CHAPTER III.

ASBESTOS.

Uses of Asbestos--Carpasian flax--Still found in Cyprus--Used in funerals--Asbestine-cloth--How manufactured--Asbestos used for fraud and superstition by the Romish monks--Relic at Monte Casino--Further impostures of the monks--Remarks thereon.

Varro mentions the name _Asbestos_ as a proof, that the cloth so called was a Greek invention[550]. His argument is obviously correct. The term (ἄσβεστος) means _inextinguishable_, and was most properly applied to the wicks of lamps, which were made of this substance and were never consumed.

[550] De Lingua Lat. L. v. p. 134. ed. Spengel.

The fullest account of the properties and uses of Asbestos is contained in the following passage from Sotacus, a Greek author who wrote on Stones[551]. The passage occurs in the Historiæ Commentitiæ, attributed to Apollonius Dyscolus (_cap._ 36).

The Carystian stone has woolly and colored appendages, which are _spun_ and woven into _napkins_. This substance is also twisted into wicks, which, when burnt, are bright, but do not consume. The napkins, when dirty, are not washed with water, but a fire is made of sticks, and then the napkin is put into it. The dirt disappears, and the napkin is rendered white and pure by the fire, and is applicable to the same purposes as before. The wicks remain burning with oil continually without being consumed. This stone is produced in Carystus, from which it has its name, and in great abundance in Cyprus under rocks to the left of Elmæum, as you go from Gerandros to Soli.--_Yates’s Translation._

[551] Sotacus is several times quoted by Pliny (L. xxxvi., xxxvii.) as a foreign writer on Stones.

“At Carystus,” says Strabo, “under Mount Ocha in Eubœa is produced the stone, which is combed and woven so as to make _napkins_ (χειρόμακτρα) or _handkerchiefs_. When these have become dirty, instead of being washed, they are thrown into a flame and thus purified[552].”

[552] Lib. x. p. 19. ed. Sieb.

Plutarch speaks in similar terms of napkins, nets, and _head-dresses_, made of the Carystian stone, but says, that it was no longer found in his time, only thin veins of it, like hairs, being discoverable in the rock[553].

[553] De Oraculorum Defectu, p. 770. ed. H. Stephani, Par. 1572.

Mr. Hawkins ascertained, that the rock, which was quarried in Mount Ocha, now called St. Elias, above Carystus, is the Cipolino of the Roman antiquaries[554]. Further north in the same island Dr. Sibthorp observed “rocks of _Serpentine_ in beds of saline marble, forming the Verdantique of the ancients[555]:” and he states, that on the shore to the north of Negropont “the rocks are composed of serpentine stone with veins of asbestos and soapstone intermixed[556].” Tournefort speaks of Amiantus as brought from Carysto in his time, but of inferior quality[557].

[554] Travels in various Countries of the East, edited by Walpole, p. 288.

[555] Ibid. p. 37.

[556] Ibid. p. 38.--N. B. Asbestos is always found in rocks of Serpentine.

[557] Voyage, English Translation, vol. i. p. 129.

Pausanias (i. 26. 7.) says, the wick of the golden lamp which was kept burning night and day in the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens, was “of _Carpasian flax_, the only kind of flax which is indestructible by fire.” This “Carpasian flax” was asbestos from the vicinity of Carpasus, a town near the north-east corner of Cyprus, which retains its ancient name, _Carpas_.

Dioscorides (L. v. c. 93.) gives a similar account of the qualities and uses of Amiantus, and says it was produced in Cyprus[558].

[558] See p. 392.

Majolus says[559], that in the year 1566 he saw at Venice Podocattarus, a knight of Cyprus, and a writer on the history of that island, who exhibited at Venice cloth made of the asbestos of his country, which he threw into the fire, and took it out uninjured and made quite clean.

[559] Dier. Canicular. Part I. Collog. xx. p. 453.

Referring to Cyprus, Sonnini (_Voyage en Grèce_, i. _p._ 66.) says,

L’amiante, _asbestos_, ou lin incombustible des anciens, est encore aussi abondant qu’il le fut autrefois; la carrière qui le fournit est dans la montagne d’Akamantide, près du cap Chromachiti.

Le talc est commun, surtout près de Larnaca, où on l’emploie à blanchir les maisons; et le plàtre a de nombreuses carrières.

The “talc” may be the same with the “Lapis specularis,” which was found in Cyprus, according to Pliny (xxxvi. 45.). The testimony of Sonnini so far agrees with those of the ancients, that all the places mentioned were on the northern side of the island, so that the asbestos seems to have been found between Solæ towards the West and Carpas towards the East.

Pietro della Valle, when he was at Larnaca, was presented with a piece of the amiantus of the country, but says that it was no longer spun and woven.

Pliny, if we can rely upon his testimony as given in the existing editions of his works, states, that Asbestos was obtained in Arcadia (H. N. xxxvii. 54.) and in India.

“A kind of flax has been discovered which is incombustible by fire. It is called _live flax_; and we have seen napkins of it burning upon the hearth at entertainments, and, when thus deprived of their dirt, more resplendent through the agency of fire than they could have been by the use of water. The funeral shirts made of it for kings preserve the ashes of the body separate from those of the rest of the pile. It is produced in deserts and in tracts scorched by the Indian sun, where there are no showers, and among dire serpents, and thus it is inured to live even when it is burnt. It is rare, and woven with difficulty on account of the shortness of its fibres. That variety which is of a red color becomes resplendent in the fire. When it has been found it equals the prices of excellent pearls. It is called by the Greeks Asbestine Flax, on account of its nature. Anaxilaus relates, that if a tree surrounded with cloth made of it be beaten, the strokes are not heard. On account of these properties this flax is the first in the world. The next in value is that made of byssus, which is produced about Elis in Achaia, and used principally for fine female ornaments. I find that a scruple of this flax, as also of gold, was formerly sold for four denarii[560]. The nap of linen cloths, obtained chiefly from the sails of ships, is of great use in surgery, and their ashes have the same effect as spodium. There is a certain kind of poppy the use of which imparts the highest degree of whiteness to linen cloths.”--Pliny, Lib. xix. ch. 4.

[560] i. e. eighteen grains of this flax were worth 2_s._ 10_d._ stg., being equal in value to its weight in gold.

Besides the manufacture of napkins, this description exactly agrees with the accounts of Strabo, Sotacus, Dioscorides, and Plutarch. Pliny’s account of the use of this material in funerals has been remarkably confirmed by the occasional discovery of pieces of asbestine cloth in the tombs of Italy. One was found in 1633 at Puzzuolo, and was preserved in the Barberini gallery[561]. Another was found in 1702 a mile without the gate called Porta Major in Rome. We have an account of the discovery in a letter written from Rome at the time; and appended to Montfaucon’s Travels through Italy. A marble sarcophagus having been discovered in a vineyard was found to contain the cloth, which was about 5 feet wide, and 6½ long. It contained a skull and the other burnt bones of a human body. The sculptured marble indicates, that the deceased was a man of rank. He is supposed to have lived not earlier than the time of Constantine. This curious relic of antiquity has been preserved in the Vatican Library since the period of its discovery, and Sir J. E. Smith, who saw it there, gives the following description of its appearance:--

It is coarsely spun, but as soft and pliant as silk. Our guide set fire to one corner of it, and the very same part burnt repeatedly with great rapidity and brightness without being at all injured[562].

[561] Keysler’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 292. London 1760.

[562] Tour on the Continent, vol. ii. p. 201.

Also in the Museo Barbonico at Naples there is a considerable piece of asbestine cloth, found at Vasto in the Abruzzi, the ancient Histonium.

Hierocles, the historian, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, gives the following account of the Asbestos of India:--

The Brachmans use cloth made of a kind of flax, which is obtained from rocks. _Webs_ are produced from it, which are neither subject to be consumed by fire nor cleansed by water, but which, after they have become full of dirt and stains, are rendered clear and white by being thrown into the fire.

The following testimonies illustrate the fact, recorded by both Hierocles and Pliny, that Asbestos was obtained from India.

Marco Polo[563] mentions, that incombustible cloth was woven from a fibrous stone found at Chenchen in the territory of the Great Khan. It was pounded in a brass mortar; then washed to separate the earthy particles; spun and woven into cloth; and cleansed, when dirty, by being thrown into the fire.

[563] Marsden’s Translation, p. 176.

Bugnon, in his _Rélation Exacte concernant les Caravanes_ (_Nancy_, 1707, _p._ 37-39.) mentions, that Amiantus was found in Cyprus and on the confines of Arabia. He says, _they spun it and made stockings, socks, and drawers_, which fitted closely; that over these they wore their other garments; and that they were thus protected from the heat in travelling with the caravans through Asia.

Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea, shows that he was acquainted with the properties of this substance, _by comparing the three children cast into the fiery furnace without being hurt_ (_Dan._ iii.) to Asbestos, “which, when put into the fire seems to burn and to be turned to ashes, but, when taken out, becomes purer and brighter than it was before[564].”

[564] Homilia de Jejunio, p. 111.

Damasus (_in Silvestro Papa_) mentions, that the Emperor Constantine directed asbestos to be used for the wicks of the lamps in his baptistery at Rome.

For further particulars respecting the places where amiantus is procured, and the mode of preparing it for the manufacture of cloth, we refer to the treatises of mineralogists and to the Essays of Ciampini, Tilingius, Mahudel, and Bruckmann on this particular subject. We are informed, that it is softened and rendered supple by being steeped in oil, and that _fibres of flax are then mixed with it_ in order that it may be spun. When the cloth is woven, it is put into the fire, by which the flax and oil are dissipated, and the asbestos alone remains[565].

[565] Tournefort’s Travels, vol. i. p. 129. Bruckmann, Hist. Nat. Lapidis. Brunswic. 1727. p. 31, 32. This author says the asbestos was put into warm water, and there rubbed and turned about. An earth separates from it, which makes the water as white as milk. This is repeated five or six times. The fibres, thus purified, are spread out to dry.

Ignorance of the true nature of Asbestos caused it to be employed in the dark ages for purposes of superstition and religious fraud. Of this we have a proof in the following account which we find in the Chronicon Casinense of Leo Ostiensis, L. ii. _c._ 33.

His diebus Monachi quidam ab Jerusolymis venientes particulam lintei, cum quo pedes discipulorum Salvator extersit, secum detulerunt, et ob reverentiam sancti hujus loci devotissimè hic obtulerunt, sexto scilicet Idus Decembris; sed, cum a plurimis super hoc nulla fides adhiberetur, illi fide fidentes protinus prædictam particulam in accensi turibuli igne desuper posuerunt, quæ mox quidem in ignis colorem conversa, post paululùm vero, amotis carbonibus, ad pristinam speciem mirabiliter est reversa. Cumque excogitarent qualiter, vel quanam in parte pignora tanta locarent, contigit, dispositione divinâ, ut eodem ipso die, transmissus sit in hunc locum loculus ille mirificus, ubi nunc recondita est ipsa lintei sancti particula, argento et auro gemmisque Anglico opere subtiliter ac pulcherrimè decoratus. Ibi ergò christallo superposito venerabiliter satis est collocata: morisque est singulis annis, ipso die Cœnæ Dominicæ ad mandatum Fratrum eam a Mansionariis deferri et in medium poni, duoque candelabra ante illam accendi et indesinenter per totum mandati spatium ab Acolito incensari. Demum verò juxta finem mandati a singulis per ordinem fratribus flexis genibus devotissimè adorari et reverentèr exosculari.

There is no good reason to doubt the truth of this narrative so far as respects the veracity and credit of the historian. Leo Ostiensis became an inmate of the Abbey of Monte Casino a few years after the event is said to have happened, and could scarcely be misinformed respecting the circumstances, more especially as he held during the latter part of his abode there the office of Librarian. There is nothing improbable in the story. Asbestine cloth, as we have learnt from Marco Polo, was manufactured in Asia during the middle ages, and the reputed relic was obtained at Jerusalem. That the pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, should be imposed upon in this manner, is in the highest degree probable, since we are informed, that the very same substance _in its natural state_ was often sold to devotees AS THE WOOD OF THE TRUE CROSS, and its incombustibility was exhibited as the proof of its genuineness. This we learn in the following passage from Tilingius, who wrote “_De lino vivo aut asbestino et incombustibili_.”

Antonius Musa Brassavolus Ferrariensis tradit, impostores lapidem Amiantum simplicibus mulierculis ostendere vendereque sæpenumero pro ligno crusis Servatoris nostri. Id quod facile credunt, cùm igne non comburatur, quodque ligni modo plurimis constet lineis intercur santibus.--_Miscellanea Curiosa Naturæ Curiosorum_, _Decuriæ_ ii. _Ann._ ii. _p._ 111. _Norembergæ_, 1684.

The monks on their arrival at Monte Casino would naturally display the same evidence, by which they themselves had been convinced; and the appearance of the cloth, when put into the fire and taken out of it, is described exactly as it would be in fact, supposing it to have been made of amiantus.

Montfaucon, in his Travels in Italy (_p._ 381. _English ed._ 8_vo._), describes a splendid service book, which was written A. D. 1072 by Leo at the expense of brother John of Marsicana, and presented by John to the Monastery of Monte Casino, where it was exhibited to Montfaucon as one of the most valuable and curious monuments. An illumination in this book represents a monk _kneeling before St. Benedict_, the patron and founder of the institution, and holding in his hands a cloth, on which St. Benedict is placing his left foot. Montfaucon gives an engraving from this picture: he supposes the cloth to be a monk’s cowl, and conjectures that it was thus used in admitting novices. This explanation is evidently a most unsatisfactory one, nothing being produced to render it even probable. We believe the cloth to be that the history of which has just now been given, and that the design of the artist was to represent a monk _wiping the feet of St. Benedict with the same cloth with which Jesus wiped the feet of his disciples_.

This supposition will appear the more probable if we attend to the date of the MS. (A. D. 1072) and the persons, by whom and at whose expense it was written. “_Brother_ John of Marsicana” appears to have been at this time advanced in years, wealthy, and highly respected, since we are informed, that in the year 1055, when Peter was chosen Abbot of the Monastery, some of the brotherhood wished to choose John, although he, foreseeing that the choice would be likely to fall on him, had obstinately sworn on the altar, that he would never undertake the office. John was at this time provost of Capua[566]. Seventeen years afterwards he went to the expense of providing the service-book seen by Montfaucon. He employed as his scribe one of the fraternity, who was his junior and from the same city with himself. For there can be scarcely a doubt, but that Leo, who wrote the MS., was the same who was the author of the Chronicon. The author of the Chronicon, at the commencement of his history, calls himself “Frater Leo, cognomine Marsicanus[567]”. He was made Bishop of Ostia A. D. 1101, so that we may suppose him to have been twenty or thirty years of age, when the MS. was made. Of his aptitude for such an employment we cannot doubt, when we consider his future labors as Librarian and author of the Chronicle. But if these facts be evident, it is equally manifest, that these two accomplished Benedictines could not have expressed their veneration towards their founder in any way better suited to their ideas and belief than by exhibiting in the manner described that relic, WHICH WAS SOLEMNLY DISPLAYED ONCE A YEAR WITH BURNING CANDLES AND ATTENDING ACOLYTHES TO THE ADMIRING AND ADORING CROWD OF DEVOTEES.

[566] Dominum Johannem, cognomine Marsicanum, qui tunc Capuæ erat præpositus, &c.--_Leonis Ostientis Chronicon Casinense_, L. ii. _c._ 92.

[567] Marsicana (civitas) was in Marsica, the territory of the ancient Marsi.

On inquiry it is found that this relic exists no longer at Monte Casino, although the original copy of the Chronicon of Leo Ostiensis is still preserved in the Library[568]. It appears that the relic has long been lost, since there is no mention either of it, or of the casket which contained it in the “Descrizione Istorica del Monastero di Monte Casino, Napoli, 1775.”

[568] Excursions in the Abruzzi, by the Hon. Keppel Craven, vol. i. p. 54.

A large glove of this substance is in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. An English traveller states that he has lately seen at Parma a _table-cloth_, made of Amiantus from Corsica, for the use of the ex-Empress Maria Louisa, who resided there after the fall of Napoleon.

In modern times cloth of asbestos is scarcely made. Indeed it is not probable that this material will ever be obtained in much abundance, or that it will cease to be a rarity except in the places of its production. It is never seen in Great Britain, or on the continent, save in the cabinets of the curious.

The annexed Map (Plate VII.) is designed to indicate the divisions of the Ancient World as determined by the Raw Materials principally produced and employed in them for weaving.

The Red division produced Sheeps’-Wool and Goats’-Hair: also Beavers’-Wool in the portion of this division, which lies to the North of the Mediterranean Sea, and of the rivers Padus and Ister: and Camels’-Wool and Camels’-Hair in the portion lying South-East of a line drawn through the coast of Syria. The nations to the North of this division clothed themselves in skins, furs, and felt.

The Yellow at the Eastern corner indicates the commencement of the vast Region, unknown to the Ancients, the inhabitants of which clothed themselves in Silk.

The Green indicates the countries, all low and bordering on rivers, in which the cloth manufactured was chiefly Linen.

The Brown is designed to show the cultivation of Hemp in the low country to the North of the Euxine Sea, and probably in other places, North of the Red division, which were adapted for its growth.

Lastly, the Blue, which is the colour of the Baharein Isles and of India, shows that the inhabitants of these countries have from time immemorial clothed themselves in Cotton.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

ON PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY.

Sheep and wool--Price of wool in Pliny’s time--Varieties of wool and where produced--Coarse wool used for the manufacture of carpets--Woollen cloth of Egypt--Embroidery--Felting--Manner of cleansing--Distaff of Tanaquil--Varro--Tunic--Toga--Undulate or waved cloth--Nature of this fabric--Figured cloths in use in the days of Homer (900 B. C.)--Cloth of gold--Figured cloths of Babylon--Damask first woven at Alexandria--Plaided textures first woven in Gaul--$150,000 paid for a Babylonish coverlet--Dyeing of wool in the fleece--Observations on sheep and goats--Dioscurias a city of the Colchians--Manner of transacting business.

LIB. VIII. c. 47s. 72. 50s. 76.[569]

[569] The edition here followed is that of Sillig, Lipsiæ, 1831-6, 5 vols., 12mo.

“We are also much indebted to sheep both in sacrifices to propitiate the gods, and in the use of their fleeces. As oxen produce by cultivation the food of men, so we owe to sheep the protection of our bodies.... There are two principal kinds of sheep, the _covered_ and the _common_. The former is softer, the latter more delicate in feeding, inasmuch as the covered feeds on brambles. Its coverings are chiefly of Arabic materials.

“The most approved wool is the Apulian, and that which is called _the wool of Greek sheep_ in Italy, and _the Italic wool_ in other places. The third kind in value is that obtained from Milesian sheep. The Apulian wools have a short staple, and are only celebrated for making pænulas. They attain the highest degree of excellence about Tarentum and Canusium. In Asia wools of the same kind are obtained at Laodicea. No white wool is preferred to those which are produced about the Po, nor has a pound ever yet exceeded a hundred sesterces (about $3,60.). Sheep are not shorn everywhere: in certain places the practice of pulling off the wool continues. There are various colors of wool, so that we want terms to denote all. Spain produces some of those varieties which we call _native_; Pollentia, near the Alps, furnishes the chief kinds of black wool; Asia and Bætica those ruddy varieties called _Erythrean_; Canusium a sandy-colored[570] wool; and Tarentum one of a dark shade peculiar to that locality. New-shorn greasy wools have all a medicinal virtue. The wool of Istria and Liburnia being more like hair than wool, is unsuitable for making the cloths which have a _long_ nap. This is also the case with the wool of Salacia in Lusitania; but the cloth made from it is recommended by its _plaided pattern_. A similar kind is produced about Piscenæ (i. e. _Pezenas_), in the province of Narbonne, and likewise in Egypt, the woollen cloth of which country, having been worn by use, is _embroidered_ and lasts some time longer. The _coarse wool with a thick staple was used in very ancient times for carpets_: at least Homer (900 B. C.) speaks of the use of it. _The Gauls have one method of embroidering these carpets, and the Parthians another._ Portions of wool also make cloth _by being forced together by themselves_[571]. With the addition of vinegar these also resist iron, nay even fires, which are the last expedient for purging them; for, having been taken out of the caldrons of the polishers, they are sold for the stuffing of beds, an invention made, I believe, in Gaul, certainly in the present day distinguished by Gallic names: for in what age it commenced I could not easily say, since the ancients used beds of straw, such as are now employed in camps. The cloths called _gausapa_ began to be used within the memory of my father; those called _amphimalla_ within my own, (See Part First, p. 30,) as well as the shaggy coverings for the stomach, called _ventralia_. For the tunic with the laticlave is now first beginning to be woven after the manner of the _gausapa_. The black wools are never dyed. Concerning the dyeing of the others we shall speak in their proper places, in treating of sea-shells or the nature of herbs.

“M. Varro says, that the wool continued to his time upon the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, also called Caia Cæcilia, in the temple of Sangus; and that there remained in the temple of Fortune a royal undulate toga made by her, which Servius Tullius had worn. Hence arose the practice of carrying a distaff with wool upon it, and a spindle with its thread, after virgins who were going to be married. She first wove the straight tunic, such as is worn by tiros together with the _toga pura_, and by newly-married women. The _undulate_ or waved cloth was originally one of the most admired; from it was derived the _soriculate_[572]. Fenestrella writes, that _scraped_ and _Phryxian_ togas came into favor about the end of the reign of the Divine Augustus. The _thick poppied_ togas are of remoter origin, being noticed even so far back as by the poet Lucilius in his Torquatus. The _toga prætexta_ was invented among the Etruscans. I find evidence that kings wore the _striped toga_[573], that figured cloths were in use even in the days of Homer; and that these gave rise to the _triumphal_. To produce this effect with the needle was the invention of the Phrygians, on which account cloths so embroidered have been called _Phrygionic_. In the same part of Asia king Attalus (see Part I. p. 88.) discovered the art of inserting a woof of gold: from which circumstance the _Attalic_ cloths received their name. Babylon first obtained celebrity by its method of _diversifying the picture with different colors_, and gave its name to textures of this description. But to weave with a great number of leashes, so as to produce the cloths called _polymita_ (i. e. damask cloths), was first taught in Alexandria; to divide by squares (i. e. plaids) in Gaul. Metellus Scipio brought it as an accusation against Cato, that even in his time Babylonian coverlets for triclinia were sold for 800,000 sesterces ($30,000), although the emperor Nero lately gave for them no less than 4,000,000 sesterces (about $150,000). The _prætexta_ of Servius Tullius, covering the statue of Fortune which he dedicated, remained until the death of Sejanus, and it is wonderful that they had neither decayed of themselves nor been injured by the worms of moths through the space of 560 years. We have, moreover, seen the fleeces of living sheep dyed with purple, with the coccus, or the murex, in pieces of bark _a foot and a half long_, luxury appearing to force this upon them as if it were their nature.

“In the sheep itself the excellence of the breed is sufficiently shown by the shortness of the legs and the clothing of the belly. Those which have naked bellies used to be called _apicæ_, and were condemned. The tails of the Syrian sheep are a cubit broad, and in that part they bear a great quantity of wool. It is thought premature to castrate lambs before they are five months old. In Spain, but especially in Corsica, there is a race of animals called musmons, resembling sheep, except that their covering is more like goats’-hair. The ancients called the mixed breed of sheep and musmons _Umbri_. _Sheep have a very weak head_, on which account they are obliged to turn from the sun in feeding. _They are most foolish animals._ Where they have been afraid to enter, they follow one dragged along by the horn. They live ten years at the longest, but in Æthiopia thirteen years. Goats live there eleven years, and in other countries eight at the most.... In Cilicia and about the Syrtes, goats have a shaggy coat, which admits of being shorn.”

[570] This term is adopted as the best translation of the Latin _fulvus_, which, as well as the corresponding Greek adjective ξανθὸς, denoted a light yellowish-brown. Hence it was so commonly applied to the light hair, which accompanies a light complexion and often indicates mental vivacity, and which has consequently been always considered beautiful. Hence also it was used to denote the appearance of the Tiber and other rivers, when they were rendered turbid by the quantity of sand suspended in their waters.--See Fellows’s _Discoveries in Lycia_.

[571] See Appendix C.

[572] It is probable that _soriculate_ cloth was a kind of velvet, or plush, so called from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse, _sorex_, dim. _soricula_. _Soriculata_ may have been changed into _sororiculata_ by repeating or at the beginning of the word.

[573] The toga worn by the kings and other supreme magistrates among the Romans was called _trabea_ from the stripes, which were compared to the joists or rafters of a building (_trabes_).

LIB. VI. c. 5.

“The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchlæni and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a city of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that three hundred nations used to resort to it, speaking different languages; and that business was afterwards transacted on our part through the medium of one hundred and thirty interpreters.”

APPENDIX B.

ON THE ORIGIN AND MANUFACTURE OF LINEN AND COTTON PAPER.

THE INVENTION OF LINEN PAPER PROVEN TO BE OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN,--COTTON PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE BUCHARIANS AND ARABIANS, A. D. 704.

Wehrs gives the invention of Linen paper to Germany--Schönemann to Italy--Opinion of various writers, ancient and modern--Linen paper produced in Egypt from mummy-cloth, A. D. 1200--Testimony of Abdollatiph--Europe indebted to Egypt for linen paper until the eleventh century--Cotton paper--The knowledge of manufacturing, how procured, and by whom--Advantages of Egyptian paper manufacturers--Clugny’s testimony--Egyptian manuscript of linen paper bearing date A. D. 1100--Ancient water-marks on linen paper--Linen paper first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain--The Wasp a paper-maker--Manufacture of paper from shavings of wood, and from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn.

No part of the _Res Diplomatica_ has been more frequently discussed than the question respecting the origin of paper made from linen rags. The inquiry is interesting on account of the unspeakable importance of this material in connection with the progress of knowledge and all the means of civilization, and it also claims attention from the philologist as an aid in determining the age of manuscripts.

Wehrs refers to a document written A. D. 1308 as the oldest known specimen of linen paper; and, as the invention must have been at least a little previous to the preparation of this document, he fixes upon 1300 as its probable date[574]. Various writers on the subject, as Von Murr, Breitkopf, Schönemann, &c., concur in this opinion.

[574] Vom Papier, p. 309, 343.

Gotthelf Fischer, in his Essay on Paper-marks[575], cites an extract from an account written in 1301 on linen paper. In this specimen the mark is a circle surmounted by a sprig, at the end of which is a star. The paper is thick, firm, and well grained; and its water-lines and water-marks (_vergures et pontuseaux_) may readily be distinguished.

[575] This Essay, translated into French, is published by Jansen, in his Essai sur l’origine de la gravure en bois et en taille-douce, Paris 1808, tome i. p. 357-385.

The date was carried considerably higher by Schwandner, Principal Keeper of the Imperial Library at Vienna, who found among the charters of the Monastery of Göss in Upper Stiria one in a state of decay, only seven inches long and three wide. So highly did he estimate the value of this curious relic as to publish in 1788 a full account of his discovery in a thin quarto volume, which bears the following title, “_Chartam linteam antiquissimam, omnia hactenus producta specimina ætate suâ superantem, ex cimelüs Bibliothecæ Augustæ Vindobonensis exponit Jo. Ge. Schwandner_,” &c. The document is a mandate of Frederick II. Emperor of the Romans, entrusting to the Archbishop of Saltzburg and the Duke of Austria the determination of a dispute between the Duke of Carinthia and the Monastery of Göss respecting the property of the latter in Carinthia. Schwandner proves the date of it to be 1243. He does not say whether it has any lines or water-mark, but is quite satisfied from its flexibility and other qualities, that it is linen. Although on the first discovery of this document some doubt was expressed as to its genuineness, it appears to have risen in estimation with succeeding writers; and we apprehend it is rather from inadvertence than from any deficiency in the evidence, that it is not noticed at all by Schönemann, Ebert, Delandine, or by Horne. Due attention is, however, bestowed upon it by August Friedrich Pfeiffer _Uber Bücher-Handschriften, Erlangen_ 1810, _p._ 39, 40.

With regard to the circumstances which led to the invention of the paper _now in common use_, or the country in which it took place, we find in the writers on the subject from Polydore Virgil to the present day nothing but conjectures or confessions of ignorance. Wehrs supposes, and others follow him, that in making paper linen rags were either by accident or through design at first mixed with cotton rags, so as to produce a paper, which was partly linen and partly cotton, and that this led by degrees to the manufacture of paper from linen only[576]. Wehrs also endeavors to claim the honor of the invention for Germany, his own country; but Schönemann gives that distinction to Italy, because there, in the district of Ancona, a considerable manufacture of cotton paper was carried on before the fourteenth century[577]. All however admit, that they have no satisfactory evidence on the subject.

[576] Vom Papier, p. 183.

[577] Diplomatik, vol. i. p. 494.

A clear light is thrown upon these questions by a remark of the Arabian physician, Abdollatiph, who visited Egypt A. D. 1200. He informs us[578], “_that the cloth found in the catacombs, and used to envelope the mummies, was made into garments, or sold to the scribes to make paper for shop-keepers_.” Having shown (See Part IV. Chapter I.) that this cloth was linen, the passage of Abdollatiph, therefore, may be considered as a decisive proof, which, however, has never been produced as such, of the manufacture of linen paper as early as the year 1200.

[578] Chapter iv. p. 188 of Silvestre de Sacy’s French translation, p. 221 of Wahl’s German translation. This interesting passage was translated as follows by Edward Pococke, the younger:--“Et qui ex Arabibus, incolisve Rifæ, aliisve, has arcas indagant, hæc integumenta diripiunt, quodque in iis rapiendum invenitur; et conficiunt sibi vestes, aut ea chartarüs vendunt ad conficiendam chartam emporeaticam.”

Silvestre de Sacy (Notice, &c.), animadverting on White’s version which is entirely different, expresses his approbation of Pococke’s, from which Wahl’s does not materially differ.

This account coincides remarkably with what we know from various other sources. Professor Tychsen, in his learned and curious dissertation on the use of paper from Papyrus (published in the _Commentationes Reg. Soc. Gottingensis Recentiores_, vol. iv. A. D. 1820), has brought abundant testimonies to prove _that Egypt supplied all Europe with this kind of paper until towards the end of the eleventh century_. The use of it was then abandoned, cotton paper being employed instead. The Arabs in consequence of their conquests in Bucharia had learnt the art of making _cotton paper_ about the year 704, and through them or the Saracens it was introduced into Europe in the eleventh century[579]. We may therefore consider it as in the highest degree probable, that the mode of making cotton paper was known to the paper-makers of Egypt. At the same time endless quantities of linen cloth, the best of all materials for the manufacture of paper, were to be obtained from the catacombs.

[579] _Wehrs vom Papier_, p. 131, 144, _Note_. _Breitkopf, p._ 81.

If we put together these circumstances, we cannot but perceive how they conspire to illustrate and justify the statement of Abdollatiph. We perceive the interest which the great Egyptian paper-manufacturers had in the improvement of their article, and the unrivalled facilities which they possessed for this purpose; and thus, we apprehend, the direct testimony of an eye-witness of the highest reputation for veracity and intelligence, supported as it is by collateral probabilities, clears up in a great measure the long-agitated question respecting the origin of paper such as we _now_ commonly use for writing.

The evidence being carried thus far, we may take in connection with it the following passage from Petrus Cluniacensis:--

[Latin 444]Sed cojusmodi librum? Si talem quales quotidie in usu legendi habemus, utique ex pellibus arietum, hircorum, vel vitulorum, sive ex biblis, vel juncis orientalium paludum, aut ex rasuris veterum pannorum, seu ex qualibet alia forte viliore materia compactos, et pennis avium vel calamis palustrium locorum, qualibet tinctura infectis descriptos.--_Tractatus adv. Judæos_, c. v. _in Max. Bibl. vet. Patrum, tom._ xxii. p. 1014.

All the writers upon this subject, except Trombelli, suppose the Abbot of Clugny to allude in the phrase “ex rasuris veterum pannorum” to the use of woollen and cotton cloth only, and not of linen. But, as we are now authorized to carry up the invention of linen paper higher than before, and as the mention of it by Abdollatiph justifies the conclusion that it was manufactured in Egypt some time before his visit to that country in 1200, we may reasonably conjecture that Petrus Cluniacensis alluded to the same fact. The treatise above quoted is supposed to have been written A. D. 1120. The account of the materials used for making books appears to be full and accurate. The expression “_scrapings of old cloths_” agrees exactly with the mode of making paper from linen rags, but is not in accordance with any facts known to us respecting the use of woollen or cotton cloth. The only objection against this view of the subject is, that, as Peter of Clugny had not when he wrote this passage travelled eastward of France, we can scarcely suppose him to have been sufficiently acquainted with the manners and productions of Egypt to introduce any allusion to their newly invented mode of making paper. But we know that the Abbey of Clugny had more than 300 churches, colleges, and monasteries dependent on it, and that at least two of these were in Palestine and one at Constantinople. The intercourse which must have subsisted in this way between the Abbey of Clugny and the Levant, may account for the Abbot Peter’s acquaintance with the fact. It is therefore probable that he alludes to the manufacture of paper in Egypt from the cloth of mummies, which on this supposition had been invented early in the twelfth century[580].

[580] Gibbon says (vol. v. p. 295, 4to edition), “The inestimable art of transforming linen into paper has been diffused from the manufacture of _Samarcand_ over the Western world.” This assertion appears to be entirely destitute of foundation.

Another fact, which not only coincides with all the evidence now produced, but carries the date of the invention still a little higher, is the description of the manuscript No. 787, containing an Arabic version of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, in Casiri’s _Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis_, tom. i. p. 235. This MS. was probably brought from Egypt, or the East. It has a date corresponding to A. D. 1100, and is of linen paper according to Casiri, who calls it “Chartaceus.”

“Codices chartacei,” _i. e._ MSS. on linen paper, as old as the thirteenth century, are mentioned not unfrequently in the Catalogues of the Escurial, the Nani, and other libraries. Joseph Brooks Yates, Esq. F. S. A., of West Dingle near Liverpool, is in possession of a fine MS. of some of the Homilies of Chrysostom, written in all probability not later than the thirteenth century. It is on linen paper, with the water-lines perfectly distinct in both directions. The water-mark is a tower, the size and form of which are shown in Plate IX. Fig. 18. From the appearance of this paper, it is probable that the form or mould may perhaps have been made of thin rods of cane or some other vegetable. These rods, however, may have been metallic. They were placed so close, that of the water-lines produced by them 17 may be counted in the space of an inch, the water-lines at right angles to these being one inch and a quarter apart.

The preceding facts coincide with the opinion long ago expressed by Prideaux, who concluded that linen paper was an Eastern invention, because “most of the old MSS. in Arabic and other oriental languages are written on this sort of paper,” and that it was first introduced into Europe by the Saracens of Spain[581].

[581] Old and New Testament connected, Part I. chapter 7. p. 393, 3rd edition, folio.

A few observations, by way of concluding this part of the subject, may here be properly bestowed upon the _material_ with which the WASP-FAMILY construct their nests.

The wasp is _a paper-maker_, and a most perfect and intelligent one. While mankind were arriving, by slow degrees, at the art of fabricating this valuable substance, the wasp was making it before their eyes, by very much the same process as that by which human hands now manufacture it with the best aid of chemistry and machinery. While some nations carved their records on wood, and stone, and brass, and leaden tablets,--others, more advanced, wrote with a style on wax,--others employed the inner bark of trees, and others the skins of animals rudely prepared,--the wasp was manufacturing a firm and durable paper. Even when the papyrus was rendered more fit, by a process of art, for the transmission of ideas in writing. The paper of the papyrus was formed of the leaves of the plant, dried, pressed, and polished; _the wasp alone knew how to reduce vegetable fibres to a pulp, and then unite them by a size or glue, spreading the substance out into a smooth and delicate leaf_. This is exactly the process of paper-making. It would seem that the wasp knows, as the modern paper-makers now know, that the fibres of rags, whether linen or cotton, are not the only materials that can be used in the formation of paper; she employs other vegetable matters, converting them into a proper consistency by her assiduous exertions. In some respects she is more skilful even than our paper-makers, for she takes care to retain her fibres of sufficient length, by which she renders her paper as strong as she requires. Many manufacturers of the present day cut their material into small bits, and thus produce a rotten article. One great distinction between good and bad paper is its toughness; and this difference is invariably produced by the fibre of which it is composed being long, and therefore tough; or short, and therefore friable.

The wasp has been laboring at her manufacture of paper, from her first creation, with precisely the same instruments and the same materials; and her success has been unvarying. Her machinery is very simple, and therefore it is never out of order. She learns nothing, and forgets nothing. Men, from time to time, lose their excellence in particular arts, and they are slow in finding out real improvements. Such improvements are often the effect of accident. Paper is now manufactured very extensively by machinery, in all its stages; and thus, instead of a single sheet being made by hand, a stream of paper is poured out, which would form a roll large enough to extend round the globe, if such a length were desirable. The first experimenters on paper machinery in England, Messrs. Fourdrinier, it is said, spent the enormous sum of 40,000_l._ in vain attempts to render the machine capable of determining the width of the roll; and, at last, accomplished their object at the suggestion of a bystander, by a strap revolving upon an axis, at a cost of _three shillings and sixpence_! Such is the difference between the workings of human knowledge and experience, and those of animal instinct. We proceed slowly and in the dark--but our course is not bounded by a narrow line, for it seems difficult to say what is the perfection of any art; animals go clearly to a given point--but they can go no further. We may, however, learn something from their perfect knowledge of what is within their range. _It is not improbable that if man had attended in an earlier state of society to the labors of wasps, he would have sooner known how to make paper_. We are still behind in our arts and sciences, because we have not always been observers. If we had watched the operations of insects, and the structure of insects in general, with more care, we might have been far advanced in the knowledge of many arts which are yet in their infancy, for nature has given us abundance of patterns. We have learnt to perfect some instruments of sound by examining the structure of the human ear; and the mechanism of an eye has suggested some valuable improvements in achromatic glasses.

Réaumur has given a very interesting account of the wasps of Cayenne (_Chartergus nidulans_), which hang their nests in trees[582]. Like the bird of Africa called the social grosbeak (_Loxia socia_), they fabricate a perfect house, capable of containing many hundreds of their community, and suspend it on high out of the reach of attack. But the Cayenne wasp is a more expert artist than the bird. He is _a pasteboard-maker_;--and the card with which he forms the exterior covering of his abode is so smooth, so strong, so uniform in its texture, and so white that the most skilful manufacturer of this substance might be proud of the work. It takes ink admirably!

[582] Mémoires sur les Insectes, tom. vi., mem. vii. See also Bonnet, vol. ix.

The nest of the pasteboard-making wasp is impervious to water. It hangs upon the branch of a tree, and those rain-drops which penetrate through the leaves never rest upon its hard and polished surface. A small opening for the entrance of the insects terminates its funnel-shaped bottom. It is impossible to unite more perfectly the qualities of lightness and strength.

Mr. J. Rennie, speaking of wasps’ nests, gives us the following interesting account of one lately examined by him:--“The length,” says he, “is about nine inches, six stout circular platforms stretch internally across, like so many floors, and fixed all round to the walls of the nest. They are smooth above, with hexagonal cells on the under surface. These platforms are not quite flat, but rather concave above, like a watch-glass reversed; the centre of each platform is perforated for the admission of the wasps, at the extremity of a short funnel-like projection, and through this access is gained from story to story. On each platform, therefore, can the wasps walk leisurely about, attending to the pupæ secured in the cells, which, with the mouths downward, cover the ceiling above their heads--the height of the latter being just convenient for their work.”

Pendent wasps’-nests of enormous size are found in Ceylon, suspended often in the talipot-tree at the height of seventy feet. The appearance of these nests thus elevated, with the larger leaves of the tree, used by the natives as umbrellas and tents, waving over them, is very singular. Though no species of European wasp is a storer of honey, yet this rule does not apply to certain species of South America. In the “Annals and Magazine of Natural History” for June, 1841, will be found a detailed account, with a figure of the pendent nest of a species termed by Mr. A. White _Myraptera scutellaris_. The external case consists of stout cardboard covered with conical knobs of various sizes. The entrances are artfully protected by pent-roofs from the weather and heavy rains; and are tortuous, so as to render the ingress of a moth or other large insect difficult. Internally are fourteen combs, exclusive of a globular mass, the nucleus of several circular combs, which are succeeded by others of an arched form--that is, constituting segments of circles.

Good writing, printing and wrapping paper, may be procured from the shavings of common wood. The wood must be reduced to shavings by the ordinary jack-plain shaving size. The shavings are then placed in a cistern or boiler sufficiently large, and covered with water, which should be raised to the boiling-point. To every one hundred pounds of the wood so reduced, from twelve to eighteen pounds of alkali, either vegetable or mineral, is to be added, in proportion to its quality for strength. If salts are used they should be reduced before coming in contact with the wood. The salts may, however, be put in with the water and wood before reduction, but the first method is the most preferable. Should lime be used, there must be a sufficient, in all cases, to equal twelve pounds of pure black salts. One hundred pounds of wood will, if well attended to, make from five to seven reams of paper[583].

[583] Mr. Edmund Shaw, of Fenchurch Street, London, obtained a patent in England bearing date September 14, 1837, for a method of manufacturing paper from the leaves which cover the ears of Indian-corn.

According to this patent the envelopes or leaves which cover the corn are in the first instance put into a vessel containing water. The water may be pure or slightly alkaline; the water is then boiled in the vessel into which the aforesaid envelopes or fellicular leaves are thrown, after being macerated. When they have imbibed water and become thickened and swollen, so that the matter interposed between the fibres is reduced to a state of pulp or jelly, a slight beating by fulling, mallet, or other mechanical means will effect a separation of the fibre from the adherent glutinous matter, and washing or rinsing with water during the beating, will cleanse it entirely from the glutinous matter.

The fibre is then bleached, by immersing, or immersing and beating or stirring it about in a solution of chloride of lime, or with beating engines, as at present practised for the bleaching of rags in paper mills, and the fibre is in like manner reduced to pulp, and paper manufactured therefrom, or the quality of the paper may be varied by the admixture of a portion of rags or other filamentous substance.

It may be well to remark, that some attempts to produce paper from the above mentioned material, have been made, but were abandoned from the incapability of producing good white paper.

The patentee claims the mode, or process, above described of making white paper by the application of bleached pulp, produced from the stalks or leaves of Indian-corn.

APPENDIX C.

ON FELT.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF FELTING BY THE ANCIENTS.

Felting more ancient than weaving--Felt used in the East--Use of it by the Tartars--Felt made of goats’-hair by the Circassians--Use of felt in Italy and Greece--Cap worn by the Cynics, Fishermen, Mariners, Artificers, &c.--Cleanthes compares the moon to a skull-cap--Desultores--Vulcan--Ulysses--Phrygian bonnet--Cap worn by the Asiatics--Phrygian felt of Camels’-hair--Its great stiffness--Scarlet and purple felt used by Babylonish decorators--Mode of manufacturing Felt--Northern nations of Europe--Cap of liberty--Petasus--Statue of Endymion--Petasus in works of ancient art--Hats of Thessaly and Macedonia--Laconian or Arcadian hats--The Greeks manufacture Felt 900 B. C.--Mercury with the pileus and petasus--Miscellaneous uses of Felt.

There seems no reason to question the correctness of Professor Beckmann’s observation[584], that the making of felt was invented _before_ weaving[585]. The middle and northern regions of Asia are occupied by Tartars and other populous nations, whose manners and customs appear to have continued unchanged from the most remote antiquity[586], and to whose simple and uniform mode of existence this article seems to be as necessary as food. Felt is the principal substance both of their clothing and of their habitations. Carpini, who in the year 1246 went as ambassador to the great Khan of the Moguls, Mongals, or Tartars, says, “Their houses are round, and artificially made like tents, of rods and twigs interwoven, having a round hole in the middle of the roof for the admission of light and the passage of smoke, _the whole being covered with felt, of which likewise the doors are made_[587].” Very recently the same account of these “portable tents of felt” has been given by Julius von Klaproth[588]. Kupffer says of the Caratchai, “Leurs larges manteaux de feutre leur servent en même tems de matelas et de couverture[589].” The large mantle of felt, here mentioned, is used for the same purpose in the neighboring country of Circassia[590]. One of these mantles now in the possession of Mr. Urquhart was made of black goats’-hair, and had on the outside a long shaggy villus. The Circassians sleep under this mantle by night, and wear it, when required, over their other dress by day. A similar article is thus described by Colonel Leake[591]: the postillions in Phrygia “wear a cloak of white camels’-hair, _half an inch thick_, and so stiff that the cloak stands without support, when set upright on the ground. There are neither sleeves nor hood; but only holes to pass the hands through, and projections like wings upon the shoulders for the purpose of turning off the rain. It is the manufacture of the country.” The Chinese traveller, Chy Fa Hian, who visited India at the end of the fourth century, says, that the people of Chen Chen, a kingdom in a mountainous district situated about the Lake of Lob, wore dresses like those of the Chinese, except that they made use of felt and stuffs (_du feutre et des étoffes_[592]).

[584] _Anleitung zur Technologie_, p. 117, _Note_.

[585] See Gilroy’s Treatise on the _Art of Weaving_, p. 14.

[586] Malcolm’s _Hist. of Persia_, ch. vi. vol. i. pp. 123, 124.

[587] Kerr’s _Collection of Voyages and Travels_, vol. i. p. 128. See also p. 167, where the same facts are related by William de Rubruquis.

The account which Herodotus gives (iv. 23) of the habitations of the Argippæi evidently alludes to customs similar to those of the modern Tartars. He says, “They live under trees, covering the tree in winter with strong and thick undyed felt (πίλῳ στεγνῷ λευκῷ), and removing the felt in summer.” Among the ceremonies observed by the Scythians in burying the dead, Herodotus also mentions the erection of three stakes of wood, which were surrounded with a close covering of woollen felt (iv. 73). Also, in the next section but one (iv. 75.) there is an evident allusion to the practice of living under tents made of felt (ὑποδύνουσι ὑπὸ τοὺς πίλους).

[588] _Reise in dem Kaucasus und nach Georgien_, ch. vi. p. 161.

[589] _Voyage dans les Environs du Mont Elbrouz._ St. Petersburg, 1829, 4to, p. 20.

[590] _Travels in Circassia_, by Edmund Spencer.

[591] _Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor_, p. 38.

[592] Ch. ii. p. 7, of Rémusat’s Translation, Par. 1836, 4to.

In conformity with the prevailing use of this manufacture in the colder regions of Asia, scarlet or purple felt (such as that lately _re-invented_ at Leeds, in England), was used by the Babylonish decorators for the drapery of the funeral pile, when Alexander celebrated the splendid obsequies of Hephæstion: for so we must understand the expression φοινικίδες πιληταί (Diod. Sic. xvii. 115. p. 251, Wess.). Xenophon (_Cycrop._ v. 5. § 7.) mentions the use of felt manufactured in Media, _as a covering for chairs and couches_. The Medes also used bags and sacks of felt (Athenæus, 1. xii. p. 540 _c._ Casaub.).

The process, by which wool is converted into felt, was called by the Greeks πίλησις (Plato _de Leg._ 1. viii. p. 115. ed. Bekker), literally a compression, from πιλέω, to compress[593]. The ancient Greek scholion on the passage of Plato here referred to thus explains the term: Πιλήσεως· τῆς διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐρίων πυκνώσεως γινομένης ἐσθῆτος, _i. e._ “cloth made by the thickening of wool.” With this definition of felt agrees the following description of a πέτασος in a Greek epigram, which records the dedication of it to Mercury:--

Σοὶ τὸν πιληθέντα δι’ εὐξάντου τριχὸς ἀμνοῦ, Ἑρμᾶ, Καλλιτέλης ἐκρέμασε πέτασον.

Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 41.

[593] Xenophanes thought that _the moon_ was _a compressed cloud_ (νέφος πεπιλημένον, Stobæi _Eclog._ i. 27. p. 550, ed. Heeren); _and that the air was emitted from the earth by its compression_ (πίλησις, i. 23. p. 484).

The art of felting was called ἡ πιλητικὴ, (Plato, _Polit._ ii. 2. p. 296, ed. Bekker). According to the ancient Greek and Latin glossaries, and to Julius Pollux (vii. 30), a felt-maker, or hatter, was πιλοποιὸς or πιλωτοποιὸς, in Latin _coactiliarius_. From πῖλος (_dim._ πίλιον, _second dim._ πιλίδιον), the proper term for _felt_ in general, derived from the root of πιλέω, came the verb πιλόω, signifying _to felt_, or _to make felt_, and from this latter verb was formed the ancient participle πιλωτὸς, _felted_, which again gave origin to πιλωτοποιός.

It may be observed, that our English word _felt_ is evidently a participle or a derivative, and that its verb or root FEL appears to be the same with the root of πιλέω.

The Latin _cogo_, which was used, like the Greek πιλέω, to denote the act of compressing, or forcing the separate hairs together, gave origin to the participle _coactus_, and its derivative _coactilis_. Pliny (H. N. viii. 48. s. 73.), after speaking of woven stuffs, mentions in the following terms the use of wool for making felt: “Lanæ et per se coactæ (_al._ coactam) vestem ficiunt,” _i. e._ “Parcels of wool, driven together by themselves, make cloth.” This is a very exact, though brief description of the process of felting. The following monumental inscription (Gruter, p. 648, n. 4.) contains the title _Lanarius coactiliarius_, meaning _a manufacturer of woollen felt:_--

M. BALLORIUS M. L. LARISEUS, LANARIUS COACTILIARIUS, CONJUGA CARISSIMÆ B. M. FEC.

Helvius Successus, the son of a freed man, and the father of the Roman emperor Pertinax, was a hatter in Liguria (_tabernam coactiliariam in Liguria exercuerat_, Jul. Cap. _Pertinax_, c. 3.). Pertinax himself, being fond of money, having the perseverance expressed by his agnomen, and having doubtless, in the course of his expeditions into the East, made valuable observations respecting the manufacture which he had known from his boyhood, continued and extended the same business, carrying it on and conveying his goods to a distance by the agency of slaves. The Romans originally received the use of felt together with its name[594] from the Greeks (Plutarch, _Numa_, p. 117, ed. Steph.). The Greeks were acquainted with it as early as the age of Homer, who lived about 900 B. C. (_Il._ x. 265), and Hesiod (_Op. et Dies_, 542, 546).

[594] _Pileus_ or _Pileum_ (Non. Marc. iii., _pilea virorum sunt_, Servius _in Virg. Æn._ ix. 616.), dim. _Pileolus_ or _Pileolum_ (Colum. _de Arbor._ 25).

The principal use of felt among the Greeks and Romans was to make coverings of the head for the male sex, and the most common cover made of this manufacture was a simple skull-cap, _i. e._ a cap exactly fitted to the shape of the head, as is shown in Plate VIII. fig. 1. taken from a sepulchral bas-relief which was found by Mr. Dodwell in Bœotia[595]. The original is as large as life. The person represented appears to have been a Cynic philosopher. He leans upon the staff (_baculus_, βάκτρον, σκῆπτρον); he is clothed in the blanket (_pallium_, χλαῖνα, τρίβων) with one end, which is covered, over his left breast, and another hanging behind over his left shoulder; he wears the beard (_barba_, πώγων); his head is protected by the simple skull-cap (_pileus_, πῖλος). All these were distinct characteristics of the philosopher, and more especially of the Cynic[596]. The dog also probably marked his sect. Leonidas of Tarentum, in his enumeration of the goods belonging to the Cynic Posochares[597], including a dog-collar (κυνοῦχον), mentions, καὶ πῖλον κεφαλᾶς οὔχ ὁσίας σκεπανὸν, _i. e._ “The cap of felt, which covered his unholy head.” This passage may be regarded as a proof, that among the Greeks, though not among the Romans, the cap of felt was worn by very poor men. It also proves that this cap, which was the _fess_ of the modern Greeks, was worn by philosophers, and therefore throws light on a passage of Antiphanes (_ap. Athen._ xii. 63. p. 545 a) describing a philosopher of a different character, who was very elegantly dressed, having a small cap of fine felt (πιλίδιον ἁπαλὸν), also a small white blanket, a beautiful tunic, and a neat stick. When Cleanthes advanced the doctrine, _that the moon had the shape of a skull-cap_ (πιλοειδῆ τῷ σχήματι, Stobæi _Ecl. Phys._ 1. 27. p. 554, ed. Heeren), he probably intended to account for its phases from its supposed hemispherical form. A cap of a similar form and appearance, though perhaps larger and not so closely fitted to the crown of the head, was worn by fishermen[598]. In an epigram of Philippus[599], describing the apparatus of a fisherman, the author mentions πῖλον ἀμφίκρηνον ὑδασιστεγῆ, “the cap encompassing his head and protecting it from wet.” Figure 2. in Plate VIII. represents a small statue of a fisherman belonging to the Townley Collection in the British Museum. His cap is slightly pointed and in a degree, which was probably favorable to the discharge of water from its surface. Hesiod recommends, that agricultural laborers should wear the same defence from cold and showers (_Op. et Dies_, 545-547). The use of this cap by seamen was no doubt the ground, on which the painter Nicomachus represented Ulysses wearing one. “Hic primus,” says Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 36. s. 22.), “Ulyssi addidit pileum[600].” For the same reason the cap is an attribute of the Dioscuri; and hence two caps with stars above them are often shown on the coins of maritime cities and of others where Castor and Pollux were worshipped. Figure 3. of Plate VIII. is taken from a brass coin of Dioscurias in Colchis, preserved in the British Museum. On the reverse is the name ΔΙΟΣΚΟΥΡΙΑΔΟΣ. Figure 4. represents both sides of a silver coin in the same collection, with the legend ΒΡΕΤΤΙΩΝ. It belongs to Bruttium in South Italy. On the one side Castor and Pollux are mounted on horseback. They wear the chlamys and carry palm branches in their hands. Their caps have a narrow brim. The reverse shows their heads only, and their caps, without brims, are surrounded by wreaths of myrtle. The cornucopia is added as an emblem of prosperity. Figure 5. is from a brass coin of Amasia (ΑΜΑΣΣΕΙΑΣ) in Pontus. It shows the cornucopia between the two skull-caps. Charon also was represented with the mariner’s or fishermen’s cap, as, for example, in the bas-relief in the _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 35, and the painted vase in Stackelberg’s _Grüber der Hellenen_, t. 47, 48, which is copied in Becker s _Charicles_, vol. ii. taf. i. fig. 1, and in Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 404.

[595] _Tour through Greece_, vol. i. pp. 242, 243.

[596] See the articles _Baculus_, _Barba_, _Pallium_, p. 703, in Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_.

[597] Brunck, _Anal._ i. p. 223. Nos. x. xi.

[598] Theocrit. xxi. 13.

[599] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. p. 212. No. v.

[600] Compare Eustathius _in Hom. Il._ x. 265, as quoted below.

A pileus of the same general form was worn by artificers; and on this account it was attributed to Vulcan and to Dædalus, who, as well as Ulysses and Charon, are commonly found wearing it in works of ancient art. Arnobius says, that Vulcan was represented “cum pileo et malleo”--“fabrili expeditione succinctus;” and that on the other hand Mercury was represented with the petasus, or “petasunculus,” on his head.[601] This observation is confirmed by numerous figures of these two divinities, if we suppose the term _petasus_, which will be more fully illustrated hereafter, to have meant a hat with a brim, and _pileus_ to have denoted properly a fessor cap without a brim.

[601] _Adv. Gentes_, lib. vi. p. 674, ed. Erasmi. When Lucian ludicrously represents Jupiter wearing a skull-cap, which we may suppose to have been like that of the philosopher in Plate VIII. figure 1. he must have intended to describe the “Father of gods and men” as a weak old man; Διεῖλε τὴν κεφαλὴν κατενεγκών· καὶ εἴ γε μὴ ὁ πῖλος ἀντέσχε, καὶ τὸ πολὺ τῆς πληγῆς ἀπεδέξατο, &c. _Dial. Deor._, vol. ii. p. 314. ed. Hemster.

Fig. 6. Plate VIII. is taken from a small bronze statue of Vulcan in the Royal Collection at Berlin. He wears the _exomis_, and holds his hammer in the right hand and his tongs in the left. For other specimens of the head-dress of Vulcan the reader is referred to the _Museo Pio-Clementino_, t. iv. tav. xi., and to Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 589.

Plate VIII. is intended still further to illustrate some of the most common varieties in the form of the ancient skull-cap. Figure 7. is a head of Vulcan from a medal of the Aurelian family[602]. Figure 8. is the head of Dædalus from a bas-relief, formerly belonging to the Villa Borghese, and representing the story of the wooden cow, which he made for Pasiphae[603]. Fig. 10. is from a cameo in the Florentine collection. Fig. 9. is the head of a small bronze statue, wearing boots and the _exomis_, which belonged to Mr. R. P. Knight, and is now in the British Museum. It is engraved in the “Specimens of Ancient Sculpture published by the Society of Dilettanti,” vol. i. pl. 47. The editors express a doubt whether this statue was meant for Vulcan or Ulysses, merely because the god and the hero were commonly represented wearing the same kind of cap. Not only does the expression of countenance decide the question; but also the small bronze of Mr. Knight’s collection agrees in attitude and costume with many small statues of Vulcan, who is represented in all of them wearing the exomis, holding the hammer and tongs, and having the felt cap on his head[604]. Fig. 11. is another representation of Ulysses from an ancient lamp[605]. It exhibits him tied to the mast, while he listens to the song of the Sirens. The cap in this figure is much more elongated than in the others.

[602] Montfaucon, _Ant. Expl._ t. i. pl. 46. No. 4.

[603] Winckelmann, _Mon. Ined._ ii. 93. The skull-cap, here represented as worn by Dædalus, is remarkably like that which is still worn by shepherd boys in Asia Minor. Fig. 12, in Plate VIII. is copied from an original drawing of such a Grecian youth, procured by Mr. George Scharf who accompanied Mr. Fellows on his second tour into that country.

According to Herodotus the Scythians had felted coverings for their tents, a custom still found among their successors, the Tartars. Felting appears to have preceded weaving. It is certainly a much ruder and simpler process: and, when we consider both the long prevalence of the art among the pastoral inhabitants of the ancient Scythia, and the extensive use of its products among them so as to be employed even for their habitations, perhaps we shall be right in considering felting as the appropriate invention of this people.

[604] Montfaucon, _Ant. Expl._ vol. i. pl. 46. figs. 1. 2. 3; _Mus. Florent. Gemmæ Ant. a Gorio illustratæ_, tom. ii. tab. 40. fig. 3.

[605] Bartoli, _Lucerne Antiche_, P. III. tab. 11. There is a beautiful figure of Ulysses in _Picturæ Antiquæ Virgiliani cod. Bibl. Vat._ a Bartoli, tab. 103, taken from a gem. In Winckelmann, _Mon. Ined._ ii. No. 154, he is represented giving wine to the Cyclops: this figure is copied in Smith’s _Dict._ p. 762.

The felt cap was worn not only by _desultores_, but by others of the Romans upon a journey, in sickness, or in cases of unusual exposure. Hence Martial says in _Epig._ xiv. 132, entitled “Pileus,”

Si possem, totas cuperem misisse lacernas: Nunc tantum capiti munera mitto tuo. _i. e._ O that a whole lacerna I could send! Let this (I can no more) your head defend.

The wig (_galerus_) answered the same purpose for the wealthy classes (_arrepto pileo vel galero_, Sueton. _Nero_, 26), and the _cucullus_ and _cudo_ for both rich and poor. On returning home from a party, a person sometimes carried his cap and slippers under his arm (Hor. _Epist._ l. xiii. 15).

The hats worn by the Salii[606] are said by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to have been “tall hats of a conical form[607].” Plutarch distinctly represents them as made of felt. He says (_l. c._), that the _flamines_ were so called _quasi pilamines_, because they wore felt hats, and because in the early periods of Roman history it was more common to invent names derived from the Greek. On coins, however, this official cap of the Salii and Flamines is commonly oval like that attributed to the Dioscuri. We observe indeed continual variations in the form of the pileus from hemispherical to oval, and from oval to conical. A conical cap is seen on the head of the reaper in the wood-cut to the article FLAX in Smith’s _Dictionary_ of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which wood-cut is taken from a coin of one of the Lagidæ, kings of Egypt. Caps, regularly conical and still more elongated, are worn by the buffoons or comic dancers, who are introduced in an ancient mosaic preserved in the Villa Corsini at Rome[608]. Telephus, king of Mysia, is represented as wearing a “Mysian cap[609].” This “Mysian cap” must have been the same which is known by the moderns under the name of _the Phrygian bonnet_, and with which we are familiar from the constant repetition of it in statues and paintings of Priam, Paris, Ganymede[610], Atys, Perseus, and Mithras, and in short in all the representations not only of Trojans and Phrygians, but of Amazons and of all the inhabitants of Asia Minor, and even of nations dwelling still further to the East. Also, when we examine the works of ancient art which contain representations of this Mysian cap, we perceive that it was a cone bent into the form in which it is exhibited, and so bent, perhaps by use, but more probably by design. This circumstance is well illustrated in a bust of Parian marble, supposed to be intended for Paris, which is preserved in the Glyptotek at Munich. A drawing of it is given in Plate VIII. fig. 13. The flaps of the bonnet are turned up and fastened over the top of the head. The stiffness of the material is clearly indicated by the sharp angular appearance of that portion of it which is turned forwards. Mr. Dodwell, in his _Tour in Greece_ (vol. i. p. 134), makes the following observations on the modern costume, which seems to resemble the ancient, except that the ancient πῖλος and πιλίδιον were probably of undyed wool:--“The Greeks of the maritime parts, and particularly of the islands, wear a red or blue cap of a conical form, like the pilidion. When it is new it stands upright, but it soon bends, and then serves as a pocket for the handkerchief, and sometimes for the purse. Others wear the red skull-cap, or _fess_.” The Lycians, as we are informed by Herodotus (viii. 92), wore caps of felt, which were surrounded with feathers. Some of the Lycian coins and bas-reliefs, however, show the “Phrygian bonnet,” as it is called, in the usual form[611].

[606] Smith’s _Dict. of Gr. and R. Antiquities_, art. Apex.

[607] _Ant. Rom._ L. ii.

[608] Bartoli, _Luc. Ant._ P. I. tab. 35.

[609] Aristoph. _Acham._ 429.

[610] Stuart, in his _Antiquities of Athens_, vol. iii. ch. 9. plates 8, 9, has engraved two beautiful statues of Telephus and Ganymede from a ruined colonnade at Thessalonica. In these the cap is very little pointed.

[611] Fellows’s _Discoveries in Lycia_, Plate 35. Nos. 3, 7. The “Phrygian bonnet” is seen in the bas-reliefs brought from Xanthus by this intelligent traveller, and now deposited in the British Museum.

The cap worn by the Persians is called by Greek authors κυρβασία or τιάρα[612], and seems to have had the form now under consideration. Herodotus, when he describes the costume of the Persian soldiers in the army of Xerxes, says, that they wore light and flexible caps of felt, which were called _tiaras_. He adds, that the Medes and Bactrians wore the same kind of cap with the Persians, but that the Cissii wore a mitra instead (vii. 61, 62, 64). On the other hand he says, that the Sacæ wore _cyrbasiæ_, which were sharp-pointed, straight, and compact. The Armenians were also called “weavers of felt” (Brunck, _Anal._ ii. p. 146. No. 22). The form of their caps is clearly shown in the coins of the Emperor Verus, one of which, preserved in the British Museum, is engraved in Plate VIII. fig. 14. The legend, surrounding his head, L. VERVS. AVG. ARMENIACVS, refers to the war in Armenia. The reverse shows a female figure representing Armenia, mourning and seated on the ground, and surrounded by the emblems of Roman warfare and victory. The caps represented on this and other coins agree remarkably with the forms still used in the same parts of Asia. Strabo (L. xi. p. 563, ed. Sieb.) says, that these caps were necessary in Media on account of the cold. He calls the Persian cap “felt in the shape of a tower” (L. xv. p. 231). The king of Persia was distinguished by wearing a stiff cyrbasia, which stood erect, whereas his subjects wore their tiaras folded and bent forwards.[613] Hence in the _Aves_ of Aristophanes the cock is ludicrously compared to the Great King, his erect comb being called his “cyrbasia.” The Athenians no doubt considered this form of the tiara as an expression of pride and assumption. It is recorded as one of the marks of arrogance in Apollodorus, the Athenian painter, that he wore an “erect cap[614].”

[612] Herod, v. 49. According to Mœris, _v._ Κυρβασία, this was the Attic term, τιάρα meaning the same thing in the common Greek. Plutarch applies the latter term to the cap worn by the younger Cyrus: Ἀποπίπτει δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἡ τιάρα τοῦ Κύρου. --_Artaxerxes_, p. 1858. ed. Steph.

The “Phrygian bonnet” is called _Phrygia tiara_ in the following lines of an epitaph (_ap. Gruter._ p. 1123):

Indueris teretes manicas Phrygiamque tiaram? Non unus Cybeles pectore vivet Atys.

[613] Xenoph. _Anab._ ii. 5. 23; _Cyrop._ viii. 3, 13. Clitarchus, _ap. Schol. in Aristoph. Aves_, 487.

[614] Πῖλον ὀρθόν. Hesychius, _s. v._ Σκιαγραφαί.

The coin represented in Plate VIII. fig. 15. (taken from Patin, _Imp. Rom. Numismata_, Par. 1697, p. 213) is of the reign of the Emperor Commodus, and belonged according to the legend either to Trapezus in Cappadocia or to Trapezopolis in Caria. It represents the god Lunus or Mensis, who was the moon considered as of the male sex agreeably to the ideas of many northern and Asiatic nations (Patin, p. 173). This male moon or month was, as it seems, always represented with the cyrbasia[615]. In another coin published by Patin (_l. c._) a cock stands at the feet of this divinity, proving that this was the sacred bird of Lunus, and probably because the rayed form of the cock’s comb was regarded as a natural type of the cyrbasia, which distinguished the kings of Persia and was attributed also to this Oriental divinity. A lamp found on the Celian Mount at Rome[616] represents in the centre Lunus with 12 rays, probably designed to denote the 12 months of the year, and on the handle two cocks pecking at their food. A head of the same divinity, published by Hirt (_l. c._) from an antique gem at Naples, has 7 stars upon the cap, perhaps referring to the 7 planets.

[615] Hirt’s _Bilderbuch_, p. 88. tab. xi. figs. 8, 9.

[616] Bartoli, _Luc. Ant._, P. II. tav. 11.

Instead of the conical cap of the Asiatics many of the Northern nations of Europe appear to have worn a felt cap, the form of which was that of a truncated cone. Of this a good example is shown in the group of Sarmatians, represented in the wood-cut in Smith s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (p. 160), which is taken from the Column of Trajan. The same thing appears in various coins belonging to the reign of this Emperor, two of which, preserved in the British Museum, are engraved in Plate VIII. fig. 16. represents Dacia sitting as a captive with her hands tied behind her back, wearing trowsers (_braccæ_) and a conical or oval cap with the edge turned up. Figure 17. represents Dacia mourning. In each we see a Dacian target together with Roman armor. Each has the same legend, DAC. CAP. COS. V. P. P. S. P. Q. R. OPTIMO. PRINC. On the reverse is the head of the Emperor with the inscription IMP. TRAJANO. AUG. GER. DAC. P. M. TR. P.

According to the representation of Lucian (_de Gymnas._), the Scythians were in the constant habit of wearing caps or hats: for in the conversation between Anacharsis and Solon described by that author, Anacharsis requests to go into the shade, saying that he could scarce endure the sun, and that he had brought his cap (πῖλον) from home, but did not like being seen alone in a strange habit. In later times we read of the “pileati Gothi” and “pileati sacerdotes Gothorum[617].”

[617] Jornandes, &c., _ap. Div. Gentium Hist. Ant._, Hamb. 1611, pp. 86, 93.

In considering the use of the skull-cap, or of the conical cap of felt, it remains to notice the use of it among the Romans as the emblem of liberty[618]. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaven, and wore instead of his hair the pileus, or cap of undyed felt, (Diod. Sic. Exc. Leg. 22. p. 625, ed. Wess.). Plutarch, in allusion to the same custom, calls the cap πιλίον, which is the diminutive of πῖλος. It is evident, that the Latin _pileus_ or _pileum_ is derived from the Greek πῖλος and its diminutive, and this circumstance in conjunction with other evidence tends to show, that the Latins adopted this use of felt from the Greeks. Sosia says in Plautus (_Amphit._ i. l, 306), as a description of the mode of receiving his liberty, “Ut ego hodie, raso capite calvus, capiam pileum.” Servius (_in Virg. Æn._ viii. 564) says, the act of manumitting slaves in this form was done in the temple of Feronia, who was the goddess of freedmen. In her temple at Terracina was a stone seat, on which was engraved the following verse:

“Benemeriti servi sedeant, surgent liberi.”

[618] Hæc mea libertas; hoc nobis pilea donant.--Persius, v. 82.

In allusion to this practice it appears that the Romans, though they did not commonly wear hats, put them on at the Saturnalia.[619] At the death of Nero, the common people to express their joy went about the city in felt caps.[620] In allusion to this custom the figure of Liberty on the coins of Antoninus Pius holds the cap in her right hand. Figures 1 and 2 in Plate IX. are examples selected from the collection in the British Museum, and, as we learn from the legend, were struck when he was made consul the fourth time, _i. e._ A. D. 145.

[619] Pileata Roma. _Martial_, xi. 7; xiv. 1.

[620] Plebs pileata. _Sueton. Nero_, 57.

In contradistinction to the various forms of the felt cap now described and represented, all of which were more or less elevated, and many of which were pointed upwards, we have now to consider those, which, though made of felt, and therefore classed by the ancients under the general terms _pileus_, πῖλος, &c.,[621] corresponded more nearly to our modern _hat_. The Greek word πέτασος, _dim._ πετάσιον, derived from πετάννυμι, _extendo_, _dilato_, and adopted by the Latins in the form _petasus_, dim. _petasunculus_, well expressed the distinctive form of these hats. They were more or less broad and expanded. What was taken from their height was added to their width. Those already mentioned had no brim; the petasus of every variety had a brim, which was either exactly or nearly circular, and which varied greatly in its width. In some cases it seems to be a mere circular disc without any crown at all. Of this we have an example in a beautiful statue, which has, no doubt, been meant for Endymion, in the Townley collection of the British Museum. See Plate IX. Fig. 3. His right hand encircles his head, and his scarf is spread over a rock as described by Lucian[622]. He sleeps upon it, holding the fibula in his left hand. His feet are adorned with boots (_cothumi_) and his simple petasus is tied under his chin. In this form the petasus illustrates the remark of Theophrastus, who, in describing the Egyptian Bean, says, that the leaf was of the size of the Thessalian petasus[623]. For the purpose of comparing these two objects, a representation of the leaves of the plant referred to, is introduced into the same Figure (3); taken from the “Botanical Magazine,” Plates 903, 3916, and Sir J. E. Smith’s “Exotic Botany,” Tab. 31, 32. The petasus here shown on the head of Endymion, the original statue being as large as life, certainly resembles very closely both in size and in form the leaf of the Egyptian Bean, which is the Cyamus Nelumbo, or Nelumbium Speciosum of modern botanists.

[621] Plutarch (_Solon_, 179) says that Solon, pretending to be mad and acting the part of a herald from Salamis, ἐξεπήδησεν εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἄφνω πιλίον περιθέμενος. Here πιλίον seems to mean the πέτασος.

[622] In the Dialogues of the Gods (xi.), the Moon says in answer to Venus, that Endymion is particularly beautiful “when he sleeps, having thrown his scarf under him upon the rock, holding in his left hand the darts just falling from it, whilst his right hand bent upwards lies gracefully round his face, and, dissolved in sleep, he exhales his ambrosial breath.”

The recumbent statue, here represented, is of white marble, and is placed in room XI. of the Townley Gallery. It was found in 1774 at Roma Vecchia (Dallaway’s _Anecdotes of the Arts_, p. 303). It has been called Mercury or Adonis. But there are no examples or authorities in support of either of these suppositions. It is not sufficient to say that every beautiful youth may have been meant either for Mercury, who was never represented asleep, or for Adonis. We know that the fable of Endymion and the Moon was a favorite subject with the ancient artists. In the _Antichita d’Ercolano_, tom. iii. tav. 3, we find a picture, which was discovered at Portica, and which represents this subject. It is still more frequent in ancient bas-reliefs. See _Mus. Pio-Clem._ tom. iv. v. 8, pp. 38, 41; Sandrart, _Sculp. Vet. Adm._ p. 52; Gronovii _Thesaur._ tom. i. folio O; _Proceedings of the Philological Society_, vol. i. pp. 8, 9.

[623] Πετάσῳ Θετταλικῇ. _Hist. Plant._ iv. 10. p. 147, ed. Schneider.

The flowers of umbelliferous plants are aptly called by Phanias[624] πετασώδη, _i. e._ like a petasus. The petasus, as worn by the two shepherds, who discover Romulus and Remus, in a bas-relief of the Vatican[625], is certainly not unlike the umbel of a plant. See Plate IX. Fig. 4.

Callimachus ascribes the same head-dress to shepherds in the following lines:

Ἔπρεπε τοι προέχουσα κάρης εὐρεῖα καλύπτρη, Ποιμενικὸν πίλημα.--_Frag._ cxxv.

The wide covering projecting from your head, the pastoral hat, became you.

[624] _Apud Athen._ ix. 12. p. 371 D. ed. Casaub.

[625] Museo Pio-Clementino, tom. v. tav. 24. This bas-relief formerly belonged to the Mattei collection. See _Monumenta Matthæinana_, tom. iii. tab. 37.

This pastoral hat, if we may judge from the representation of the two shepherds in the bas-relief just referred to (Fig. 4.), was in its shape very like the “bonny blue bonnet” of the Scotch. Figure 5 in Plate IX. is taken from a painted Greek vase, and represents the story of the delivery of Œdipus to be exposed. His name ΟΙΔΙΠΟΔΑΣ is written beside him. The shepherd ΕΥΦΟΡΒΟΣ, who holds the naked child in his arms, wears a flat and very broad petasus hanging behind his neck. It is of an irregular shape, as if from long usage[626]. The shepherd Zethus wears a petasus hanging behind his back in a bas-relief belonging to the Borghese collection, published by Winckelmann (_Mon. Inediti_, ii. 85). See Plate IX. Fig. 6.

[626] See [Italian 469]_Monumenti Inediti pubblicati dall’ Instituto di Correspondenza Archeologica_, vol. ii. tav. 14.

The Athenian ephebi wore the broad-brimmed hat, together with the scarf or chlamys[627]. Meleager, in an epigram on a beautiful boy, named Antiochus, says, that he would be undistinguishable from Cupid, if Cupid wore a scarf and petasus instead of his bow and arrows and his wings[628].

[627] Pollux, _Onom._ x. 164; Philemon, p. 367. ed. Meineke; Brunck, _Anal._ vol. ii. p. 41; Jacobs _in Athol. Græc._ i. l. p. 24.

[628] Brunck, _Anal._ vol. i. p. 5.

When a young Greek conquered in the games, his friends sometimes bestowed a hat (_petasus_) upon him as a present[629].

[629] Eratosthen. _a Bernhardy_, p. 249. 250.

In consequence of the use of the petasus as a part of the ordinary costume of the Athenian youth, we find it in a great variety of works of ancient art illustrative of the religion and mythology of Greece. For example:--

1. In the inner frieze of the Parthenon, the remains of which are now in the British Museum, it is worn by many of the riders on horseback. Figure 7, in Plate IX. shows one of these horsemen (from the slab No. 54.) with his petasus tied under his chin.

2. It is worn by Theseus, as represented on a vase in the Vatican collection. See Winckelmann, _Mon. Inediti_, vol. ii. 98, and Fig. 8, Plate IX.

3. Also by Œdipus, as represented on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases (vol. ii. Plate 24.), standing before the sphinx.

4. The coins of Ætolia exhibit Meleager wearing the petasus. Five of these have been selected from the collection in the British Museum, which are engraved according to the size of the originals in Plate IX. Figures 9, 10, and 11, are of silver. In each of them the petasus has the form of a circular disc with a boss at the top like that on a Scotch bonnet: on the reverse is the Calydonian boar, with a spear head beneath it, and the word ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ. Figure 12, which is of gold[630], and Figure 13, which is of silver, have the head of Hercules on the reverse. The hero, supposed to be Meleager, wears a petasus, a scarf, and boots, as we have seen to be the case with Endymion (Fig. 3), this being the attire of hunters. In these two coins he also holds a spear in his right hand, and is seated upon a shield (see Fig. 13.) and other pieces of armor. ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ is written by the side. The gold coin (see Fig. 12.) represents him with a Victory in his left hand, and with a small figure of Diana Lucifera in front.

[630] This is engraved by Taylor Combe, _Vet. Populorum Nunmi._ tab. v. No. 23.

The broad-brimmed hat, or petasus, was more especially worn by the Greeks when they were travelling[631]. Its appearance is well shown in Fig. 14, taken from a fictile vase belonging to the late Mr. Hope[632]. It represents a Greek soldier on a journey, wearing his large blanket, and holding two spears in his right hand. This figure also shows one of the methods of fastening on the hat, viz. by passing the string round the occiput.

The comedies of Plautus, being translated from the Greek, contain allusions to the same practice. In the Pseudolus (ii. 4. 55, and iv. 7. 90,) the petasus and the scarf are supposed to be worn by a person to indicate that he was coming from a journey. In the prologue to the Amphitryo, Mercury says,

Ego has habebo hic usque in petaso pinnulas, Tum meo patri autem torulus inerit aureus Sub petaso: id signum Amphitruoni non erit.

[631] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 170, No. 5.

[632] Hope, _Costume of the Ancients_, vol. i. pl. 71.

Mercury and his father Jupiter are here supposed to be attired like Sosia and Amphitryo his master, both of whom had been travelling and were returning home. At the same time there is an allusion to the winged hat of Mercury, of which more hereafter. Again, in act i.