On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 237 



cloth of this color was so common as to be employed as tapestry, 

 and for the covering of furniture, by all the belter class of citizens. 

 He also remarks, that so great was its antiquity that the introduction 

 of it was unknown to him, and adds from the chronicles then extant, 

 that Romulus and his successors used it — which was perhaps only 

 the same as saying that the first invention of it could not be traced. 

 The Grecian tradition, but which of course was merely a fable, was 

 that Hercules Tyrius was the first discover of it, his dog by chance 

 having eaten the shell fish, and returned to him with its lips tinged 

 with the purple color. Da Costa imagines that the dying qualities of 

 the periwinkle (Buccinum Lapillus, Linn.) were known to the an- 

 cient British, and quotes the authority of the venerable Bede, who 

 lived (on the sea coast) in the early part of the eighth century.* 

 Among the Greeks, Lycurgus ordered the Lacedemonians to clothe 

 their soldiers with scarlet, \^purplef\ the reason of which institution 

 seems either to have been because this color is soonest imbibed by 

 cloth, and most lasting and durable, or on the account of its bright- 

 ness and splendor, which the lawgiver thought conducive to raise the 

 men's spirits, or lastly, because it was most proper to conceal the 

 stains of blood. In war, a purple garment was frequently placed on 

 the end of a spear and used as a flag or signal, j- 



And though Jesus Christ was clothed in purple before his cruci- 

 fixion, as a mark of derision, yet at this time it does not appear to 

 have been either universally or necessarily worn by princes. Herod, 

 when giving audience to the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon, is 

 described as being dressed in ^^ royal apparel,^^ which was not pur- 

 ple, but, as Josephus tells us, was wholly of silver. J 



* " Sunt cochlea:, satis siiperabundantes, quibus tinctura coccinei coluris conjici- 

 titr ; cujus rubor fulcherrirmos mdlo imqicam solis ardore, nulla valet pluviarum 

 injuria pallescere, sed qiio vetusiior, eo solet esse venustior." Bede, Hist. Eccles. 

 lib. i. cap. i. See Donovan's British Shells, in loco B. Lapillus. It is to be re- 

 marked that Bede lived at Jarrow, about five miles from the mouth of the river 

 Tyne, which there divides the counties of Durham and Northumberland, and the 

 rocks on that coast at the present day abound with this shell: indeed, so plentiful 

 are they, that it may almost be said that acres of rocks are hidden from sight by 

 the clustering of the fish, intermixed with the Balanas elongatus, (Mont.) and 

 young of the Mytilus edulis, and the supply is quite sufficient to have served for an 

 extensive manufacture of the dye. 



t Potter's Archaeologia Greeca, 6th ed. vol. ii. p. 50. 



^ Epdvaainevog 'saOyra ^uaihitrjv. Acts ch. xii. ver. 21. StoItjv 

 'evSvaa/ievo; £$ agyvQov Ttsrroniuevtjv UASAJV. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. 

 xviii. c. 8. § 2. 



