Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/171

Rh torus" was derived, and the Babylonians were most noted for their skill in weaving cloths of various colours. Of course the excellence of the art passed in the long course of ages from one place to another, and Babylon, Tarsus, Alexandria, Baghdad, Damascus, Antioch, Tabriz, Constantinople, Cyprus, Sicily, Tripoli successively became celebrated for their gold and silver, wrought tissues, and silks and brocades. The Saracens, through their wide-spreading conquests and all-devouring cosmopolitan appetite for arts and learning—at second-hand—succeeded in confusing all local styles together, so that now it is often difficult to distinguish between European and Eastern influences in the designs of an Indian brocade: and yet through every disguise it is not impossible to infer the essential identity of the brocades of modern India with the blue and purple and scarlet worked in gold of ancient Babylon.

Such brocades doubtless were "the goodly Babylonish garment" which tempted Achan in Jericho, and the Veil of the Temple at Jerusalem, which Josephus describes "as a of varied colours marvellously wrought." Col. Yule [Marco Polo," i, 62], in the place just cited, also writes: "From Baudas, or Baldac, i.e., Baghdad, certain of these rich silk and gold brocades were called Baldachini, or in English, Baudekins. From their use in the state canopies and umbrellas of Italian dignitaries, the word Baldacchino has come to mean a canopy, even when architectural." Cramoisy derives its name from the Kermes insect, which before the introduction of cochineal from America, in 1518, was universally used for dyeing scarlet. It is the tola of Moses, wherewith the hangings of the Tabernacle and sacred vestments of the Hebrew priesthood were "twice dyed." Sardis was celebrated for this scarlet dye, as were Tyre and Crete for their resplendent purples, the Tyrian having been obtained from a shell-fish, as was also the red of Tarentum, and the Cretan tincture from a plant which Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny respectively call to, phycos