446 
flint's fatueal histoey. 
[Book IX, 
more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is 
in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin,^^ and 
every hundred amphorae ought to be boiled down to five hun- 
dred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat ; for 
which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, 
which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling, 
the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh, 
which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the tenth day, 
generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquified 
state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been 
cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial ; but until 
such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those 
preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that 
inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that which is 
of a blackish hue. The wool is left to lie in soak for five 
hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it 
has fully imbibed the colour. The juice of the buccinum 
is considered very inferior if employed by itself, as it is found 
to discharge its colour ; but when used in conjunction with 
that of the pelagise, it blends with it very well, gives a bright 
lustre to its colour, which is otherwise too dark, and imparts 
the shining crimson hue of the kermes-berry, a tint that is 
particularly valued. By the admixture of their respective 
virtues these colours are thus heightened or rendered sombre 
by the aid of one another. The proper proportions for mixing 
are, for fifty pounds of wool, two hundred pounds of juice of the 
buccinum and one hundred and eleven of juice of the pelagiae. 
93 Because iron or brazen vessels might impart a tinge to the colour. 
The same would probably be the case if the word plumbo " were to be 
considered as signifying "lead.'^ As, however, Pliny uses this word in 
the signification of tin," it is most probable that that is his meaning. 
Littre, however, translates the word *'plombe," "lead." 
9^ Hardouin says, that the weight of the contents of the amphora would 
be about eighty pounds : it would therefore take eight thousand pounds of 
material.to make five hundred pounds of dye. The passage, however, which 
runs as follows, " Fervere in plumbo, singulasque amphoras centenas ad 
quingentenas medicaminis libras eequari,^' may be rendered, " It is then 
set to boil in vessels of tin, and every hundred amphorse of water ought to 
b.e proportioned to five hundred pounds of the material indeed, this 
is probably the correct translation, though Littre, who is generally very 
exact, adopts that given in the text. 
AUigatur which word may also mean, that mixed with the buc- 
cinum, it will hold fast, and not speedily fade or wash out. 
