stained by immersion in a solution of Tyrian purple. Atramentum was lamp-black; ivory-black was used by Apelles, and was known as elephantinum. The ink of the ancients consisted of lamp-black suspended in a solution of gum or glue. The atramentum indicum, imported from the East, was indentical with China ink.
The ancients were well skilled in the art of dyeing, and even of calico printing. The Tyrians produced their famous purple dye as far back as 1500 B.C. It was obtained from shell-fish, mainly species of Murex, inhabiting the Mediterranean. Tyrian purple has been shown to be dibrom-indigo, and to have been produced by the action of air and light upon the juices exuded from the shell-fish. The fine linen of the Old Testament was probably cotton, for the production of which Egypt was long celebrated. That the Egyptians were acquainted with the use of mordants seems evident from the following passage from Pliny, quoted by Thomson:—
There exists in Egypt a wonderful method of dyeing. The white cloth is stained in various places, not with dye stuffs, but with substances which have the property of absorbing colours; these applications are not visible upon the cloth, but when they are dipped into a hot caldron of the dye they are drawn out an instant after dyed. The remarkable circumstance is that, though there be only one dye in the vat, yet different colours appear upon the cloth; nor can the colour be afterwards removed.
