coloured red.

Above that, was a covering of another kind of handsome leather, which cannot be accurately defined. The preparation of leather, says Wilkinson,' was an important branch of Egyptian industry. The fineness of the leather of the straps of a mummy discovered at Thebes, and the beauty of the figures which are stamped upon it, show conclusively the skill of the artist who prepared it. Some of these pieces of leather bear the name of the kings of the oldest times. Rosellini also gives an account of the art of making leather. In the tombs at Thebes, a shop filled with leather-workers is found represented. They made bottles, quivers and pouches of different colours, and ornaments, shoes, and sandals, shields, &c. of leather. "The wood of the Egyptian harps was sometimes covered with coloured leather. In the museum of the Louvre, at Paris, an Egyptian harp is preserved, whose wood is covered with a kind of green morocco, cut in the form of a lotus blossom." 3

SPINNING, WEAVING, AND EMBROIDERY.

We now turn our attention to their cloths of the tabernacle and priests' garments. Many passages mention the twisted byssus. In the tombs of Beni Hassan, the process of preparing the thread and twining it, in preparation for weaving, is exhibited. They were accustomed to beat the yarn with clubs so as to make it softer and more suitable for twining; they also boiled the thread in water to increase its softness, and at the same time give it greater consistence, and thus make it better for twisting and weaving. The byssus in particular was treated in this way. The inscription on a part of an Egyptian wall-picture is interpreted by Rosellini: The preparation of the yarn of byssus. Then follows the representation of the twisting itself, which is performed partly by men and partly by women, and indeed in different ways, which Rosellini describes.7

The skill of the Egyptians in weaving, and the great renown of their cloths in all antiquity, is recognised and confirmed by

1 Vol. III. p. 155,

Ros. II. 2. p. 355.

* Ex. xxvi. 1, 31, and other passages.

P. 16.

Ros. II. 3. p. 16. 5 Ros. II. 2. pp. 13, 14. Pp. 16 and 17.

the fact, that the ancient writers attribute to the Egyptians the invention of this art.'

Herodotus mentions as one of the points in which the Egyptians differ from other nations, that among them the women perform the out-of-door's work, and the men weave.3 Other ancient writers bear testimony to the same thing. "In ancient times the weavers of Panopolis, in Upper Egypt, were especially distinguished; in later times, those in Arsinoë, Pelusium, and Alexandria."4 Also very many men are seen on the monuments employed in weaving," and when we not unfrequently also see women weaving, this can, in view of the testimony of ancient writers, yet be considered only as the exception which destroys not the rule. Now, in most perfect agreement with these notices of ancient writers, the preparation of the cloth for the sanctuary and the sacerdotal robes is represented throughout as under the care of men.7

The women, on the contrary, performed the spinning, and this work generally belonged to them in Egypt. Wilkinson gives engravings of women who are employed with the spindle. Yet this was not exclusively their work.10

It is evident from Ex. xxxv. 25, according to which the Israelitish women brought of the purple which they had spun, that the

1

Aegyptii textilia (invenerunt.) Plin. B. 7. c. 56. Moses is the first who mentions the preparation of gold in threads to be interwoven with the more precious cloths. "And they did beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen with cunning work." (Exod. xxxix. 3.) Cloth of golden tissue is not uncommon on the monuments, and specimens of it have been found rolled about the mummies, but it is not easy to determine whether the gold thread was originally interwoven or subsequently inserted by the embroiderer.

T.

. Chap. 2. 35. Compare c. 105 : Οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες κατ' οἴκους ἐόντες ὑφαίνουσι. Heeren, S. 388.

4

Strabo, 17, 813. Drumann Inschrift von Rosette, S. 170.

Ros. II. 2. p. 30, and Wilk. Vol. III. p. 134, and the engravings, Vol. II. p. 60.

'See the phrase," work of the weaver," in Ex. xxviii. 32; xxxix. 22, 27: "work of the artificer," in xxviii. 6, 15; xxvi. 31, but especially ch. xxxv. 36.

8 Ex. xxxv. 25.

Herod. 2. 35, and Wilk. 2. 60.

10 Wilk. Vol. III. p. 133. The same author also gives an engraving of Egyptian spindles, p. 136.

coloured fabrics which were employed about the tabernacle, were dyed before weaving. The same thing was also done among the Egyptians. In Minutoli1 it is said: "From many experiments upon the ancient Egyptian cloth, it appears that the byssus was coloured in the wool before weaving, which also is shown by Ex. xxv. 4, xxvi. 1. The process which Pliny describes for impressing different colours all at once upon the web after it is finished by the use of various preparations, appears therefore to be a later advancement in Egyptian art." Wilkinson also shows

that cloth was coloured in the thread among the ancient Egyptians.

The coloured figures in the cloth of the Israelites were partly the product of the weaver in colours, , whose art appears the superior, and partly that of the embroiderer in colours, p.4 Both methods are reproduced on the monuments, so that the objection which has been brought forward against rendering the word rokem by embroiderers, that the art of embroidering was generally unknown in earlier ages, and particularly among the Hebrews, is to be regarded as entirely groundless. "Many of the Egyptian stuffs," says Wilkinson," "presented various patterns worked in colours by the loom, independent of those produced by the dyeing or printing process, and so richly composed, that they vied with cloths embroidered with the needle." The Egyptian sails, says the same author, were some of them embroidered with fanciful devices, representing the phoenix, flowers, and other emblems. This, however, was confined to the pleasure boats of the nobles and king. That this was done even in the early ages, is evident from the paintings at Thebes, which show sails ornamented with various colours of the time of Remeses III. The devices are various, the most common one is the phoenix.7

In Ex. xxviii. 32, it is said of the outer garment of the high priest: "And its opening for the head shall be in the middle of it, a border shall there be to the opening round about, of woven work, like the opening of a habergeon shall it be, so that it be not

1 S. 402.

2 Hist. nat. pp. 35, 42.

Vol. III. p. 125. Compare the passage in the LXX, and the proof that signifies embroiderers, in opposition to Hartmann, Gesen. and others, in Bähr Symb. I. S. 267.

Vol. III. p. 128.

7 Sec engravings in Wilk. III. 210.

• Ibid. 210.

No other than a linen habergeon can be meant; for no other would need a binding. The linen armour of the Egyptians was renowned in all antiquity. Herodotus1 mentions a linen habergeon (or corselet,) ornamented with many animals, and worked with cotton thread and with gold, which Amasis sent to the Lacedemonians as a present, and also another which the same king dedicated to Minerva at Lindus. He designates this last as a "linen corselet worthy of admiration." It is acknowledged, that the linen corselet was not peculiar to Egypt alone.3 But yet an importance such as is here implied, the linen corselet had nowhere except in Egypt.

2

PREPARATION AND USE OF UNGUENTS.

We also remark, that what is said in Ex. xxx. 22 seq., concerning the holy ointment and its preparation, has received abundant explanation and confirmation from investigations in Egypt. Unguents were very much used among the Egyptians. This is evident in part from representations in the paintings, and in part from the vases for containing them which yet exist. Some of them still retain their odour. As far as can be determined from these last, unguents appear sometimes to have been made of nut oil, but it is probable that animal as well as vegetable oil was used for this purpose, while the other ingredients depended on the taste of the maker or purchaser.4

It is worthy of notice, that in the description of the holy ointment, the hin is first used as a measure, which afterwards often appears in the Pentateuch. It has no discoverable Hebrew etymology, and furthermore it appears probable that the name is not of Hebrew origin, since it is found, out of the Pentateuch, only in Ezekiel, in the description of the temple, where, like so many other words, it is not taken from the current language of the day but from the Pentateuch. According to Leeman, the word is

13.47.

2. 182. See also Wilk. III. 127 seq.

5

* Ajax is designated in the Iliad, 2. 529, as, λodwon. Compare the passages collected and referred to in Perizonius upon Sueton, Galba, c. 19.

Lettre a M. Salvolini sur les Monumens Egyptiens, Leyden, 1838.

borrowed from the Egyptian language. The hin, he asserts, was originally the general name for a vessel which then was transferred by the Hebrews and Egyptians, to a certain measure of variable compass.

Hitherto we have occupied ourselves only with the materials of the tabernacle and priest's garments, and the arts which are known to have been employed upon them. Now, we will also show, that even in the religious institutions of the Books of Moses Egyptian references cannot be denied, notwithstanding the opposition of those who, in modern times, combating the practice, so hostile to sound criticism, of finding such references wherever there is the least semblance of a reason for it, have wholly denied their existence.