128 EELIQTJLE AQU1TANKLE. 



first place, and M. J. Desnoyers, for enabling me to make this curious 

 reference*. 



We know, moreover, that certain oriental nations were renowned for various 

 kinds of needlework. Phrygia was said to produce the finest embroideries of 

 antiquity; and Babylon was celebrated for the magnificence of her tapestries t. 

 Thus also we find that in later times the Romans gave the name of "acus 

 Phrygia} "J to the embroidery -needle ; whilst a tapestry-needle was known to 

 them by the name of " acus Babylonis " or " acus Semiramia " || . 



The art of sewing must have been carried to great perfection by the Egyptians 

 also, if, at least, we may judge by the repairs made by hand in tissues of the 

 greatest delicacy. M. Prisse d'Avesnes has informed me of his having seen in an 

 ancient Egyptian shawl, comparable with modern shawls of Indian muslin, some 

 darnings that could only have been effected by means of an extremely fine needle. 



Figs. 48 a and 48 b. 



Ancient Egyptian Needles, drawn by II. Prisse d'Avesnes. 



The Egyptian Museum in the Louvre possesses a number of bronze sewing- 

 needles, of different shapes and sizes. Most of them are round or oblong at the 

 "eye" or perforated end. Those figured in Wilkinson's work 'On the Manners 

 and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,' 3rd edit. 1847, vol. iii. p. 384, woodcut, 

 no. 412, are rather thin and have an oblong head. These are from 3 to 3^ English 

 inches in length. The bronze needle found at Pompeii and figured in the Article 

 "Acus" of the 'Dictionary of Antiquities ' by Anthony Rich, is still thinner and 

 shorter ; it is scarcely 3 centimetres (about 1^ inch) long. 



Among the Romans the word Acus was used both for toilet-pins and for sewing- 

 needles. The Acus crinalis, or the hair-pin of the Roman ladies, was made 



* The idea of needles and their use in the time of Homer is associated also with a passage in the ' Iliad ' 

 (Book iii. lines 125, 126), where Helen is represented as being occupied in her palace with tapestry-work. 



Inruv v<f>auc>>, 

 uVXciKii itop<ljvi>ei<i>', TroXercs 2 treiraaaei aiOXovs, 



" ...... and she was weaving a huge web, a twofold purple [veil or mantle], and sprinkling in [t. e. em- 



broidering thereon] many contests." t Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. viii. 74. 



J Plin. 1. c. Martial, lib. xiv. epig. 150. || Ejusd. lib. viii. epig. 28. 



