Elsewhere in enumerating the things, wherein the vulgar pride themselves, he once more enumerates purple garments—
Gemmas, marmor, ebur, Tyrrhena sigilla, tabellas,
Argentum, vestes Gætulo murice tinctas,
Sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere.[[1386]]
It was seldom or never considered sufficient to rely upon one species of fish. Usually several kinds were mingled together;[[1387]] and to the mixture were added many other ingredients, as nitre, urine, water, salt, and the fucus—a kind of moss—by some writers supposed to be our argol,[[1388]] found in abundance on the rocky shores of Crete.[[1389]] The tint produced by this mixture resembled the colour of the amethyst.[[1390]] For, under the word purple, the ancients included three distinct colours,—the first a deep violet with a black or dusky tinge, designed by Homer, when he speaks of the “purple wave,” or of “purple death.” This was the amethystine shade spoken of as so magnificent by Pliny; produced by the calchæ and buccina alone. The second which resembled deep scarlet or crimson, which is the colour of a ripe pomegranate, was the purple of Tyre and Tarentum. The third was the deep blue of the Mediterranean sea, when it begins to be ruffled by the winds; a variety produced by the buccinum alone, and always understood by the word conchyliata.[[1391]] Near the Isthmus of Darien, a sea-snail has been discovered, which some have supposed to be the murex of the ancients. In dimensions it is about equal to the bee. Being of extremely rare occurrence, the Indian fishermen preserve it, when found, in a vessel of water until they have collected a sufficient quantity for dyeing a piece of stuff. They then, like the ancient Tyrians, pound it shell and all with a smooth stone or something which serves them for a mortar, which as the shell is extremely thin and frail is a task of little labour, and immediately dip the cotton yarn or stuff in the liquor thus obtained. The colour resulting from this operation is the richest purple that can be conceived, which instead of fading by being passed through water grows more lustrous and brilliant the more it is washed. Stuffs dyed in this manner are, as may be supposed, exceedingly costly, and on account of their beauty much coveted by the richest of the Indian women.[[1392]]
The fucus above-mentioned, found on the shores of Crete, was sometimes employed separately in dyeing fillets, garments, and wool, and the colour thus produced was still more brilliant than that of the purple fish, though no means of fixing it could be discovered.[[1393]] The purple of Hermione, however, preserved its lustre and freshness for centuries. Alexander, for example, found in the royal palace of Susa vast quantities of purple garments dyed at Hermione, which, though they had been laid up nearly two hundred years, exhibited all their pristine bloom and beauty; because, observes the historian, the wool had been previously combed with white oil, and the colour fixed with honey.[[1394]] Even in Plutarch’s own time garments of equal age were to be seen, the purple of which had preserved its brilliance and splendour undiminished. Nay, a small pot of the dye was discovered at Pompeii which though covered atop with a thick tawny film had preserved all the deep tone and richness attributed to the Tyrian purple by the ancients.
In dyeing scarlet, the ancients made use of kermes[[1395]] or cochineal, found in several parts of Greece, but imported likewise from various other countries. It was sometimes employed in giving the ground to purple stuffs.[[1396]] Garments of this colour would appear to have been extremely rare among the Orientals, since the admiration excited in Darius by the scarlet cloak of Syloson, whom he saw walking in the great square of Memphis, can be accounted for only by supposing that he had never beheld the like before;[[1397]] otherwise he would not have been so captivated by its magnificent colour as to press its wearer to sell it to him in the street. Syloson presented him the cloak as a gift; but afterwards, when Darius was king of Persia, he took care to proceed to court and make the circumstance known, upon which the generous prince overwhelmed him with his favours. This kind of dye appears to have been known in Greece from the remotest antiquity, since Simonides supposes that even the signal sail given by Ægeus to Theseus in his expedition to Crete was of a scarlet colour.[[1398]] Sardis was celebrated for its scarlet,[[1399]] whence the proverb,—to be dyed with the tincture of Sardis,—for, to be beaten black and blue. The ancients, however, generally mistook the insect for the fruit of the holm-oak, upon whose leaves it feeds; a circumstance which may be regarded as very extraordinary, when it is remembered that both the insect and the tree were daily under their eyes.
The wool of sheep is said by the Greek poets to have been dyed red on their backs by eating the madder plant.[[1400]] The wool of brown sheep was spun, woven, and worn of its natural colour, as it is still by the rustics of several European countries. Dyes of every other colour were likewise known to the ancients; as bright flame and saffron-colour, pink, green, and russet grey;[[1401]] deep and sky-blue, produced by woad;[[1402]] and red by madder.[[1403]] The Phrygian dyers made use of a kind of mineral[[1404]] obtained from Cappadocia; and wool was sometimes dyed with a decoction of beans.[[1405]] Among the Egyptians, linens, muslins, and all kinds of cloths were painted with flowers and figures, in a great variety of colours;[[1406]] which was the case, also, among the Massagetæ, who impressed on their fine woollen cloths a multitude of patterns, which preserved their brilliance unfading to the last.[[1407]]
As many kinds of woollens are wholly spoiled by common washing,[[1408]] they were regularly, when soiled, carried by the Greeks to the fullers,[[1409]] whose mill and trade are supposed to have been invented by Nycias of Megara.[[1410]] These artisans made use of numerous earths and other substances in their operations; such as gypsum,[[1411]] the Cimolian earth and the Chian, the Lemnian, the Sardian, the Umbrian, the Samian, the Tymphæan, and the Chalastræan.[[1412]] Wool, previous to being spun, was cleansed by soap-wort.[[1413]] In washing clothes they commonly made use of a lye prepared with lime or wood ashes.[[1414]] Sponges were blanched in the following manner:[[1415]] over such as were extremely soft they sprinkled a quantity of salt-fish, collected from the rocks, after which they were carefully washed, and laid in the summer sun with their hollow part uppermost. They were rendered still whiter by being saturated with salt froth or sea-water, and exposed during a succession of calm summer nights to the moon’s rays.
The extent and importance of the Grecian fisheries[[1416]] may be inferred from the prodigious quantities of fish eaten in every part of Greece; for although they knew nothing in antiquity of those long fasts during which the members of the Greek church in modern times, ceasing to prey upon the dumb inhabitants of terra firma, let loose their voracity against those of the sea, they were no less partial to this kind of food than their descendants,[[1417]] as will have been seen from a preceding portion of this work. Fisheries were accordingly established on nearly every part of the coast of Hellas, as well as of those islands and distant colonies of which she became mistress.