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The fame of an actor has been justly said to be of all fame the most perishable, because he leaves no memorial of his powers, except in the fading memories of the generation which has beheld him. An analogous proposition might be made with respect to the mechanical arts: of all sorts of knowledge they are the most perishable, because the knowledge of them can not be transmitted by mere description. Let any great convulsion of nature put an end to their practice for a generation or two, and though the scientific part of them may be preserved in books, the skill in manipulation, acquired by a long series of improvements, is lost. If the United States be destined to relapse into such a state of barbarism as Italy passed through in the period which divides ancient and modern history, its inhabitants a thousand years hence will know little more of the manual process of printing, dyeing, and the other arts which minister to our daily comfort, in spite of all the books which have been and shall be written, than we know of the manual processes of ancient Italy. We reckon, therefore, among the most interesting discoveries of Pompeii, those which relate to the manner of conducting handicrafts, of which it is not too much to say that we know nothing except through this medium. It is to be regretted, that as far as our information goes, there are but two trades on which any light has yet been thrown, those, namely, of the baker and the dyer. We shall devote this chapter to collecting what is known upon these subjects, and probably also speak some on painting.
Several bakers' shops have been found, all in a tolerable state of preservation. The mills, the oven, the kneading-troughs, the vessels for containing flour, water, leaven, have all been discovered, and seem to leave nothing wanting to our knowledge; in some of the vessels the very flour remained, still capable of being identified, though reduced almost to a cinder. But in the centre some lumps of whitish matter resembling chalk remained, which, when wetted and placed on a red-hot iron, gave out the peculiar color which flour thus treated emits. Even the very bread, in a perfect though carbonized form, has in some instances been found in the oven. One of these bakers' shops was attached to the House of Sallust, another to the House of Pansa: probably they were worth a handsome rent. A third, which we select for description, for one will serve perfectly as a type for the whole, seems to have belonged to a man of higher class, a sort of capitalist; for, instead of renting a mere dependency of another man's house, he lived in a tolerably good house of his own, of which the bakery forms a part. It stands next to the House of Sallust, on the south side, being divided from it only by a narrow street. Its front is in the main street or Via Consularis, leading from the gate of Herculaneum to the Forum. Entering by a small vestibule, the visitor finds himself in a tetrastyle atrium (a thing not common at Pompeii), of ample dimensions, considering the character of the house, being about thirty-six feet by thirty. The pillars which supported the ceiling are square and solid, and their size, combined with indications observed in a fragment of the entablature, led Mazois to suppose that, instead of a roof, they had been surmounted by a terrace. The impluvium is marble. At the end of the atrium is what would be called a tablinum in the house of a man of family, through which we enter the bake-house, which is at the back of the house, and opens into the smaller street, which, diverging from the main street at the fountain by Pansa's house, runs up straight to the city walls. The atrium is surrounded by different apartments, offering abundant accommodation, but such as we need not stop to describe.
MILL AND BAKERY AT POMPEII.MILL AND BAKERY AT POMPEII.ToList
MILL AND BAKERY AT POMPEII.ToList
The work-room is about thirty-three feet long by twenty-six. The centre is occupied by four stone mills, exactly like those found in the other two stores, for all the bakers ground their own flour. To give more room they are placed diagonally, so as to form, not a square, but a lozenge. Mazois was present at the excavation of this house, and saw the mills at the moment of their discovery, when the iron-work, though entirely rust-eaten, was yet perfect enough to explain satisfactorily the method of construction. This will be best understood from the following representation, one half of which is an elevation, the other half a section. The cut on page 365 gives some idea of them.
The base is a cylindrical stone, about five feet in diameter and two feet high. Upon this, forming part of the same block, or else firmly fixed into it, is a conical projection about two feet high, the sides slightly curving inwards. Upon this there rests another block, externally resembling a dice-box, internally an hour-glass, being shaped into two hollow cones with their vertices towards each other, the lower one fitting the conical surface on which it rests, though not with any degree of accuracy. To diminish friction, however, a strong iron pivot was inserted in the top of the solid cone, and a corresponding socket let into the narrow part of the hour-glass. Four holes were cut through the stone parallel to this pivot. The narrow part was hooped on the outside with iron, into which wooden bars were inserted, by means of which the upper stone was turned upon its pivot, by the labor of men or asses. The upper hollow cone served as a hopper, and was filled with corn, which fell by degrees through the four holes upon the solid cone, and was reduced to powder by friction between the two rough surfaces. Of course it worked its way to the bottom by degrees, and fell out on the cylindrical base, round which a channel was cut to facilitate the collection.These machines are about six feet high in the whole, made of a rough gray volcanic stone, full of large crystals of leucite. Thus rude, in a period of high refinement and luxury, was one of the commonest and most necessary machines—thus careless were the Romans of the amount of labor wasted in preparing an article of daily and universal consumption. This, probably, arose in chief from the employment of slaves, the hardness of whose task was little cared for; while the profit and encouragement to enterprise on the part of the professional baker was proportionately diminished, since every family of wealth probably prepared its bread at home. But the same inattention to the useful arts runs through everything that they did. Their skill in working metals was equal to ours; nothing can be more beautiful than the execution of tripods, lamps, and vases, nothing coarser than their locks; while at the same time the door-handles, bolts, etc., which were seen, are often exquisitely wrought. To what cause can this sluggishness be referred? At present we see that a material improvement in any article, though so trifling as a corkscrew or pencil-case, is pretty sure to make the fortune of some man, though unfortunately that man is very often not the inventor. Had the encouragement to industry been the same, the result would have been the same. Articles of luxury were in high request, and of them the supply was first-rate. But the demands of a luxurious nobility would never have repaid any man for devoting his attention to the improvement of mills or perfecting smith's work, and there was little general commerce to set ingenuity at work. Italy imported largely both agricultural produce and manufactures in the shape of tribute from a conquered world, and probably exported part of her peculiar productions; but we are not aware that there is any ground for supposing that she manufactured goods for exportation to any extent.
Originally mills were turned by hand, (many establishments may still be seen in the streets of Naples for grinding corn bymeans of a hand-mill, turned by a man. Such flour-shops have always a picture of the Madonna inside,) and this severe labor seems, in all half-savage times, to have been conducted by women. It was so in Egypt; it was so in Greece in the time of Homer, who employs fifty females in the house of Alcinous upon this service. It was so in Palestine in the time of the Evangelists, and in England in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. We find a passage of St. Matthew thus rendered by Wicliffe: "Two wymmen schulen (shall) be grinding in one querne," or hand-mill; and Harrison the historian, two centuries later, says that his wife ground her malt at home upon her quern. Among the Romans poor freemen used sometimes to hire themselves out to the service of the mill when all other resources failed; and Plautus is said to have done so, being reduced to the extreme of poverty, and to have composed his comedies while thus employed. This labor, however, fell chiefly upon slaves, and is represented as being the severest drudgery which they had to undergo. Those who had been guilty of any offense were sent to the mill as a punishment, and sometimes forced to work in chains. Asses, however, were used by those who could afford it. That useful animal seems to have been employed in the establishment we are describing, for the fragment of a jaw-bone, with several teeth in it, was found in a room which seems to have been the stable; and the floor about the mill is paved with rough pieces of stone, while in the rest of the rooms it is made of stucco or compost. The use of water-mills, however, was not unknown to the Romans. Vitruvius describes their construction in terms not inapplicable to the mechanism of a common mill of the present day, and other ancient authors refer to them. "Set not your hands to the mill, O women that turn the millstone! sleep sound though the cock's crow announce the dawn, for Ceres has charged the nymphs with the labors which employed your arms. These, dashing from the summit of a wheel, makeits axle revolve, which, by the help of moving radii, sets in action the weight of four hollow mills. We taste anew the life of the first men, since we have learnt to enjoy, without fatigue, the produce of Ceres."
In the centre of the pier, at the back, is the aperture to the cistern by which the water used in making bread was supplied. On each side are vessels to hold the water. On the pier above is a painting, divided horizontally into two compartments. The figures in the upper ones are said to represent the worship of the goddess Fornax, the goddess of the oven, which seems to have been deified solely for the advantages which it possessed over the old method of baking on the hearth. Below, two guardian serpents roll towards an altar crowned with a fruit very much like a pine-apple; while above, two little birds are in chase of large flies. These birds, thus placed in a symbolical picture, may be considered, in perfect accordance with the spirit of ancient mythology, as emblems of the genii of the place, employed in driving those troublesome insects from the bread.
The oven is on the left. It is made with considerable attention to economy of heat. The real oven is enclosed in a sort of ante-oven, which had an aperture in the top for the smoke to escape. The hole in the side is for the introduction of dough, which was prepared in the adjoining room, and deposited through that hole upon the shovel with which the man in front placed it in the oven. The bread, when baked, was conveyed to cool in a room the other side of the oven, by a similar aperture. Beneath the oven is an ash-pit. To the right is a large room which is conjectured to have been a stable. The jaw-bone above mentioned and some other fragments of a skeleton were found in it. There is a reservoir for water at the further end, which passes through the wall, and is common both to this room and the next, so that it could be filled without going into the stable. The further room is fitted up with stone basins, which seem tohave been the kneading-troughs. It contains also a narrow and inconvenient staircase.
Though corn-bread formed the principal article of nourishment among the Italians, the use of bread itself was not of early date. For a long time the Romans used their corn sodden into pap, and there were no bakers in Rome antecedent to the war against Perseus, king of Macedonia, about B.C. 580. Before this every house made its own bread, and this was the task of the women, except in great houses, where there were men-cooks. And even after the invention of bread it was long before the use of mills was known, but the grain was bruised in mortars. Hence the namespistorandpistrinum, a baker and baker's shop, which are derived frompinsere, to pound. The oven also was of late introduction, as we have hinted in speaking of the goddess Fornax, nor did it ever come into exclusive use. We hear of bread baked under the ashes; baked in the bread-pan, which was probably of the nature of a Dutch oven; and other sorts, named either from the nature of their preparation or the purpose to which they were to be applied. The finest sort was calledsiligineus, and was prepared from the best and whitest sort of wheaten flour. A bushel of the best wheat of Campania, which was of the first quality, containing sixteen sextarii, yielded four sextarii of siligo, here seemingly used for the finest flour; half a bushel offlos, bolted flour; four sextarii ofcibarium, seconds; and four sextarii of bran; thus giving an excess of four sextarii. Their loaves appear to have been very often baked in moulds, several of which have been found; these may possibly be artoptæ, and the loaves thus baked, artopticii. Several of these loaves have been found entire. They are flat, and about eight inches in diameter. One in the Neapolitan Museum has a stamp on the top:—
SILIGO · CRANIIE · CICER
This has been interpreted to mean that cicer (vetch) was mixed with the flour. We know from Pliny that the Romans used several sorts of grain. The cut below gives an idea of their form.
BREAD DISCOVERED IN POMPEIIBREAD DISCOVERED IN POMPEIIToList
BREAD DISCOVERED IN POMPEIIToList
In front of the house, one on each side the doorway, there are two shops. Neither of these has any communication with the house; it is inferred, therefore, that they were let out to others, like the shops belonging to more distinguished persons. This supposition is the more probable because none of the bakeries found have shops attached to them, and there is a painting in the grand work on Herculaneum, Le Pitture d'Ercolano, which represents a bread-seller established in the Forum, with his goods on a little table in the open air.
There is only one trade, so far as we are aware, with respect to the practices of which any knowledge has been gained from the excavations at Pompeii—that of fulling and scouring cloth. This art, owing to the difference of ancient and modern habits, was of much greater importance formerly than it now is. Wool was almost the only material used for dresses in the earlier times of Rome, silk being unknown till a late period, and linen garments being very little used. Woolen dresses, however, especially in the hot climate of Italy, must often have required a thorough purification, and on the manner in which this was done of course their beauty very much depended. And since the toga, the chief article of Roman costume, was woven in one piece, and was of course expensive, to make it lookand wear as well as possible was very necessary to persons of small fortune. The method pursued has been described by Pliny and others, and is well illustrated in some paintings found upon the wall of a building, which evidently was afullonica, or scouring-house. The building in question is entered from the Street of Mercury, and is situated in the same island as the House of the Tragic Poet.
The first operation was that of washing, which was done with water mixed with some detergent clay, or fuller's earth; soap does not appear to have been used. This was done in vats, where the clothes were trodden and well worked by the feet of the scourer. The painting on the walls of the Fullonica represents four persons thus employed. Their dress is tucked up, leaving their legs bare; it consists of two tunics, the under one being yellow and the upper green. Three of them seem to have done their work, and to be wringing the articles on which they have been employed; the other, his hands resting on the wall on each side, is jumping, and busily working about the contents of his vat. When dry, the cloth was brushed and carded, to raise the nap—at first with metal cards, afterwards with thistles. A plant called teazle is now largely cultivated in England for the same purpose. The cloth was then fumigated with sulphur, and bleached in the sun by throwing water repeatedly upon it while spread out on gratings. In the painting the workman is represented as brushing or carding a tunic suspended over a rope. Another man carries a frame and pot, meant probably for fumigation and bleaching; the pot containing live coals and sulphur, and being placed under the frame, so that the cloths spread upon the latter would be fully exposed to the action of the pent-up vapor. The person who carries these things wears something on his head, which is said to be an olive garland. If so, that, and the owl sitting upon the frame, probably indicate that the establishment was under the patronage of Minerva, the tutelarygoddess of the loom. Another is a female examining the work which a young girl has done upon a piece of yellow cloth. A golden net upon her head, and a necklace and bracelets, denote a person of higher rank than one of the mere workpeople of the establishment; it probably is either the mistress herself, or a customer inquiring into the quality of the work which has been done for her.
These pictures, with others illustrative of the various processes of the art, were found upon a pier in the peristyle of the Fullonica. Among them we may mention one that represents a press, similar in construction to those now in use, except that there is an unusual distance between the threads of the screw. The ancients, therefore, were acquainted with the practical application of this mechanical power. In another is to be seen a youth delivering some pieces of cloth to a female, to whom, perhaps, the task of ticketing, and preserving distinct the different property of different persons, was allotted. It is rather a curious proof of the importance attached to this trade, that the due regulation of it was a subject thought not unworthy of legislative enactments. B.C. 354, the censors laid down rules for regulating the manner of washing dresses, and we learn from the digests of the Roman law that scourers were compelled to use the greatest care not to lose or to confound property. Another female, seated on a stool, seems occupied in cleaning one of the cards. Both of the figures last described wear green tunics; the first of them has a yellow under-tunic, the latter a white one. The resemblance in colors between these dresses and those of the male fullers above described may perhaps warrant a conjecture that there was some kind of livery or described dress belonging to the establishment, or else the contents of the painter's color-box must have been very limited.
The whole pier on which these paintings were found has been removed to the museum at Naples. In the peristyle was alarge earthenware jar, which had been broken across the middle and the pieces then sewed carefully and laboriously together with wire. The value of these vessels, therefore, can not have been very small, though they were made of the most common clay. At the eastern end of the peristyle there was a pretty fountain, with a jet d'eau. The western end is occupied by four large vats in masonry, lined with stucco, about seven feet deep, which seem to have received the water in succession, one from another.
Dyeing and painting in ancient times was rather more perfect than at present, at least the colors were stronger and more durable. The Egyptians had the most durable colors. The Henna is a plant which is abundant in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, and was used by the ancients, as it is by the moderns, for dyeing. The leaves were dried and pulverized, and then made into a paste. It is a powerful astringent dye, and is applied to desiccate and dye the palms of the hands and soles of the feet and nails of both, and gives a sort of dun or rust color to animal tissues, which is very permanent.
It is stated that when sal-ammoniac and lime were put upon the colored parts they changed to a dark greenish-blue color, and passed on to black, probably from the sal-ammoniac containing iron which would give this result.
The Tyrian ladies dyed rings and stars upon their persons. Men gave a black dye to the hair of their heads and beards. The dyeing of the nails with henna is a very ancient custom. Some of the old Egyptian mummies are so dyed. It is supposed that the Jewish women also followed this custom. Reference is made to it in Deuteronomy, where the newly-married wife is desired to stain her nails. Also, in the Song of Solomon,Camphire, in the authorized version, is said to mean henna, which has finely-scented flowers growing in bunches, and the leaves of the plant are used by women to impart a reddish stain to their nails.
Speaking of the Arabian women at the present day, Dr. Thomson, in "The Land and the Book," says: "They paint their cheeks, putting tahl around their eyes, arching their eyebrows with the same, and stain their hands and feet with henna thus to deck themselves, and should an unmarried woman do so, an impression is conveyed highly injurious to the girl's character."
Gallsare named among the substances known to the ancients, but we can not find whether they were used as a dyeing agent. Wilkinson says that tanning was in Egypt a subdivision of dyeing, and it is mentioned that copperas with galls dyed leather black; and there can be little doubt that galls were used for a similar purpose in ordinary dyeing. TheMyrobollansand several sorts of barks and pods of theAcacia niloticawere also used for tanning, from their astringent properties, and may have been similarly used for dyeing.
These are a few of the principal coloring matters used by dyers in ancient times. There is a little confusion with respect to some of the salts mentioned as having been used by them, especially the alkaline salts—a circumstance, however, not to be wondered at. In more modern times there is a similar confusion on this same head.
When nitre, for instance, is burned with carbonaceous matter, the product is carbonate of potash. The ashes left by burning wood contain the same salt. The ashes left by burning sea-weed produce carbonate of soda. When nitre is burned with sulphur, the product is sulphate of potash, etc. These have all been called generically, even in modern times, nitre, having each a certain prefix well understood by the adept, or chemist, of the day.
We think it probable that all these processes for making the different salts were practiced in ancient times, but now having only the generic namenitregiven us by historians, we can not understand exactly when nitre is mentioned which of the nitres is meant.
When Solomon speaks of the action of vinegar upon nitre, the chemist understands that the salt referred to is a carbonate, but when the nature of the action or application is not given, we have no idea what particular salt is meant. There is no doubt, however, that the ancients were well acquainted with the alkaline salts of potash and soda, and applied them in the arts. The metallic salts of iron, copper, and alumina were well known, and their application to dyeing was generally the same as at the present day. That they were used both as mordants and alterants is evident from several references.
A very suggestive statement is made by Pliny about the ancient Egyptians. "They began," says he, "by painting or drawing on white cloths with certain drugs, which in themselves possessed no color, but had the property of attracting or absorbing coloring matter, after which these cloths were immersed in a heated dyeing liquor; and although they were colorless before, and although this dyeing liquor was of one equable and uniform color, yet when taken out of it soon afterwards, the cloth was found to be wonderfully tinged of different colors according to the peculiar nature of the several drugs which had been applied to their respective parts, and these colors could not be afterwards discharged by washing."
Herodotus states that certain people who lived near the Caspian Sea could, by means of leaves of trees which they bruised and steeped in water, form on cloth the figures of animals, flowers, etc., which were as lasting as the cloth itself. This statement is more suggestive than instructive.
Persia was much famed for dyeing at a very early period, and dyeing is still held in great esteem in that country. Persian dyers have chosen Christ as their patron; and Bischoff says that they at present call a dye-house Christ's workshop, from a tradition they have that He was of that profession. They have a legend, probably founded upon what Pliny tells of the Egyptiandyers, "that Christ being put apprentice to a dyer, His master desired Him to dye some pieces of cloth of different colors; He put them all into a boiler, and when the dyer took them out he was terribly frightened on finding that each had its proper color."
This or a similar legend occurs in the apocryphal book entitled "The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ." The following is the passage:
"On a certain day also, when the Lord Jesus was playing with the boys, and running about, He passed by a dyer's shop whose name was Salem, and there were in his shop many pieces of cloth belonging to the people of that city, which they designed to dye of several colors. Then the Lord Jesus, going into the dyer's shop, took all the cloths and threw them into the furnace. When Salem came home and saw the cloth spoiled, he began to make a great noise and to chide the Lord Jesus, saying: "What hast Thou done unto me, O thou son of Mary? Thou hast injured both me and my neighbors; they all desired their cloths of a proper color, but Thou hast come and spoiled them all." The Lord Jesus replied: "I will change the color of every cloth to what color thou desirest," and then He presently began to take the cloths out of the furnace; and they were all dyed of those same colors which the dyer desired. And when the Jews saw this surprising miracle they praised God."
"On a certain day also, when the Lord Jesus was playing with the boys, and running about, He passed by a dyer's shop whose name was Salem, and there were in his shop many pieces of cloth belonging to the people of that city, which they designed to dye of several colors. Then the Lord Jesus, going into the dyer's shop, took all the cloths and threw them into the furnace. When Salem came home and saw the cloth spoiled, he began to make a great noise and to chide the Lord Jesus, saying: "What hast Thou done unto me, O thou son of Mary? Thou hast injured both me and my neighbors; they all desired their cloths of a proper color, but Thou hast come and spoiled them all." The Lord Jesus replied: "I will change the color of every cloth to what color thou desirest," and then He presently began to take the cloths out of the furnace; and they were all dyed of those same colors which the dyer desired. And when the Jews saw this surprising miracle they praised God."
Tin.—We have no positive evidence as to whether the ancients used oxide, or the salts of tin, in their dyeing operations. A modern dyer could hardly produce permanent tints with some of the dye drugs named without tin salts. We know that the ancients used the oxides of tin for glazing pottery and painting; they may therefore have used salts of tin in their dyeing operations. However, they had another salt—sulphate of alumina—which produces similar results, although the moderns in most cases prefer tin, as it makes a more brilliant and permanent tint.
Alum.—This is what is termed a double salt, and is composed of sulphate of alumina and sulphate of potash. The process of manufacturing it in this country is by subjecting clay slate containing iron pyrites to a calcination, when the sulphur with the iron is oxidized, becoming sulphuric acid, which, combining with the alumina of the clay, and also with the iron, becomes sulphate of alumina and iron; to this is added a salt ofpotash, which, combining with the sulphate of alumina, forms the double salt alum. Soda or ammonia may be substituted for potash with similar results; the alum is crystallized from the solution. That the ancients were acquainted with this double salt has been disputed, but we think there can be no doubt of its existence and use at a very early period. A very pure alum is produced in volcanic districts by the action of sulphurous acid and oxygen on felspathic rocks, and used by the ancients for different purposes. Pliny mentionsAlumine, which he describes as white, and used for whitening wool, also for dyeing wool of bright colors. Occasionally he confounds this salt with a mixture of sulphate of alumina and iron, which, in all probability, was alum containing iron, the process of separation not being perfect; and he mentions that this kind of alumen blackens on the application of nut-galls, showing that iron was in it. Pliny says of alumen, that it is "understood to be a sort of brine which exudes from the earth; of this, too, there are several kinds. In Cyprus there is a white alumen, and another kind of a darker color; the uses of these are very dissimilar, the white liquid alumen being employed for dyeing a whole bright color, and the darker, on the other hand, for giving wool a tawny or sombre tint." This is very characteristic of a pure aluminous mordant, and of one containing iron. He also mentions that this dark alumen was used for purifying gold. He must be referring here to its quality of giving gold a rich color. The liquid of this iron alumen, if put upon light-colored gold, and heated over a fire, gives it a very rich tint; a process practiced still for the same purpose. So far, however, as the application to dyeing is concerned, it is unnecessary to prove that the ancients used our double salt alum. Probably the alumen referred to by Pliny, as exuding from the earth, was sulphate of alumina, without potash or soda, a salt not easily crystallized, but as effective, in many cases more effective, in the operations of dyeing, as alum, whichis attested by the preference given to this salt over alum for many purposes at the present day. Pliny says that alumen was a product of Spain, Egypt, Armenia, Macedonia, Pontus, Africa, and the Islands of Sardinia, Melos, Lipara, and Strangyle, and that the most esteemed is that of Egypt. And Herodotus mentions that King Amasis of Egypt sent the people of Delphi a thousand talents of this substance, as his contribution toward the rebuilding of their temple. Notwithstanding considerable confusion in Pliny's account of this substance, our belief is, that it refers to different salts of alumina, and whether or not they were all used in the processes of dyeing, they were used for manufacturing purposes, and thus gives us some insight to the advanced state of the arts in those times.
Respecting the cost and durability of the Tyrian purple, it is related that Alexander the Great found in the treasury of the Persian monarch 5,000 quintals of Hermione purple of great beauty, and 180 years old, and that it was worth $125 of our money per pound weight. The price of dyeing a pound of wool in the time of Augustus is given by Pliny, and this price is equal to about $160 of our money. It is probable that his remarks refer to some particular tint or quality of color easily distinguished, although not at all clearly defined by Pliny. He mentions a sort of purple, or hyacinth, which was worth, in the time of Julius Cæsar, 100 denarii (about $15 of our money) per pound.
Since, according to our modern researches into this dye, one fish, the commonPurpura lapillus, produces only about one drop of the liquor, then it would take about 10,000 fish to dye 1 lb. of wool, so that $160 is not extravagant.
Spinning and weaving in ancient times were principally performed by women; indeed, the wordswoof,weaving, andwebare allied to the wordwife. However, in ancient Egypt and in India men also wrought at the loom. Probably nothing couldbe simpler or ruder than the looms used by ancient weavers. Were we to compare these with the looms and other weaving apparatus of the present day, and reason therefrom that as the loom so must have been the cloth produced thereon, we would make a very great mistake. There are few arts which illustrate with equal force our argument in favor of the perfection of ancient art so well as this of weaving. It would appear that our advancement is not so much in the direction of quality as in that of quantity. There are few things we can do which were not done by the ancients equally perfect. Rude as were their looms in ancient Egypt, they produced the far-famed linen so often mentioned in Scripture and the writings of other nations. In order to show that this is not to be regarded as a merely comparative term applicable to a former age, we will here quote from G. Wilkinson respecting some mummy-cloths examined by the late Mr. Thomson, of Clithero:—"My first impression on seeing these cloths was, that the first kinds were muslins, and of Indian manufacture; but this suspicion of their being cotton was soon removed by the microscope. Some were thin and transparent, and of delicate texture, and the finest had 140 threads to the inch in the warp." Some cloth Mr. Wilkinson found in Thebes had 152 threads to the inch in the warp, but this is coarse when compared with a piece of linen cloth found in Memphis, which had 540 threads to the inch of the warp. How fine must these threads have been! In quoting this extract from Wilkinson to an old weaver, he flatly said it was impossible, as no reed could be made so fine. However, there would be more threads than one in the split, and by adopting this we can make cloth in our day having between 400 and 500 in the inch. However, the ancient cloths are much finer in the warp than woof, probably from want of appliance for driving the threads of the weft close enough, as they do not appear to havelaysas we have for this purpose. Pliny refers to the remains of a linencorselet, presented by Amasis, king of Egypt, to the Rhodians, each thread of which was composed of 365 fibres: "Herodotus mentions this corselet, and another presented by Amasis to the Lacedæmonians, which had been carried off by the Samians. It was of linen, ornamented with numerous figures of animals worked in gold and cotton. Each thread of the corselet was worthy of admiration, for though very fine, every one was composed of 360 other threads all distinct." No doubt this kind of thread was symbolical. It was probably something of this sort that Moses refers to when he mentions the material of which the corselet or girdle of the high priest was made—the fine twined linen. Jewish women are represented in the Old Testament as being expert in the art of spinning.
Ancient Babylon was also celebrated for her cloth manufacture and embroidery work, and to be the possessor of one of these costly garments was no ordinary ambition. It is not to be wondered at that when Achan saw amongst the spoils of Jericho a goodly Babylonish garment he "coveted it and took it." The figure represented on the ancient seal of Urukh has, says Rawlinson, fringed garments delicately striped, indicating an advanced condition of this kind of manufacture five or six centuries before Joshua. It may be mentioned, however, that such manufactures were in ancient times, especially in Egypt, national. Time was of little importance, labor was plentiful, and no craftsman was allowed to scheme, or plan, or introduce any change, but was expected to aim at the perfection of the operation he was engaged in, and this led to perfection every branch. Every trade had its own quarters in the city or nation, and the locality was named after the trade, such as goldsmiths' quarters, weavers' quarters, etc. This same rule seems to have been practised by the Hebrews after their settlement in Palestine, for we find such names in Scripture as the Valley of Craftsmen. We also find that certain trades continued in families; passages such as thefollowing are frequent—"The father of those who were craftsmen," and "The father of Mereshah, a city, and of the house of those who wrought fine linen;" and again, "The men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had the dominion of Moab and Jashubalahem, these were potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges, and did the king's work." In ancient Egypt every son was obliged to follow the same trade as his father. Thus caste was formed. Whether this same was carried out in Babylon, Persia, and Greece, we do not know; but certainly, in these nations there were in all cases officers directing the operations, and overseers, to whom these again were responsible, so that every manufacturing art was carried on under strict surveillance, and to the highest state of perfection. As the possession of artistic work was an object of ambition amongst the wealthy or favored portion of the community, it led to emulation among the workers. Professor Rawlinson, in his "Five Ancient Monarchies," speaks of the Persians emulating with each other in the show they could make of their riches and variety of artistic products. This emulation led both to private and public exhibitions. One of those exhibitions, which lasted over a period of six months, is referred to in the Old Testament; so when we opened our Great Exhibition in 1876 we were only resuscitating a system common in ancient times, the event recorded in the Book of Esther having happened at least 2,200 years before:
"In those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honor of his excellent majesty, many days, even an hundred and fourscore days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and unto small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace; where were white green and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold (the vessels being diverse one from another), and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king."
"In those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace, in the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honor of his excellent majesty, many days, even an hundred and fourscore days. And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and unto small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace; where were white green and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold (the vessels being diverse one from another), and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king."
This must have been a magnificent exhibition. The number attending this feast is not ascertainable; but, if the princes and nobles of the provinces (the provinces were 127 in number), and all the officers and great men of Persia and Media, and the servants of the palace, great and small, were there, it must have formed an immense company. Now, as every one drank out of a golden cup of a different pattern, we obtain an idea of profusion in art of which we can form but a very limited conception. This fact indicates that variety of pattern was an object sought after—a fashion fostering and favoring the development of art and design, and worthy of being emulated in the present day.
Speaking of the Persians, Professor Rawlinson says that the richer classes seem to have followed the court in their practices. In their costume they wore long purple or flowered robes, with loose-hanging sleeves, flowered tunics reaching to the knee, also sleeved, embroidered trowsers, tiaras, and shoes of a more elegant shape than the ordinary Persian. Under their trowsers they wore drawers, and under their tunics shirts, and under their shoes stockings or socks. In their houses their couches were spread with gorgeous coverlets, and their floors with rich carpets—habits that must have necessitated an immense labor and skill, and indicate great knowledge in the manufacture of textile fabrics.
Among the great historic nations of antiquity, the chief consumption of copper and tin was in the manufacture of bronze; and the quantities of these metals necessary for the purpose must have been very great, for bronze seems to have been the principal metallic substance of which articles both of utility and art were formed. Wilkinson, Layard, and others, found bronze articles in abundance amongst thedebrisof all the ancient civilizations to which their researches extend, proving that the manufacture of this alloy was widely known at a very early period; and strange to say, when we consider the applications of some of the toolsfound, we are forced to the conclusion that the bronze of which they were made must originally have been in certain important particulars superior to any which we can produce at the present day. In these researches were found carpenters' and masons' tools, such as saws, chisels, hammers, etc., and also knives, daggers, swords, and other instruments which require both a fine hard edge and elasticity. Were we to make such tools now, they would be useless for the purpose to which the ancients applied them. Wilkinson says: "No one who has tried to perforate or cut a block of Egyptian granite will scruple to acknowledge that our best steel tools are turned in a very short time, and require to be re-tempered; and the labor experienced by the French engineers who removed the obelisk of Luxor from Thebes, in cutting a space less than two feet deep along the face of its partially decomposed pedestal, suffices to show that, even with our excellent modern implements, we find considerable difficulty in doing what to the Egyptians would have been one of the least arduous tasks."
But Wilkinson believes that bronze chisels were used for cutting granite, as he found one at Thebes, of which he says, "Its point is instantly turned by striking it against the very stone it was used to cut; and yet, when found, the summit was turned over by blows it had received from the mallet, while the point was intact, as if it had recently left the hands of the smith who made it."
"Another remarkable feature in their bronze," says the same author, "is the resistance it offers to the effects of the atmosphere—some continuing smooth and bright though buried for ages, and since exposed to the damp European climate. They had also the secret of covering the surface with a rich patina of dark or light green, or other color, by applying acids to it."
Approach to KarnacEngraved & Printed by Illman Brothers.APPROACH TO KARNACToListFOR THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY
Engraved & Printed by Illman Brothers.
APPROACH TO KARNACToList
FOR THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY
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No words can describe the interest which belongs to such a contribution to the history of the world as the discovery of Troy by Dr. Schliemann. The belief of a large part of the classic world for centuries has been embodied in a saying quite common among the Greeks: "I know of but one Ilion, and that is the Ilion as sung by Homer, which is not to be found except among the muses who dwell on Olympus." To-day is given to the world a description of the fire-scathed ruins of that city whose fate inspired the immortal first-fruits of Greek poetry, and from these remains are brought to light thousands of facts bearing upon the origin and history of the inhabitants, and illustrating their religion and language, their wealth and civilization. He has supplied the missing link, long testified by tradition as well as poetry, between the famous Greeks and their kindred in the East.
The satisfaction which the discovery of Troy gives to the Greeks especially is, perhaps, nearly commensurate with the joy that a discovery would bring to the Christian which would so confirm the truth of the Bible as to forever silence its critics and the skepticism of the day. The Iliad was the Greek Bible, and every page of it was full of accounts of Troy, its people and itsheroes. It was the ultimate standard of appeal on all matters of religious doctrine and early history. It was learned by the boys at school. It was the study of men in their riper years, and even in the time of Socrates there were Athenian gentlemen who could repeat both the Iliad and Odyssey by heart. In whatever part of the ancient world a Greek settled he carried with him a love for the great poet, just as much as the Christian family takes the Bible to its new frontier home. No work of profane literature has exercised so wide and long-continued an influence.
The site of Troy is upon a plateau on the eastern shore of the Ægean Sea, about 4 miles from the coast and 4½ miles southeast from the port of Sigeum. The plateau lies on an average about 80 feet above the plain, and descending very abruptly on the north side. Its northwestern corner is formed by a hill about 26 feet higher still, which is about 705 feet in breadth and 984 in length, and from its imposing situation and natural fortifications this hill ofHissarlikseems specially suited to be the Acropolis of the town.
Like the other great Oriental capitals of the Old World, the present condition of Troy is that of a mound, such as those in the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, offering for ages the invitation to research, which has only been accepted and rewarded in our own day. The resemblance is so striking as to raise a strong presumption that, as the mounds of Nimrud and Hillah have been found to contain the palaces of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings, so we may accept the ruins found in the mound of Hissarlik as those of the capital of that primeval empire in Asia Minor.
As the mounds opened by Layard and his fellow laborers contained only the "royal quarters," which towered above the rude buildings of cities, the magnitude of which is attested by abundant proofs, so it is reasonable to believe that the ruins atHissarlik are those of the royal quarter, the only reallypermanentpart of the city built on the hill capping the lower plateau which lifted the huts of the common people above the marshes and inundations of the Scamander and the Simois. In both cases the fragile dwellings of the multitude have perished, and the pottery and other remains, which were left in the surface of the plateau of Ilium, would naturally be cleared away by the succeeding settlers. Homer's poetical exaggeration exalted the mean dwellings that clustered about the acropolis into the "well-built city" with her "wide streets."
The erroneous theory which assigns Troy to the heights of Bunarbashi could, in fact, never have gained ground, had its advocates employed the few hours which they spent on the heights, and in Bunarbashi itself, in making small holes, with the aid of even a single workman. No one can conceive how it is possible that the solution of the great problem, "ubi Troja fait"—which is surely one of the greatest interest to the whole civilized world—should have been treated so superficially that, after a few hours' visit to the Plain of Troy, men have sat down at home and written voluminous works to defend a theory, the worthlessness of which they would have perceived had they but made excavations for a single hour.
The view from the hill of Hissarlik is extremely magnificent. Before it lies the glorious Plain of Troy, which is covered with grass and yellow buttercups; on the north northwest, at about an hour's distance, it is bounded by the Hellespont. The peninsula of Gallipoli here runs out to a point, upon which stands a lighthouse. To the left of it is the island of Imbros, above which rises Mount Ida of the island of Samothrace, at present covered with snow; a little more to the west, on the Macedonian peninsula, lies the celebrated Mount Athos, or Monte Santo, with its monasteries, at the northwestern side of which there are still to be seen traces of that great canal, which, according toHerodotus (vii. 22, 23), was made by Xerxes, in order to avoid sailing round the stormy Cape Athos.
Returning to the Plain of Troy we see to the right of it, upon a spur of the promontory of Rhœteum, the sepulchral mound of Ajax, at the foot of the opposite Cape of Sigeum that of Patroclus, and upon a spur of the same cape the sepulchre of Achilles; to the left of the latter, on the promontory itself, is the Village of Yenishehr. The Plain, which is about two hours' journey in breadth, is thence bounded on the west by the shores of the Ægean, which are, on an average, about 131 feet high, and upon which we see first the sepulchral mound of Festus, the confidential friend of Caracalla, whom the Emperor (according to Herodian IV.) caused to be poisoned on his visit to Ilium, that he might be able to imitate the funeral rites which Achilles celebrated in honor of his friend Patroclus, as described by Homer. Then upon the same coast there is another sepulchral mound, calledUdjek-Tepe, rather more than 78½ feet in height, which most archæologists consider to be that of the old man Æsyetes, from which Polites, trusting to the swiftness of his feet, watched to see when the Greek army would set forth from the ships.