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

THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 381
while the Egyptians suppHed ropes of Papyrus, which were in-
ferior to the others in strength.
Whilst r\'iis, derived probably from la'JB, to strip or peel, is
used for flax in every state, we find another term, n-i?3, used for
tow. This term tlierefore corresponds to Stvppa in Latin*
Etoupe in French ; Urtn-ri, ariTririov or amnriov in Greek ; Ntipno, from
pin, to comb, in Syriac ; We?'g in modern German.
Eccles. xl. 4. represents poor persons as clothed in coarse linen,
to/«oX.voi/ (Lino crudo, Jerovie), meaning probably flax dressed
and spun without having been steepedt.
In Rev. XV. 6. the seven angels come out of the temple
clothed " ill pure and white linen." This is to be explained
by what has been already said of the use of linen for the temple
service among the Egyptians and the Jews. On three other
occasions mentioned in the New Testament, viz. the case of
the young man, who had " a linen cloth cast about his naked
body" {Mark xiv. 51, 52.)
; the entombment of Christ {Matt.
xxvii. 59. Mark xv. 46. Liike xxiii. 53. xxiv. 12. John
xix. 40. XX. 5, 6, 7.) ; and the case of the " sheet" let down in
vision from heaven (^c^5 x. 11. xi. 5.). the sacred writers employ
the equivalent Egyptian terms, EaJu-, and '096vr, or ''OB6viov.
The " Byssus of the Hebrews," mentioned by Pausanias may
have been so called, because it was imported into Greece by the
Hebrews, not because it grew in Palestine, as many critics have
concluded.
Herodotus {I. c.)obseiTe3, that the Greeks called the Colchian
flax ^ipioviKov. The epithet must be understood as referring to
Sardes, from the vicinity of which city flax was obtained ac-
cording to the testimony of Julius Pollux (/. c). In another
passage Herodotus remarks (v. 87.), that the linen shift worn
by the Athenian women, was originally Carian. The Milesian
Sindones, mentioned by Jonathan, the Chaldee Paraphrast, on
* The origin of Stuppa, the Latin term, was from its use in stopping chinks
{stopfer, German) . It was either of hemp or flax.
" Stuppa cannabi est sive lini. Haec secundum antiquam orthographiam stup-
pa (stipa?) dicitur, quod ex ea rima; navium stipentur : unde et stipatoree dicim-
tur, qui in vaUibus earn componunt.'" Isid. Hisp. Orig. xix. 27.
t See Bodaeusa Stapel on Theophrasti Hist. Plant. 1. viii. p. 944.
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