ROYAL COLOR. 179 



from each animal, it is not surprising- that it was so dear. 

 The Murex is still used, in a small way, for the purpose of 

 dyeing, in India and Armenia. Vast heaps of fragments of 

 shells have been foun4 at Tarentum, which are supposed to 

 be those from which the purple has been extracted, and 

 which would seem to indicate that place, as one where it was 

 prepared. 



MARY. 



How came the ancients to discover that these fish produced 

 a dye? 



MRS. F. 



Like most of their discoveries, they have assigned to it a 

 fabulous origin. 



FREDERICK. 



We should like, aunt, to hear it. 



MRS. F. 



They say that the dog of Hercules having stained its mouth 

 by eating the animal of a shell, which it picked up, on the 

 sea shore, Tyras was so struck with the beauty of the color, 

 that she declared she would not see Hercules, until he had 

 procured her a robe of that hue. Hercules therefore collected 

 all the shells which he could find, and dyed a garment of the 

 purple. According to this account, the discovery is placed 

 at about 1500 years before the birth of our Saviour; but there 

 are various fables attached to the discovery of this dye, some 

 assigning it to Phoenix, second king of Tyre, who lived about 

 B. c. 500; but all these accounts are, we must conclude, en- 

 veloped in fiction, though all concur in attributing to accident 

 the original discovery. In all ages purple has been a royal 

 color. Moses used purple stuffs for the furniture of the 

 tabernacle, and for the dress of ,the high priests. Many of 

 the pagans believed that the dye had a peculiar virtue, and 

 was capable of appeasing the wrath of their gods. The 

 Babylonians gave purple habits to their idols; the kings of 

 Phoenicia were always attired in purple; and the Roman em- 



