The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 367
in one part like a riband from the one-thousandth to the twelve-hundredth part
of an inch broad, and in another like a sharp edge or narrow line. They have a
pearly translucency in the middle space, with a dark narrow border at each side,
hke a hem. When broken across, the fracture is fibrous or pointed. Mummy
cloth, tried by these criteria in the microscope, appears to be composed both in its
warp and woof-yarns of flax, and not of cotton. A great variety of the swathing
fillets have been examined with an excellent achromatic microscope, and they
have all evinced the absence of cotton filaments.
Mr. Wilkinson considers the observations of Dr. Ure, and
Mr. Bauer as decisive of the question*.
With regard to the evidence from mummies it should be
further remarked, that, as they are partly wrapped in old linen
(shirts, napkins, and other articles of clothing and domestic fur-
niture being found with the long fillets and the entire webs),
they prove the general apphcation of linen in Egypt to all the
purposes of ordinary life.
Even to the present day flax continues to be a most impor-
tant article of cultivation and trade in Egyptf. The climate
and soil are so favorable, that it there grows to a height, which
it never reaches in Europe. It must no doubt, become coarser
in proportion to its size, and this circumstance may account for
the use of it in ancient times for all those purposes, for which
we employ hemp, as for making nets, ropes, and sail-cloth.
The fine linen of the ancient Egyptians must have been
made from flax of lower growth and with thinner stems ; and
the mummies testify, that they made cloth of the finest as well
as of the coarsest texture.
The following remark of Hasselquist respecting the soft and
loose texture of the linen made in Egypt in his time agrees remarkably
with the appearance of that found in mummies.
" The Egyptian hnen is not so thick," says he, " as the Eu-
ropean, being softer and of a looser texture ; for which reason
it lasts longer and does not wear, out so soon as ours, which frequently
wears out the faster on account of its stifihess." He
also observes, " The common people in Egypt are clothed in
* Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, London 1837, vol. iii
p. 115.
t Browne's Travels in Africa, p. 83.