn, and hence, perhaps as Beckmann insinuates, Kermes i. e. Oak- 

 berry. It is significant at least that the Arabs received both the dye and its 

 name from Armenia, and that the latter only became common in Europe 

 on the subjugation of Spain by the Moors. Vermilion is undoubtedly 

 the same as the Latin vermiculum, and the last passage quoted from Pliny 

 indicates how that word came to signify scarlet. Vermiculum in fact in 

 the middle ages signified Kermes, " and on that account cloth dyed with 

 them was called vermiculata." The French term vermilion also originally 

 signified Kermes, and from them was subsequently traversed to Red Sul- 

 phuret of Mercury or Cinnabar, a pigment known from the earliest times, 

 it being mentioned by Jeremiah in his picture of a house " ceiled with cedar 

 and painted with vermilion ;" and by Ezekiel, when referring to the carvings 

 of " men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans por- 

 trayed with vermilion," and which portraitures, in carving and in paint, 

 have survived to these times. 



Thus the word Kermes itself is used to designate Red Antimony, and 

 plants with red flowers, as Passifora kermesina, L. K. et Otto. Coccus, 

 303 



