BOOK XXXV. xL. 148-xLni. 151 



only fact recorded about her is that Autobulus was 

 her pupil. 



XLI. In early days there were two kinds of Encaustic. 

 encaustic painting, with wax and on ivory with a 

 graver or cestrum (that is a small pointed graver '^) ; 

 but later the practice came in of decorating battle- 

 ships. This added a third method, that of employing 

 a brush, when wax has been melted by fire ; this 

 process of painting ships is not spoilt by the action 

 of the sun nor by salt water or winds. 



XLII. In Egypt they also colour cloth by an Egyptim 

 exceptionally remarkable kind of process. They ''^^*"^- 

 first thoroughly rub white fabrics and then smear 

 them not with colours but with chemicals that 

 absorb colour. When this has been done, the 

 fabrics show no sign of the treatment, but after 

 being plunged into a cauldron of boiling dye they 

 are drawn out a moment later dyed. And the 

 remarkable thing is that although the cauldron 

 contains only one colour, it produces a series of 

 different colours in the f\ibric, the hue changing with 

 the quality of the chemical employed, and it cannot 

 afterwards be washed out. Thus the cauklron 

 which, if dyed fabrics were put into it, would un- 

 doubtedly blend the colours together, produces 

 several colours out of one, and dyes the material in 

 the process of being boiled ; and the dress fabrics 

 when submitted to heat become stronger for wear 

 than they would be if not so heated. 



XLIII. Enough and more than enough has now piastican. 

 been said about painting. It may be suitable to ^"^'^^. 

 append to these remarks something about the Butades anj 

 plastic art. It was through the service of that '^ 

 same earth ^ that modelling portraits from clay was 



371 



