INDIGO. 321 



burgh, and its great advantages over the usual pro- 

 cess were forcibly pointed out. The method of 

 obtaining" the colouring' matter, however, by boiling 

 the plant was by no means the invention of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, although that gentleman has the merit of in- 

 vestigating scientifically the peculiar nature and pro- 

 perties of indigo, and of adopting and recommend- 

 ing a treatment of it in accordance with his more 

 enlightened views on the subject. The Hindoos and 

 the Egyptians both pursue this apparently more 

 simple process. 



In Egypt the plants are dried previously to being 

 put into an earthen jar with hot water. They are 

 then worked with a palm branch, in the manner of 

 churning, until the whole of the colour is pressed out. 

 The liquid is next strained through the bark of a 

 tree into another jar. It is left there for eight or 

 nine days, during which time part of the water 

 escapes by trickling through a small aperture halfway 

 down the side of the containing vessel, leaving the 

 sediment at bottom. This residuum is afterwards 

 poured into a broad but very shallow hole formed in 

 the sand, which absorbs the remaining liquid and 

 leaves the indigo in solid cakes on the surface*. 



The Hindoo method at Ambore is somewhat simi- 

 lar, though more elaborate. The plants are first boiled 

 in earthen pots of about eighteen inches diameter, 

 disposed in the ground in excavated ranges, from 

 twenty to thirty feet long and one broad, according to 

 the number used. When the boiling has extracted 

 all the colouring matter ascertainable by the colour 

 exhibited, the extract is immediately poured into 

 another small jar fixed in the ground for its reception, 

 and is then filtered through a cloth, and laded by 

 means of small pots into a larger jar disposed in ad- 



* A Journey to two of the Oases in Upper Egypt, by Sir 

 Archibald Edtnonstone, Bart. 



