24

DYEING AND CALICO PRINTING .

i

remains some which are not unworthy of notice, which carry us back into the aj

workshops of former times, and exhibit to us the aCtual labours of the weavers in

and dyers of Egypt more than two thousand years ago. tl

“ The great mass of mummy-cloth employed in bandages and coverings, h:

whether of birds, animals, or of the human species, is of coarse texture, si

especially that more immediately in contact with the body, and which is 2\

generally impregnated with resinous or bituminous matter. The upper n

bandages nearer the surface are finer. Sometimes the whole is enveloped in a a'

covering coarse and thick, and very like the sacking of the present day; some- tl

times in cloth coarse and open like that used in our cheese-presses, for which tl

it might easily be mistaken. In the College of Surgeons are various specimens p

of these cloths, some of which are very curious. p

“ The beauty of the texture and peculiarity in the structure of a mummy-cloth given to me by M. Belzoni was very striking. It was free from gum or c

resin, or impregnation of any kind, and had evidently been originally white. f

It was close and firm, yet very elastic. The yarn of both warp and woof was s

remarkably even and well spun. The thread of the warp was double , consisting £

of two finer threads twisted together. The woof was single. The warp con- b

tained ninety threads in an inch; the woof, or weft, only forty-four. The 3

fineness of these materials, estimated after the manner of cotton yarn, was 3

about thirty hanks in the pound. The subsequent examination of a great . 3

variety of mummy-cloths showed that the disparity between the warp and woof 1

belonged to the system of manufacture, and that the warp generally had twice ^

or thrice, and not seldom four times, the number of threads in an inch that 1

the woof had. Thus, a cloth containing 8o threads of warp in the inch, of a c

fineness of about 24 hanks in the pound, had 40 threads in the woof; another, ^

with 120 threads of warp of 30 hanks, had 40 ; and a third specimen only 30 s

threads in the woof. These have each, respectively, double, treble, and '

quadruple the number of threads in the warp that they have in the woof. s

This structure, so different from modern cloth, which has the proportions 3

nearly equal, originated probably in the difficulty and tediousness of getting in 1

the woof when the shuttle was thrown by hand, which is the practice in India e

at the present day, and which there are weavers still living old enough to c

remember the universal practice in this country. 1

“ I have alluded to some specimens of mummy-cloth sent to this country by 1

the late Mr. Salt. I am unacquainted with their history or origin further than (

that they were brought from Thebes, and were contained in the outer packing- (

case of a mummy now in the British Museum. They were evidently the spoils 1

of some other mummy, but when and where opened I have in vain endeavoured 1

to learn. There were various fragments of different degrees of fineness, somefringed at the ends and some striped at the edges. They merit a more par- ^

ticular description. ^

“ My first impression on seeing these cloths was that the finest kinds were '

muslin, and of Indian manufacture, since we learn from the “ Periplus of theErythrean Sea,” ascribed to Arrian, but more probably the work of some Greekmerchant himself engaged in the trade, that muslins from the Ganges were anarticle of export from India to the Arabian Gulf; but this suspicion of theirbeing cotton was soon removed by the microscope of M. Bauer, which showedthat they were ail, without exception, linen.

“ Some were thin and transparent and of very delicate texture. The finest