180 HYACINTHINE CURLS. 



perors took to themselves the exclusive privilege of wearing; 

 this color, by an imperial decree, by which its use was re- 

 stricted, under pain of death, to the emperor. Hence the 

 expression of " assuming the purple" became synonymous 

 with that of ascending- the throne. The emperors appointed 

 officers to superintend the Phoenician manufactures, and a 

 pound of Tyrian dye sold, in the reign of Augustus, for a 

 sum ahnost equal to 361. of our present money. 



MARY. 

 What a beautiful rich color it must have been. 



It was undoubtedly the finest then known; but, after all, 

 the best colors that could be made by the ancients, were but 

 poor and dingy, compared with those which the moderns, by 

 the assistance of chemistry, are able to produce. Pliny 

 says that the Tyrian purple resembled in color congealed 

 blood. 



FREDERICK. 



Then that is the reason why Homer and other poets talk 

 so much of purple blood an expression which I could never 

 understand, any more than I can that of " hyacinthine locks;" 

 for no hyacinth is the color of the human hair. 



MRS. F. 



According to Lord Byron, the term is common enough 

 among the Eastern, as well as the Greek poets; but the ex- 

 pression is not, as you imagine, derived from the color of the 

 flower, but from the form of its petals, which are curled out- 

 wards, and may be thought to bear some fancied resemblance 

 to the curls of the hair. 



HENRIETTA. 



Thank you, aunt, I am sure that we never should have 

 thought of such an explanation. 



ESTHER. 



Pray, mamma, is not the red Martagon Lily supposed by 

 many to have been the hyacinth of ancient mythology 1 ? 



