the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." (Exodus xxxix. 3.) From this passage it is evident that gold thread, or rather wire, was used in weaving, which thread or wire it also appears, was cut by the aid of a very ingenious contrivance invented by one Zurishaddai, a native of Sidon. We regret that in spite of our endeavours to obtain drawings, or description of this apparatus we have, as yet, been uccesful.

We also learn the important fact, that in the times to which we refor, cochineal was known, as well as the mordants, to give briltancy to the dye; for cochineal being a natural production of the Fast, it is unreasonable to suppose that its qualities were hidden from the ancients. According to Aristotle, the Chinese made use of it for ages before the Jewish dispensation (Ure's authority to the contrary notwithstanding.)

The cutting of gold into wire, to be woven into cloth, as before observed must have been effected by means of an astonkingly ingenious contrivance, (indeed, it must have been a very shaving machine) because we know from a sample of the cloth which we waw at Rome (in April 1831) that such wire was nearly as fine as No. 205, of our cotton yarn of the present day. While this curious specimen was being exhibited to us we asked the showman, if it. was an identical sample of Bezaleel and Aholiab's manufacture, when, with a sarcastic, sneer which we shall never forget, he pointed to his Holiness' certificate, affixed to it, remarking, that if hotetics wanted any further proofs of its genuineness, they might Mo to the himself and enquire!

Homer asserts that the delicate gold net made by Vulcan, the meshow of which were so fine that the gods themselves could not woo them, was forged by the Lemnian deity on his anvil. But this assition of Homer must be a visionary one, or else his godship understood the blacksmithing business much better than most of He polozena in the nineteenth century.

ng to the soul, indignant, through the skies
To his black forge vindictive Vulcan flies,
Arrived his sinewy arms incessant place
The eternal anvil on the massy base,
A wondrous net he labours, to betray
The wanton lovers as entwin'd they lay,
Indissolubly strong! Then instant bears
To his immortal dome the finish'd snares.

!

Above, below, around with art bespread

The sure enclosure folds the genial bed.

Whose texture e'en the search of gods deceives,
Thin as the filmy thread the spider weaves."

In the description given by Lucan, of the luxuries with which Cleopatra allured Julius Cæsar, it is asserted, that the Egyptians united embroidery with weaving, in the preparation of their richest, and most expensive fabrics:

"In glowing purple rich the coverings lie,

Twice had they drunk the noblest Tyrian dye,
Others, as Pharian artists, have the skill

To mix the party coloured web at will,

With winding trails of various silks were made,
Whose branching gold set off the rich brocade."
(Pharsalia X.)

We find that the finest kinds of Egyptian net or cross work makes a very near approach to the modern lace, (see cross weaving.) Indeed, whatever knowledge we possess of lace-making, in any shape, we are indebted for it to eastern genius, and which we think no one will be foolish enough to question, after consulting the proofs we have already given, or shall yet give in the course of this work. In the prophet's denunciation of Divine vengeance against the land of the Pharoahs, he particularly threatens the flax, net, and lace manufacturers: "Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that weave net-works shall be confounded." (Isaiah, xix. 9.)

The thin upper dresses worn by Egyptian ladies of noble descent, which were so delicate as to be called woven air, appear to have been lace of a very fine mesh, (being only 1-16th of an inch in diameter.) Such a dress was by the Hebrews called shebetz, and this word is the term by which Solomon describes the vesture worn by Pharoah's daughter: the 45th Psalm, though it has a secondary and more holy signification, being in its primary and literal sense a hymeneal ode on his marriage with that princess. "The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold; she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle-work, the virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee." (Psalm xlv. 13, 14.)

We have, after three years and five months of unceasing research, at last procured the above extraordinary specimen of net-work or lace, known to the ancients by the appellation of 'open-work,' and of which mention is so frequently made in the scriptures. Our drawing was made from a piece of cloth 2 yards in length, by 45 inches in breadth, which now forms part of the curious collection of his Highness Mehemet Ali, the present vice-roy of Egypt. We are assured by our friend, the British Consul at Cairo, that its genuineness is unquestionable, and as for the faithfulness of our representation, nothing more need be said, than that he copied it himself from the original, and that too upon exactly the same

scale.

The machinery used in the manufacture of this kind of lace must have been astonishingly complicated, for the threads are so miraculously linked, crossed, and twisted together, that we are really surprised that it could ever have been produced at all. There are two kinds of meshes in this sample, the smaller ones, which we have marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, surround one of the large kind, giving it the appearance of a honey comb. This net bears a close resemblance to the Grecian net, but it is on a miniature scale in comparison. In the Grecian, each large mesh is surrounded by ten small ones, so that there is a greater disproportion between the sizes of the meshes than in our specimen. There is little difference in other respects, however.

Through the instrumentality of our old friend, Alexis Kersivenus of Alexandria, we have also received another specimen of Egyp

tian net, of an entirely different stamp, and which will be described in the part of this work headed "lace manufacture."

The arts which flourished in Egypt previous to the Jewish dispensation, and in which the Pharoahs took so lively an interest, would undoubtedly have reached even a higher state of perfection than they did, had they been allowed to continue under such favourable circumstances; but after the subjugation of the nation by Cambyses, 525 years before our Saviour, the arts and sciences under a foreign yoke, disappeared, or rather ceased to be indigenous in Egypt. The Ptolemies, indeed, encouraged them; but under their reigns the arts were chiefly controlled by Grecians. The Egyptians had degenerated from the knowledge of their ancestors, whose hieroglyphics, they themselves no longer understood.

Among the modern Egyptians, but slight remains or traces of the ancient state of the art of weaving lace, or net-work, are now to be found.

The use of shebetz or net-work, for vests and petticoats, enables us to explain a passage in which several modern versions, including the English authorised version, have gone astray, by supposing that "a net" was used metaphorically for entanglement, and consequent pain. In the description which the young Amalekite gave David of the circumstances attending the death of Saul, he stated, "He said unto me again, stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me; for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me." (2 Sam. i. 9.) The phrase rendered "anguish is come upon me," literally signifies "this net-work has entangled me," clearly alluding to his coat of mail, which, as we see on the Egyptian monuments, was made of net-work, to the meshes of which, scales of metal about the size of a dollar were attached. This circumstance is sufficient proof that the literal interpretation is preferable to the figurative, especially as there is no instance of the word shebetz being used metaphorically in any other part of the Bible.

We shall conclude this part of our subject with Lucan's account of the excellence to which they attained in the preparation of articles of female dress. He thus describes the costume of Cleopatra, when she received Julius Cæsar:

። "Amidst the braidings of her flowing hair,
The spoils of Orient rocks and shells appear:
Like midnight stars, ten thousand diamonds deck

The comely rising of her graceful neck;

Of wondrous work a thin transparent lawn

O'er each soft breast in decency was drawn,

Where still by turns the parting threads withdrew,
And all the panting bosom rose to view.

Her robe, her every part, her air confess

The power of female skill exhausted in her dress."
(Pharsalia X.)

The Egyptians allowed greater privileges and luxuries to their wives than any other ancient nation. Nothing can exceed the splendour of their queens; thrones were constructed for their peculiar use; even barges, boats, and yawls seem to have been built especially for their service. When we see the magnificence surrounding the Egyptian queens, we can scarcely accuse Shakespeare of exaggeration in his description of Cleopatra's voyage down the Cnydus:

"The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne

Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that

The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggared all description; she did lie

In her pavilion (cloth of gold of tissue)
O'er picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys like smiling Cupids.
With diverse coloured fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

Her gentlewomen like the Nereides,

So many mermaids, tended her i'the eyes,
And made their bends adornings: at the helm
A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower soft hands
That yarely* frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs."

Many of the Egyptian painters display considerable talents for caricature in their representations of entertainments. There is one in the British Museum, in which the ladies at a party are depicted discussing the merits of their earrings, and the arrangement of their plaited hair, with an eagerness and rivalry which are highly characteristic. In one or two instances, the ungallant artists have exhibited ladies overcome with wine.

* Dexterously; skillfully; readily.