to fome particular method practifed formerly by the Egyp tians? The land of Egypt being no longer cultivated, and that for a long time with the fame care and industry it was in former ages, its fertility cannot have been the fame. Laftly, if we believe a celebrated naturalift, the earth is exhausted by length of time. It fhould not then be furprifing, that Egypt, which was one of the firft inhabited countries, fhould now be lefs fertile than heretofore. Befides, it is not the only country which has experienced fuch an alteration. If we believe Pliny, formerly in Lybia, the bushel of corn yielded one hundred and fifty for one. It must be, that things are strangely changed fince the time of this naturalift. At this time, according to the report of Shaw, a most exact relater, the bushel of wheat does not produce in that country above eight or twelve for one. He was told, indeed, that certain districts produce much more; but he affures us, at the fame time, that the crop never comes to an hundred fold P. Pliny adds, that they had fent to Auguftus à ftalk of wheat which came from Lybia, which bore more than four hundred blades, all coming from one grain, and fixed to the fame root. They fhewed one, almost the fame, to Nero. Shaw fays alfo, that he has seen at Algier a stalk of wheat which contained fourscore ears. He speaks of another which had produced one hundred and twenty ". But we must ob ferve, that there is great difference as to the produce, between one feed that grows alone, and thofe which come up all at once in a fown field. Experience teaches us, that. one feed alone, grows and produces an hundred times. more than thofe that are put together in a great quantity in the fame place. They then ftarve each other. The ears of which these authors fpeak, had probably grown in "Buffon, hift. nat. t. 1. p. 243. P Shaw's travels, t. 1. p. 283. & 286. L. 18. fect. 21. p. 111. a Plin. 1. 18. fect. 21. p. 111. f Journ. des fcav. ann. 1681. Janv. p. 11. ann. 1750. Aout. p. 538.; Spectacle de la nature, t. 2. p. 292.; Traité de la cult. des terres, par M. Duhamel, t. 2. p. 20. fome fome place where they were removed on all fides from other feeds or plants. But as this matter has ftill great difficulties, I fhall not undertake to pronounce on all these questions. I have laid open the facts as I found them in different authors. I leave the decifion to the judgment of the readers *. CHA P. II. Of Cloathing. F all the arts of which we have to speak in this fecond part, there are none which appear to have been more or better cultivated than thofe, which concern cloathing. We fee taste and magnificence fhine equally in the defcription Mofes gives of the habits of the high prieft and the vails of the tabernacle. The tiffue of all these works was of linen, goats hair, of wool, and of byf. fus. The richest colours, gold, embroidery, and precious ftones, united to embellish it. But let us enter on each particular. THE ARTICLE I. Of the colours employed in dying of fluffs. HE art of dying must have made a very rapid progrefs in the earliest times in fome countries. Mofes fpeaks of stuffs dyed fky-blue, purple, and double scarlet; he alfo speaks of the skins of fheep dyed orange and violet ". Thefe * I have often had occafion to difcourfe of the actual fertility of Egypt with a person of credit, who had refided many years, either at Alexandria, or Cairo he does not think that Egypt produces near so much as it is faid to have done formerly; the lands remaining uncultivated in the greatest part of the Upper Egypt, for want of inhabitants. On the byffus, fee part 1. book 2. chap. 2. "See Exod. c. 25. v. 4. & 5. different 1 My different colours require very elaborate preparations. design is not to enter into a particular detail of all the colours which may have been then in ufe, nor to examine the different operations they used in dying the stuffs. I fhall only speak of those which deferve a particular atten tion. I begin with purple, that colour fo valuable, and fo famous with the ancients. It was to chance alone, according to the tradition of all antiquity, that they owed the discovery of this beautiful colour. A fhepherd's dog, preffed by hunger, having broken a fhell on the fea-fhore, the blood which ran from it ftained the dog's mouth fuch a colour as ftruck the admiration of those that faw it. They endeavoured to apply it to ftuffs, and fucceded. There is fome variety among the authors in the circumstances of this event. Some place this discovery in the reign of Phoenix fecond King of Tyre, that is to fay, a little more than 500 years be fore Chrift*. Others, at the time that Minos the Firft reigned in Crete, about 1439 years before the Chriftian æra. But the greatest number agree to give the honour to the Tyrian Hercules of the invention of dying stuffs in purple. He gave his first trials to the King of Phoenicia. That prince, they fay, was fo jealous of the beauty of this new colour, that he forbade the ufe of it to all his fubjects; reserving it for Kings, and the prefumptive heir of the crown. Some authors bring love into the difcovery of purple. Hercules, fay they, being taken with the charms of a nymph called Tyros; his dog one day finding on the feafhore a fhell, broke it, and stained his mouth with purple. The nymph obferved it: charmed at fight with the beauty of the colour, fhe declared to her lover, that he would fee * Caffiodor. variar. 1. 1. ep. 2. p. 4.; Achill. Tat. de Clitophon. & Leucipp amor. 1. 2. p. 87., Palaephat. in chron. Pafchal. p. 43. C. y Palaephat. loco cit.; Cedren. p. 18. D. * Phoenix was fon of Agenor, and brother of Cadmus. Apollodor. 1. 3. ¥29. Cadmus came into Greece 1519 years before Christ. Autor. fupra, laudati. him no more till he brought her a fuit dyed the fame colour. Hercules thought of a way to fatisfy his mftrefs. He got together a great number of fhells, and fucceeded to ftain a robe the colour the nymph had demanded . Such are the different traditions the ancients give out of the origin of purple dye. We perceive very plainly that all these recitals are accompanied with fabulous episodes. I have nevertheless thought proper to relate them, as they may serve to fix the epoch of this difcovery *. I think we may place it about the times I have indicated. We fee that Mofes made a great use of purple stuffs †, as well for the habits of the high priest, as for the ornaments of the tabernacle. This is a proof that then the art of preparing purple was not abfolutely new; for there must have been fome time to bring this colour to its degree of perfection. They could not attain to that but after many essays and trials. The teftimony of Homer ferves ftill more to confirm the antiquity of this difcovery. This great poet, an exact obferver of cuftoms, gives purple ornaments to heroes who lived about the ages where I place the discovery of this dye. We might quote more teftimonies. с It is more easy to fix the epoch when they began first to Pollux, 1. 1. c. 4. p. 30. Bochart. Hieroz. part. 2. 1. 5. c. 11. explains very well this little novel, He fhews that in the Syriac the fame word fignifies a dog and a dyer, from whence the Greeks took occafion to say that it was a dog who had discovered purple * Palaephat, & Cedren, locis citat. were very ill informed when they said, that, before the discovery of purple, they were ignorant of dying. The contrary is proved by the Bible. See Gen. chap. 38. v. 27. It is not quite certain, according to M. Huet, that the word Argaman, of the Hebrew text which all the interpreters tranflate by purpura, means in reality that colour. This bishop obferves, that Argaman comes from Arag, textuit, and from Manah, praeparavit. It should follow, according to his opinion, that Argaman fhould fignify rather a fort of work and a tissue, not a colour. Rec. de Tilladet, t. 2. differt. 22. p. 255. & 256. But this reafoning ought not to deftroy the common tranflation, because the word Argaman is used in the Bible, as the word purpura with profane writers, to defign the robes of Kings. c Iliad.1. 6. v. 219. See Appollon. Rhol. Argon. 1. 1. v. 723. 1. 4. v. 424. & 425. VOL. II. N know know purple, than to give a clear and precife idea of the procedure of the ancients to give to their stuffs this fo much fought after colour. This is all that remains that one can depend upon on this fubject. The purple dye was drawn from many forts of fea-fhells *. The best were found near the ifle where new Tyre was built, They fifhed for them in other places of the Mediterranean. The coafts of Africa were famous for the purple of Getulia. The coafts of Europe fupplied the purple of Laconia which they had in great efteem. Pliny ranges in two claffes all the forts of teftaceous fish which ferved to dye purple; the buccinums, or trumpet-fish, and the fhells called purples, from the name of the colour they furnish. These laft were particularly fought after. They found, by the account of the ancients, in the throat of the fish, a white vein which contained a dark red colour. This was the ground of purple dye. All the reft of the fhell was ufelefs *. The effential point was to take thefe fishes alive; for the moment of their death they loft this precious liquor 1. They collected it carefully. After having left it to macerate in falt for three days, they mixed it with a certain quantity of water. They boiled the whole in a leaden pot over a flow and moderate fire for ten days. They afterwards put in the wool, being well washed, cleansed, and properly prepared At first they left it to foak for five hours; they then took it out, carded it, and put it again into the boil *Tis for this reason that the Latins called purple habits conchiliatae veftes. e Plin. 1. 9. fect. 62. p. 524. f Ibid. 1. 5. fect. 1. p. 242.1. 9. fect. 60. p. 524. & Ibid. fect. 63. p. 524. 525.; Paufan. 1. 3. c. 21. p. 294. I. 10. c. 37. p. 893. ; Horat. carmin. 1. 2. od. 18. v. 8. h 1. 9. fect. 61. p. 525. i Arift. hift. animal. I. 5. c. 15. p. 844.; Plin. 1. 9. fect. 65. p. 524., * Ariftotle and Pliny, locis cit.; Vitruv. 1. 7. c. 13. Aristotle and Pliny obferve, that it was only in the large fhells that they took the vein. As to the fmall ones, they crushed them with millftones. This purple was not in fuch efteem as the former. 1 lbid. locis cit.; Elian. de animal. 1. 7. c. I. M. de Juffieu, in a memoir which we fhall speak of below, obferves the fame thing with respect to the fish that furnishes the purple of Panama. Cicero philof. frag. t. 3. p. 42}. er |