*

For smoothing linen, a wooden substitute for what we call an iron was also used; some of which have been found at Thebes, six inches in length, made of tamarisk wood; but this belonged chiefly to the washerwomen, who had also a wooden instrument for goeffreying fine linen; by which the waving lines were made, so commonly seen in the dresses of the kings and priests.

389.

2

Goeffreying Machine.

Florence Museum.

I have already stated that the Egyptians had carpets, which were a very early invention, being mentioned by Homer, who gives them the same name they are still known by, Tapeta, whence tapis and tapestry. They were used in houses, and were even spread for the sacred animals in Egypt. They were of wool, but of their quality we are unable to form any opinion, the fragments discovered in the tombs being very imperfectly preserved; though there is no doubt of their being portions of carpets. A small rug was also brought to England, and is now in the possession of Mr. Hay.

It is eleven inches long by nine broad; and is made like many carpets of the present day, with woollen threads on linen string. In the centre is the figure of a boy in white, with a goose above it, the hieroglyphic of "child," upon a green ground; around which is a border composed of red and blue lines; the remainder is a ground of yellow, with four white figures above and below, and one at each side, with blue outlines and red ornaments; and the outer border is made up of red, white, and blue lines, with a fancy *Woodcut 388, fiy, 3.

device projecting from it, with a triangular summit, which extends entirely round the edge of the carpet. Its date is uncertain; but from the child, the combination of the colours, and the ornament of the border, I am inclined to think it really Egyptian.

I have noticed the use of flax for making ropes, string, and various kinds of twine; for large ropes, however, of ordinary quality, and for common purposes, the leef or fibres of the date tree, were employed, as at the present day; and many specimens of these durable materials have been found in the excavations of Upper and Lower Egypt.

In a tomb at Thebes, of the time of Thothmes III., is represented the process of twisting thongs of leather, which, as it is probably the same as that adopted in rope-making, may be properly introduced here.

The ends of four thongs were inserted and fastened into a hollow tube, from the side of which a bar projected, surmounted by a heavy metal ball; and the man, who twisted them, held the tube in his right hand, whirling it round, as he walked backwards, by means of the impetus given from the ball. A band, attached to a ring at the other end of the tube, went round his body, in order to support it and give it a free action, and the ring turned upon a nut, to prevent the band itself from twisting.

At the other extremity of the walk, his companion, seated on the ground, or on a low three-legged stool, let out the separate thongs, and kept them from becoming entangled. Behind him sat another, who, with the usual semicircular knife, cut the skin into strips, as he turned it round; showing that what we term "the circular cut" was known to the ancient Egyptians 3300 years ago, and that they had already adopted this mode of obtaining the longest thongs from a single piece of leather. Such, too, was Dido's method, when she persuaded the unsophisticated natives to give up a piece of land as large as she could cover with a bull's hide, upon which she built Byrsa, the citadel of Carthage.

But the name Byrsa, said to be derived from the " hide," seems rather to be related to the fortress itself; being found in the names of Birs-Nimroud, Borsippa, the mounds of Boursa, and other places in the East, where towers, or citadels, once stood.

Part 1. Cutting and twisting thongs of leather. a, a skin hanging up in the shop, indicating the trade of leather cutter. b, cutting thongs out of a circular piece of skin. d arranges the separate thongs, which are twisted by i, and when finished are bound together and hung up in the shop, gh. k, a weight, which gives a greater impetus to the tube, l, when thrown round. m, cobbler, perforating the sole of a sandal to receive the thong. o, pieces of leather, ready for cutting into soles.

nn, thongs ready for fixing to the sole. P, an awl.

q, a stand.

W

Part 2. Carpenters.

tt, legs of chairs.

uu, hatchets.

w, man planing or polishing the leg of a chair.

When finished, the twisted thongs were wound round a hollow centre, through which the end was passed, and repeatedly bound over the concentric coils in the same manner as we tie up ropes.

Some, indeed, have supposed the present subject to represent rope-making; but the presence of the skin on the left, and the shoemakers on the right, forming a continuation of the picture, sufficiently prove that they are engaged in preparing leathern thongs for sandals, and other similar purposes.

Their nets were made of flax-string,* both for fishing and fowling; and portions of them have been discovered at Thebes. The netting-needles † were of wood, very like our own, split at each end, and between ten and eleven inches in length, and others were of bronze, with the point closed.

Sieves were often made of string, but some of an inferior quality, and for coarse work, were constructed of small thin rushes or reeds (very similar to those used by the Egyptians for writing, and frequently found in the tablets of the scribes); a specimen of which kind of sieve is in the Paris Museum. The paintings also represent them made of the same materials; and the first they used were evidently of this bumble quality, since the hieroglyphic indicating a sieve is borrowed from them. Horsehair sieves are ascribed by Pliny to the Gauls; the Spaniards, he says, made them of string; and the Egyptians of papyrus

stalks and rushes.

The Egyptians were not less famed for their manufacture of paper, than for the delicate texture of their linen. The plant from which it was made, the Cyperus papyrus of modern botanists, mostly grew in Lower Egypt, in marshy land, or in shallow brooks and ponds formed by the inundation of the Nile, where they bestowed much pains on its cultivation.

The right of growing and selling it belonged to the government, who made a great profit by its monopoly; and though we frequently read of the byblus or papyrus being used for constructing canoes or rude punts, for making baskets, parts of

* Comp. Isaiah xvii. 9, "They that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks." Plin. 19, 1, and above, p. 80.

+ Woodcut 388, figs. 1, 2.

sandals, sails, and for numerous other common purposes, it is evident, that we are to understand, in these instances, some other species of the numerous family of Cyperus; which is also shown by Strabo's distinguishing the common from "the hieratic byblus." The real papyrus, or hieratic byblus, was particularly cultivated in the Sebennytic nome: other parts of the Delta also produced it, and probably even some districts in Upper Egypt. The paper made from it differed in quality, being dependent upon the growth of the plant, and the part of the stalk whence it was taken; and we find many of the papyri which have been preserved vary greatly in their texture and appearance. They are generally fragile, and difficult to unrol, until rendered pliant by gradual exposure to steam, or the damp of our climates; and some are as brittle as if they had been purposely dried.

We are however less surprised at the effect of the parched climate of Upper Egypt, when we consider the length of time they have been kept beyond the reach of moisture; and our drawing paper, after a very few years, becomes so dry in that country, that it is too brittle to fold without breaking. Indeed, those papyri which have not been exposed to the same heat, being preserved in the less arid climate of Lower Egypt, still keep their pliability; and I have a fragment of one from Memphis, which may be bent, and even twisted in any way, without breaking, or without being more injured than a piece of common paper. The hieroglyphics from their style show it to be of an ancient Pharaonic age, and they contain the name of the city where the papyrus was found, "Menofr (or Memphis), the land of the Pyramid."

The mode of making papyri was this:-The interior of the stalks of the plant, after the rind had been removed, was cut into thin slices in the direction of their length, and these being laid on a flat board, in succession, similar slices were placed over them at right angles; and their surfaces being cemented together by a sort of glue, and subjected to a proper degree of pressure, and well dried, the papyrus was completed. The length of the slices depended of course on the breadth of the intended sheet, as that of the sheet on the number of slices placed