It is stated that when sal-ammoniac and lime were put upon the colored parts they changed to a dark greenish-blue color, and passed on to black, probably from the sal-ammoniac containing iron which would give this result. The Tyrian ladies dyed rings and stars upon their persons. Men gave a black dye to the hair of their heads and beards. The dyeing of the nails with henna is a very ancient custom. Some of the old Egyptian mummies are so dyed. It is supposed that the Jewish women also followed this custom. Reference is made to it in Deuteronomy, where the newly-married wife is desired to stain her nails. Also, in the Song of Solomon, _Camphire_, in the authorized version, is said to mean henna, which has finely-scented flowers growing in bunches, and the leaves of the plant are used by women to impart a reddish stain to their nails. Speaking of the Arabian women at the present day, Dr. Thomson, in "The Land and the Book," says: "They paint their cheeks, putting tahl around their eyes, arching their eyebrows with the same, and stain their hands and feet with henna thus to deck themselves, and should an unmarried woman do so, an impression is conveyed highly injurious to the girl's character." GALLS are named among the substances known to the ancients, but we can not find whether they were used as a dyeing agent. Wilkinson says that tanning was in Egypt a subdivision of dyeing, and it is mentioned that copperas with galls dyed leather black; and there can be little doubt that galls were used for a similar purpose in ordinary dyeing. The _Myrobollans_ and several sorts of barks and pods of the _Acacia nilotica_ were also used for tanning, from their astringent properties, and may have been similarly used for dyeing. These are a few of the principal coloring matters used by dyers in ancient times. There is a little confusion with respect to some of the salts mentioned as having been used by them, especially the alkaline salts--a circumstance, however, not to be wondered at. In more modern times there is a similar confusion on this same head. When nitre, for instance, is burned with carbonaceous matter, the product is carbonate of potash. The ashes left by burning wood contain the same salt. The ashes left by burning sea-weed produce carbonate of soda. When nitre is burned with sulphur, the product is sulphate of potash, etc. These have all been called generically, even in modern times, nitre, having each a certain prefix well understood by the adept, or chemist, of the day. We think it probable that all these processes for making the different salts were practiced in ancient times, but now having only the generic name _nitre_ given us by historians, we can not understand exactly when nitre is mentioned which of the nitres is meant.