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

378 ANCIENT HISTORY OF
produced, i. e. to prove that Piaaoi meant^ar and not cotton, as
those authors have supposed. Yet their evidence may be con-
sidered as going all for nothing, because they express not their
owTi opinion formed by independent inquiry and investigation.
but merely the opinion which they have adopted from Forster
and Blumenbach.
There is, however, no reason to doubt, that Forster is right
in considering Bwaoi. or Byssus, as an Eg}^tian word with a
Greek or Latin termination. In the Septuagint version it is always
used as equivalent to the Hebrew u;a [Shesh or Ses),
which according to the Hebrew Rabbis was a kind of flax, that
grew in Egypt only and was of the finest quahty*. Another
term, used in the Pentateuch for hnen cloth is id [bad), which
seems to be nearly the same as ti"i'. The Eg}^ptian term sa or
sna (buts) is very seldom found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and
not until the intercourse became frequent between the Jews
and other oriental nations. But it is continually employed by
the Arabic, Persic, and Chaldee Translators, as equivalent to
the Hebrew terms L'lr and "la.
The distinction betw^een Bcircos and the Eg}^tian terms for-
merly explained is very ob^'ious. ^uauv, '09w»;, and llivSwv deno-
ted hnen cloth ; Biaao; the plant, from w^hich it was made.
Hence we so commonly find the adjective form Bitraivos or Bys-
sinus, i. e. made of Byssus, as in IlivSuiv Piaaivr,, 'OBow Piaaivn, '0Q6via
Piaciva, I.t6\v Hiautvi,, &c., and tliis is agreeable to the remark of the
Patriarch Photius in his 192nd Epistle,