GRAND CAIRO. 
123 
of Mosaic paintijig were in a room opposite to chap. 
the great hall; and the objects so represented, ^^^• 
wece castles, houses, trees, gardens, fruit, 
flowers, and animals. Among the different 
substances used for this kind of work, we ob- 
served pieces of the shell called Mother of Pearl: 
this may be considered, perhaps, peculiar to 
the Mosaic of the age of Saladine; as it does not 
appear among the tesserated pavements of the 
Antients, nor in the Mosaic of St. Sophia. The 
materials of antient Mosaic generally consisted 
of small pieces of variously coloured glass: 
although, in some parts of St. Sophia, the tessercu 
are of marble of different hues. The curious 
art of painting in Mosaic existed in a very 
remote period. Several writers maintain that 
it was derived originally from Persia ' ; in proof 
of this, they cite the first chapter of the book 
of Esther, where it is said of the palace of 
Ahasuerus^, that "the beds were of gold and 
silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and 
white, and black marble." Pliny, however, 
attributes the invention to the Greeks \ Works 
(1) See Winkcbnann, Hist, de I'Art, torn. II. p. 157. Paris, An 2de 
la R^publique. 
(2) C. I. V. 6. 
(3) " Pavimenta originetn apud Graecos habent elaborate arte, 
pictura^ ratione, donee lithostrota expulSre earn." Plin. Hist. Nat. 
lib.\xxv\. r.2ru L.Bat. 1635. 
