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."
Galls are 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. The Myrobollans and several sorts of barks and pods of the Acacia nilotica were 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 name nitre given 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."