MEERSCHAUM. 85 
reservoirs, them allowed to remain at rest for soraae time. 
The mixture soon passes into a kind of fermentation, 
and a disagreeable odour, resembling that of rotten 
eggs, is exhaled. As soon as this smell ceases, the 
mass is further diluted with water, which, after a while, 
is poured off. Fresh water is repeatedly added, until the 
mass is sufficiently washed and -purified. The meers- 
chaum, in this state, is dried to a certain degree. It 
is then pressed into a brass mould, and, some days 
afterwards, is hollowed out so as to form the head of 
the pipe. It is subsequently dried in the shade, and 
lastly is baked. Jn this state the pipe heads are brought 
to Constantinople, where they are subjected to further 
processes. They are first boiled in milk, and next in 
linseed oil and wax ; and, when perfectly cool, are 
polished with rushes and leather. The boiling in oil 
and wax renders them capable of receiving a higher 
polish than could otherwise be given. When thus im- 
pregnated, they also acquire, by use, various shades of 
red ancUJbrown, which are thought to add considerably 
to their beauty. In Turkey, and even in Germany, 
meerschaum pipes that have been much used are more 
valued than those newly made, mid this solely on ac- 
count of the colouring they possess. Indeed there are 
people in those countries whose only employment con- 
sists in smoking tobacco pipes, until they acquire the 
favourite tints of colour. By long use, the heads be- 
come black; but if boiled in milk and soap, they are 
soon rendered white again. 
It is asserted that the Turks spread meerschaum on 
bread, and eat it as a medicine ; and that they cover 
\vith it the heads and eyes of dead bodies, previously 
to interment. As it lathers with water like soap, it is 
used by the Turkish women for washing their hair ; 
and, as it absorbs oily matters, it is occasionally used, 
as fuller's earth is with us, for the cleansing and scour- 
ing of cloth. 
We are informed;by Pliny, that a kind of bricks were 
made by the ancients, so light that, when dried, they 
