been universally worn. This kind of dress he calls calasiris. When the fringe was wanting, the border was hemmed, which had the same effect. of preventing the unravelling of the cloth. The Jews wore a similar kind of fringed dress, and Moses* commanded the children of Israel to "make them fringes in the borders of their garments, . . . and . . put upon the fringe of the borders a riband of blue."

Besides the process of making cloth, that of smoothing, or calendering, is represented in the paintings; which appears to have been done by means of wooden rods, passed to and fro over the surface; but from the appearance of some of the fine linen found in the tombs, we may conjecture that much greater pressure was sometimes used for this purpose, and such as could only be applied by a press, or cylinders of metal.

For smoothing linen after washing, a wooden substitute for what we call an iron was used by the Egyptian washerwomen, some of which have been found at Thebes, six inches in length, made of athul or tamarisk wood. t

I have had occasion to observe ‡ that the Egyptians had carpets, which, according to Diodorus §, were spread for the sacred animals, and are noticed by Homer, as a very early invention; they were of wool ¶, but of their quality we are unable to form

Vol. II. p. 201.

§ Diodor. i. 34.

Hom. Od. iv. 124., and called tapéta, the modern name of a carpet. f As in Homer, “ Ταπητα . . . μαλακού εριοιο,” loc. cit.

any opinion, the fragments discovered in the tombs being very imperfectly preserved. Some portions of woollen work have been found at Thebes, which presented the appearance of a carpet; and a small rug was lately brought to England, and is now in the possession of Mr. Hay, whose valuable collection of drawings from Thebes and other parts of Egypt, I have already noticed.

This rug is eleven inches long by nine broad. It is made like many carpets of the present day, with woollen threads on linen string. In the centre is the figure of a boy in white, with a goose above it, the hieroglyphic of "child," upon a green ground; around which is a border composed of red and blue lines; the remainder is a ground of yellow, with four white figures above and below, and one at each side, with blue outlines and red ornaments; and the outer border is made up of red, white, and blue lines, with a fancy device projecting from it, with a triangular summit, which extends entirely round the edge of the carpet. Its date is uncertain; but from the child, the combination of the colours, and the ornament of the border, I am inclined to think it really Egyptian.

I have also been informed by Lord Prudhoe, that in the Turin museum he met with "some specimens of worked worsted upon linen, in which the linen threads of the weft had been picked out, and the coloured worsted sewed on the warp."

ROPE-MAKING.

I have noticed the use of flax for making ropes, string, and various kinds of twine; for large ropes, however, of ordinary quality, and for common purposes, the leef or fibres of the date tree, were employed, as at the present day; and many specimens of these durable materials have been found in the excavations of Upper and Lower Egypt.

In a tomb at Thebes, of the time of Thothmes III., is represented the process of twisting thongs of leather, which, as it is probably the same as that adopted in rope-making, may be properly introduced here.

The ends of four thongs were inserted and fastened into a hollow tube, from the side of which a bar projected, surmounted by a heavy metal ball; and the man, who twisted them, held the tube in his right hand, whirling it round, as he walked backwards, by means of the impetus given by the ball. A band, attached to a ring at the other end of the tube, went round his body, in order to support it and give it a free action, and the ring turned upon a nut, to prevent the band itself from twisting.

At the other extremity of the walk, a man, seated on the ground, or on a low three-legged stool, let out the separate thongs, and kept them from becoming entangled. Behind him sat another, who, with the usual semicircular knife, cut the skin into

No. $59.

Part 1. Cutting and twisting thongs of leather.

a a skin hanging up in the shop, indicating the trade of leather cutter

b cutting thongs out of a circular piece of skin. d arranges the separate thongs, which are twisted by i, and when finished are bound together and hung up in the shop g h. k a weight, which gives a greater impetus to the tube / when thrown round. m cobbler, perforating the sole of a sandal to receive the thong.

we term the circular cut was known to the ancient Egyptians at this early period, and that they had already adopted this mode of obtaining the longest thongs from a single piece of leather.* When finished, the twisted thongs were wound round a hollow centre, through which the end was passed, and repeatedly bound over the concentric coils in the same manner as ropes.

Some, indeed, have supposed the present subject to represent rope-making; but the presence of the skin on the left, and the shoemakers on the right, forming a continuation of the picture, sufficiently prove that they are engaged in preparing leathern thongs for sandals, and other similar purposes.

Their nets were made of flax-string †, both for fishing and fowling; and portions of them have been discovered at Thebes, and are preserved in our European museums. The netting needles + were of wood, very like our own, split at each end, and between ten and eleven inches in length, and others were of bronze, with the point closed.

Sieves were often made of string, but some of an inferior quality, and, for coarse work, were constructed of small thin rushes or reeds (very similar to those used by the Egyptians for writing, and frequently found in the tablets of the scribes); a specimen of which kind of sieve is preserved in

*This calls to mind the fable of Dido's purchasing as much land in Africa, as could be covered by a bull's hide, upon which she built Byrsa, the origin of Carthage. Vir. Æn. i. 368.

+ Conf. Isaiah, xvii. 9. They that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks." Vide Plin. 19. 1., and suprà, p. 127.

Vide wood-cut, No. 358. figs. 1, 2.