inch; the woof, or weft, only 44. The fineness of these materials, estimated after the manner of cotton yarn, was about thirty hanks in the pound.

and a third These have

"The subsequent examination of a great variety of mummy cloths showed, that the disparity between the warp and woof belonged to the system of manufacture, and that the warp generally had twice or thrice, and not seldom four times, the number of threads in an inch that the woof had: thus, a cloth containing 80 threads of warp in the inch, of a fineness of about 24 hanks in the pound, had 40 threads in the woof: another with 120 threads of warp, of 30 hanks, had 40; specimen only 30 threads in the woof. each respectively double, treble, and quadruple the number of threads in the warp that they have in the woof. This structure, so different from modern cloth, which has the proportions nearly equal, originated, probably, in the difficulty and tediousness of getting in the woof, when the shuttle was thrown by hand, which is the practice in India at the present day, and which there are weavers still living old enough to remember the universal practice in this country."

Mr. Thomson then mentions some fragments of mummy cloths, sent to England by the late Mr. Salt, which he saw in the British Museum. They were "of different degrees of fineness; some fringed at the ends, and some striped at the edges." "My first impression," he continues, on seeing these cloths, was, that the finest kinds

we learn from the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea,' ascribed to Arrian, but more probably the work of some Greek merchant himself engaged in the trade, that muslins from the Ganges were an article of export from India to the Arabian gulf: but this suspicion of their being cotton was soon removed by the microscope of Mr. Bauer, which showed that they were all, without exception, linen. Some were thin and transparent, and of very deliThe finest appeared to be made of yarns of near 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in the inch in the warp, and about 64 in the woof. A specimen of muslin in the museum of the East India House, the finest production of the Dacca loom, has only 100 threads in an inch in the warp, and 84 in the woof; but the surprising fineness of the yarns, which, though spun by hand, is not less than 250 hanks in the pound, gives to this fabric its unrivalled tenuity and lightness.

cate texture.

"Some of the cloths were fringed at the ends, and one, a sort of scarf, about four feet long, and twenty inches wide, was fringed at both ends. Three or four threads twisted together with the fingers to form a strong one, and two of these again twisted together, and knotted at the middle and at the end to prevent unravelling, formed the fringe, precisely like the silk shawls of the present day.

"The selvages of the Egyptian cloths are generally formed with the greatest care, and are well calculated by their strength to protect the cloth from accident. Fillets of strong cloth or tape also

secure the ends of the pieces from injury, showing a knowledge of all the little resources of modern manufacture. Several of the specimens, both of fine and coarse cloth, were bordered with blue stripes of various patterns, and in some alternating with narrow lines of another colour. The width of the patterns varied from half an inch to an inch and a quarter. In the latter were seven blue stripes, the broadest about half an inch wide nearest the selvage, followed by five very narrow ones, and terminated by one an eighth of an inch broad. Had this pattern, instead of being confined to the edge of the cloth, been repeated across its whole breadth, it would have formed a modern gingham, which we can scarcely doubt was one of the articles of Egyptian industry.

"A small pattern about half an inch broad formed the edging of one of the finest of these cloths, and was composed of a stripe of blue, alternating with three lines of a fawn colour, forming a simple and elegant border. These stripes were produced in the loom by coloured threads previously dyed in the yarn. The nature of the fawn colour I was unable to determine. It was too much degraded by age, and the quantity too small to enable me to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Though I had no doubt the colouring matter of the blue stripes was indigo, I subjected the cloth to the following examination. Boiled in water for some time, the colour did not yield in the least; nor was it at all affected by soap, nor by

far as not to destroy the cloth, had no action on the colour. Chloride of lime gradually reduced, and at last destroyed it. Strong nitric acid, dropped upon the blue, turned it orange, and in the same instant destroyed it. These tests prove the colouring matter of the stripes to be indigo.

"This dye was unknown to Herodotus, for he makes no mention of it. It was known to Pliny, who, though ignorant of its true nature, and the history of its production, has correctly described the most characteristic of its properties, the emission of a beautiful purple vapour when exposed to heat. Had his commentators been acquainted with the sublimation of indigo, it would have saved many learned doubts. We learn from the Periplus, that it was an article of export from Barbarike on the Indus, to Egpyt, where its employment by the manufacturers of that country, probably from a remote period, is clearly established by the speci mens here described."

I have a piece of cloth, brought from Thebes by Mr. Arundel, which offers a very good instance of the coloured border mentioned by Mr. Thomson. It is of ordinary quality, the number of threads in the inch are ninety-six in the warp, and thirty-four in the woof; and the border consists of one broad band and six narrow stripes, of a blue colour, evidently dyed with indigo; the band which is nearest the selvage is one inch and two tenths in breadth, the others consist each of two threads, in the direction of the warp, with the exception of the innermost one, which is of five threads; and

the dividing line between the fourth and fifth is varied by the introduction of a blue thread down the centre.* The rest of the cloth has the usual yellowish tinge, "supposed to arise from some astringent preparation employed for its preservation," which, according to Mr. Thomson, imparts to water a similar colour, but offers no trace of tannin. "In none of the specimens I have examined,” he adds, "did either gelatine or albumen, or solution of iron, afford any precipitate; but the subacetate of lead produced a cloud, indicating the presence of extractive matter."

It is evident that the colour was imparted to the threads previous to the cloth being made†, as the blue remains unaltered; and the cloths with broad coloured borders are the more curious, as they illustrate the representations in the paintings, and show that they were similar to those made by the looms used in the age of the Pharaohs of the 16th and 18th dynasties, which occur in the tombs at Eilethyas and Thebes; and it is curious to see the Nubians wearing shawls with the same blue borders, manufactured in the valley of the Nile, at the present day.

Another piece of linen, which I obtained at Thebes, has 152 threads in the warp, and 71 in the woof, to each inch; it is of a much darker hue than the cloth just mentioned, and was perhaps

* Vide woodcut, No. 350. fig. 4.

As was the case with the threads used by the Israelites, Exod. xxxv. 25. "And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and