The wool of sheep is said by the Greek poets to have been dyed red on their backs by eating the madder plant.[1400] The wool of brown sheep was spun, woven, and worn of its natural colour, as it is still by the rustics of several European countries. Dyes of every other colour were likewise known to the ancients; as bright flame and saffron-colour, pink, green, and russet grey;[1401] deep and sky-blue, produced by woad;[1402] and red by madder.[1403] The Phrygian dyers made use of a kind of mineral[1404] obtained from Cappadocia; and wool was sometimes dyed with a decoction of beans.[1405] Among the Egyptians, linens, muslins, and all kinds of cloths were painted with flowers and figures, in a great variety of colours;[1406] which was the case, also, among the Massagetæ, who impressed on their fine woollen cloths a multitude of patterns, which preserved their brilliance unfading to the last.[1407] ----- Footnote 1400: Virg. Eclog. iv. 45. Beckmann, History of Inventions, iii. 256—_note_. Footnote 1401: Poll. vii. 13. Footnote 1402: Ισάτις ἥμερος. Dioscor. ii. 215. Cf. Aristoph. Cimon. 332. Nub. 71. Dioscor. iii. 160. Footnote 1403: Beckmann, History of Inventions, t. iii. p. 255. Footnote 1404: Dioscor. v. 141. Footnote 1405: Id. ii. 127. Footnote 1406: Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxv. 42. Footnote 1407: Herod. i. 203. ----- As many kinds of woollens are wholly spoiled by common washing,[1408] they were regularly, when soiled, carried by the Greeks to the fullers,[1409] whose mill and trade are supposed to have been invented by Nycias of Megara.[1410] These artisans made use of numerous earths and other substances in their operations; such as gypsum,[1411] the Cimolian earth and the Chian, the Lemnian, the Sardian, the Umbrian, the Samian, the Tymphæan, and the Chalastræan.[1412] Wool, previous to being spun, was cleansed by soap-wort.[1413] In washing clothes they commonly made use of a lye prepared with lime or wood ashes.[1414] Sponges were blanched in the following manner:[1415] over such as were extremely soft they sprinkled a quantity of salt-fish, collected from the rocks, after which they were carefully washed, and laid in the summer sun with their hollow part uppermost. They were rendered still whiter by being saturated with salt froth or sea-water, and exposed during a succession of calm summer nights to the moon’s rays. ----- Footnote 1408: Casaub. ad Theoph. Charact. p. 241. Footnote 1409: Herod. iv. 14. i. 92. Footnote 1410: Plin. vii. 57. Goguet. iv. 6. Footnote 1411: Theoph. de Lapid. § 67. Footnote 1412: Constant. v. χαλαστραῖον. Theoph. de Lapid. § 64. Plat. Rep. t. vi. 184. Poll. vii. 39. x. 135. Footnote 1413: Στρουθίον. Dioscor. ii. 193. Cf. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 10. 3. Plin. Nat. Hist. xix. 18. Footnote 1414: See Mitchell on the Acharnes. 7. Gog. Origine des Loix, i. 279. Footnote 1415: Dioscor. v. 138. -----