145 
byssus, from Hebr. batss, has sometimes been supposed to 
indicate cotton ; but as Herodotus uses the word byssine 
sindon to indicate the mummy-cloth, and as sindon is 
supposed to be derived from Sindus or Indus, it has been 
inferred that this was cotton ; but microscopical obser- 
vations in every case have shown, that linen alone was used 
for mummy-cloth (v. Bauer, Ure, and nob. Illustr. p. 85), 
notwithstanding that the contrary is stated by Rosselini. 
But that cotton was known in Egypt at a very early 
period, we have the proofs, in Herodotus describing a coat 
of mail sent as a present by Amasis to the Samians, which 
was made of tree-wool : even in the present day, Indians 
wear cotton-padded coats, which are sword-proof. Nearchus, 
who visited India about a century later than Herodotus, and 
travelled in Egypt, has no one word to express the cotton 
dress of the Indians : he says that it is made of flax from 
trees (Mvoy tou ano tuv fcvtymv), (Egypt. Antiq. ii. p. 125.) 
But Arrian, the author of the Periplus, uses a word 
evidently derived from the Sanscrit karpasa ; Hindee, 
kapas. The Latin Carbasus, used for sails by Virgil and 
Cicero, fine clothes by Propertius, fine tent cloths by Pliny, 
pointed out to me by my learned colleague, the Rev. Professor 
Browne, seems also to be derived from this source. So, Car- 
pas, employed in the book of Esther, i. 6, is evidently the 
same word, which Scheuzhzer, in his " Physica Sacra, 11 
conjectured was cloth of Asbestos or Amianthus;* but a 
* The passage alluded to in Esther, is that of the description of the 
Court of the garden of the King's palace, where were white, green, and 
blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver 
rings and pillars of marble. It has been remarked, that cloth of 
amianthus could never have been got in sufficient quantities for these 
hangings ; while, to Dr. Taylor's opinion of its being calico, it has been 
objected, that it seems insufficient to answer the purpose of an awning, 
from the thinness of its texture. To this it may be replied, that tents made 
of it, of several folds, withstand all weathers. Hanging curtains made 
with 
U 
