FLAX. 3 



ment of Belzoni. In describing the great mummy- 

 pits at Gournou, on the site of ancient Thebes, 

 these gentlemen say, " Most of the bodies are 

 enveloped in linen, coated with gum, &c., for their 

 better preservation. Some of this linen is of a 

 texture remarkably fine, far surpassing what is made 

 in Egypt at this day, and proving that their ancient 

 manufactures must have arrived at a great degree of 

 excellence." In stating that most of the bodies were 

 wrapped in linen, they do not imply that the rest 

 were cased in cotton or any other cloth : on the 

 contrary, they were naked. " Many of the bodies, 

 probably of the lower orders, are simply dried, with- 

 out any envelopement." 



The great proficiency of the Egyptians in this 

 manufacture, at a very early period, is celebrated 

 by more than one writer of antiquity. Herodotus 

 (iii. 47) records, that in the temple of Minerva at 

 Lindus in Rhodes there was deposited a curiously 

 wrought linen corslet, which had belonged to Amasis, 

 king of Egypt, who lived about 600 years before 

 Christ. Each thread of the corslet was composed of 

 360 filaments, and it was ornamented with cotton 

 and gold. Some remains of this curiosity were still 

 to be seen in the time of Pliny, who relates that 

 those who beheld it, wishing to assure themselves of 

 the truth of the fact, had by degrees reduced it to 

 a very small relic. At the period in which Pliny 

 wrote, flax was well known and extensively culti- 

 vated, not only in Egypt, but in several parts of 

 Europe. It was in all probability known in Greece, 

 and even cultivated there, many ages before Pliny. 

 " A considerable quantity of flax," says Colonel 

 Leake, " is still grown, as in former ages, in the 

 plains of Achaia and Elis, for which the rivers fur- 

 nish the means of irrigation *." The Roman iiatu- 

 * Travels in the Morea, vol. ii. p. 166. 



