2 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



this material from the Egyptians, and that they were 

 familiar with its use in very remote times. Hero- 

 dotus (ii.) says that linen was imported from Eg-ypt 

 to Greece. 



Subjects of such antiquity are necessarily enveloped 

 in much obscurity, so that controversies have at 

 times arisen even as to the meaning of many descrip- 

 tive terms used in ancient languages. We may 

 here state, that there exists no reasonable doubt 

 that linum or flax, such as we now cultivate, is the 

 identical material which the Egyptians produced in 

 such great abundance, and manufactured with so 

 much excellence. This fact has been proved by the 

 examination of many Egyptian mummies. The 

 most ancient of these which have been subjected 

 to recent inspection, are found to be encircled with 

 folds of linen cloth similar in material and in tex- 

 ture to that which we manufacture in the present 

 day. An account was inserted by Dr. Hadley, in 

 the 54th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 

 of the unwrapping of a mummy, on which, after 

 the removal of the outward painted cloth, nothing 

 appeared but linen fillets, of a fine quality, which 

 completely enclosed the whole body. The inde- 

 fatigable traveller, Belzoni, who carefully inspected a 

 great variety of these strange relics of antiquity, has 

 given us a similar account. " The Egyptians," he 

 says, " were certainly well acquainted with linen 

 manufactures equal to our own, for in many of their 

 figures we observe their garments quite transparent, 

 and among the foldings of the mummies I observed 

 some cloth quite as fine as our common muslin, very 

 strong, and of an even texture." 



Captains Irby arid Mangles, who in 1823 printed 

 for private distribution a volume containing their 

 researches in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor, 

 during the years 1817 and 1818, confirm the state- 



