_Tola_ or _Thola_ was the ancient Phœnician name for this insect and dye, which was used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians; for it is employed by the Syrian translator.[898] Among the Jews, after their captivity, the Aramæan _zehori_ was more common. This dye was known also to the Egyptians in the time of Moses; and it is most probable that the color mentioned in Exodus[899] as one of the three which were prescribed for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the “holy garments” of Aaron, and which the English translators have rendered by the word _scarlet_ (not the color now so called, which was not known in James the First’s reign when the Bible was translated), was no other than the blood-red color dyed from the _Coccus ilicis_. The Arabs received the name _Kermes_ or _Alkermes_ for the insect and dye, from Armenia and Persia, where the insect was indigenous, and had long been known; and that name banished the old name in the East, as the name scarlet has in the West. For the first part of this assertion we must believe the Arabs. The Kermes, however, were not indigenous to Arabia, as the Arabs appear to have no name for them. To the Greeks this dye was known under the name of _Coccus_, as appears from Dioscorides, and other Greek writers.[900] From the epithets _kermes_ and _coccus_, and that of _vermiculus_ or _vermiculum_, given to the Kermes in the middle ages, when they were ascertained to be insects, have sprung the Latin _coccineus_, the French _carmesin_, _carmine_, _cramoisi_ and _vermeil_, the Italian _chermisi_, _cremisino_, and _chermesino_, and our _crimson_ and _vermilion_. The imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries were derived from the Kermes; and, in short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the material universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known. At the present time the Kermes are only gathered in Europe by the peasantry of the provinces in which they are found, but they still continue to be employed as of old in a great part of India and Persia.[901] Brookes says the women gather the harvest of Kermes insects before sunrise, tearing them off with their nails; and, for fear there should be any loss from the hatching of the insects, they sprinkle them with vinegar. They then lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red color.[902]