Part 2 (2/2)
acquirements to say that he was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians. By the researches of the curious, new proofs are still being brought to light of the perfection of their skill in various arts, and we are not without testimony that the practice of the lighter and more ornamental bore progress with that of the stupendous and magnificent. Of these lighter pursuits we at present refer only to the art of needlework.
The Egyptian women were treated with courtesy, with honour, and even with deference: indeed, some historians have gone so far as to say that the women transacted public business, to the exclusion of the men, who were engaged in domestic occupations. This misapprehension may have arisen from the fact of men being at times engaged at the loom, which in all other countries was then considered as exclusively a feminine occupation; spinning, however, was princ.i.p.ally, if not entirely, confined to women, who had attained to such perfection in the pretty and valuable art, that, though the Egyptian yarn was all spun by the hand, some of the linen made from it was so exquisitely fine as to be called ”woven air.” And there are some instances recorded by historians which seem fully to bear out the appellation.
For example: so delicate were the threads used for nets, that some of these nets would pa.s.s through a man's ring, and one person could carry a sufficient number of them to surround a whole wood. Amasis king of Egypt presented a linen corslet to the Rhodians of which the threads were each composed of 365 fibres; and he presented another to the Lacedemonians, richly wrought with gold; and each thread of this corslet, though itself very fine, was composed of 360 other threads all distinct.
Nor did these beautiful manufactures lack the addition of equally beautiful needlework. Though the gold thread used at this time was, as we have intimated, solid metal, still the Egyptians had attained to such perfection in the art of moulding it, that it was fine enough not merely to embroider, but even to interweave with the linen. The linen corslet of Amasis, presented, as we have remarked, to the Lacedemonians, surpa.s.singly fine as was the material, was worked with a needle in figures of animals in gold thread, and from the description given of the texture of the linen we may form some idea of the exquisite tenuity of the gold wire which was used to ornament it.
Corslets of linen of a somewhat stronger texture than this one, which was doubtless meant for merely ornamental wear, were not uncommon amongst the ancients. The Greeks made thoraces of hide, hemp, linen, or twisted cord. Of the latter there are some curious specimens in the interesting museum of the United Service Club. Alexander had a double thorax of linen; and Iphicrates ordered his soldiers to lay aside their heavy metal cuira.s.s, and go to battle in hempen armour. And among the arms painted in the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes is a piece of defensive armour, a sort of coat or covering for the body, made of rich stuff, and richly embroidered with the figures of lions and other animals.
The dress of the Egyptian ladies of rank was rich and somewhat gay: in its general appearance not very dissimilar from the gay chintzes of the present day, but of more value as the material was usually linen; and though sometimes stamped in patterns, and sometimes interwoven with gold threads, was much more usually worked with the needle. The richest and most elegant of these were of course selected to adorn the person of the queen; and when in the holy book the royal Psalmist is describing the dress of a bride, supposed to have been Pharaoh's daughter, and that she shall be brought to the king ”in raiment of needlework,” he says, as proof of the gorgeousness of her attire, ”her clothing is of wrought gold.” This is supposed to mean a garment richly embroidered with the needle in figures in gold thread, after the manner of Egyptian st.i.tchery.
Perhaps no royal lady was ever more magnificently dowered than the queen of Egypt; her apparel might well be gorgeous. Diodorus says that when Moeris, from whom the lake derived its name, and who was supposed to have made the ca.n.a.l, had arranged the sluices for the introduction of the water, and established everything connected with it, he a.s.signed the sum annually derived from this source as a dowry to the queen for the purchase of jewels, ointments, and other objects connected with the toilette. The provision was certainly very liberal, being a talent every day, or upwards of 70,700 a year; and when this formed only a portion of the pin-money of the Egyptian queens, to whom the revenues of the city of Anthylla, famous for its wines, were given for their dress, it is certain they had no reason to complain of the allowance they enjoyed.
The Egyptian needlewomen were not solely occupied in the decoration of their persons. The deities were robed in rich vestments, in the preparation of which the proudest in the land felt that they were worthily occupied. This was a source of great gain to the priests, both in this and other countries, as, after decorating the idol G.o.ds for a time, these rich offerings were their perquisites, who of course encouraged this notable sort of devotion. We are told that it was carried so far that some idols had both winter and summer garments.
Tokens of friends.h.i.+p consisting of richly embroidered veils, handkerchiefs, &c., were then, as now, pa.s.sing from one fair hand to another, as pledges of affection; and as the last holy office of love, the bereaved mother, the desolate widow, or the maiden whose budding hopes were blighted by her lover's untimely death, might find a fanciful relief to her sorrows by decorating the garment which was to enshroud the spiritless but undecaying form. The chief proportion of the mummy-cloths which have been so ruthlessly torn from these outraged relics of humanity are coa.r.s.e; but some few have been found delicately and beautifully embroidered; and it is not unnatural to suppose that this difference was the result of feminine solicitude and undying affection.
The embroidering of the sails of vessels too was pursued as an article of commerce, as well as for the decoration of native pleasure-boats.
The ordinary sails were white; but the king and his grandees on all gala occasions made use of sails richly embroidered with the phoenix, with flowers, and various other emblems and fanciful devices. Many also were painted, and some interwoven in checks and stripes. The boats used in sacred festivals upon the Nile were decorated with appropriate symbols, according to the nature of the ceremony or the deity in whose service they were engaged; and the edges of the sails were finished with a coloured hem or border, which would occasionally be variegated with slight embroidery.
Shakspeare's description of the barge of Cleopatra when she embarked on the river Cydnus to meet Antony, poetical as it is, seems to be rigidly correct in detail.
En.o.barbus.--I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the p.o.o.p was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver; Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water, which they beat, to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggar'd all description: she did lie In her pavilion (cloth of gold, of tissue), O'erpicturing that Venus, where we see The fancy outwork nature; on each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With diverse-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid, did.
Agrippa.-- O, rare for Antony!
En.o.barbus.--Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings; at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her; and Antony, Bethroned in the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature.
It is said that the silver oars, ”which to the tune of flutes kept stroke,” were pierced with holes of different sizes, so mechanically contrived, that the water, as it flowed through them at every stroke, produced a harmony in concord with that of the flutes and lyres on board.
Such a description as the foregoing gives a more vivid idea than any grave declaration, of the elegant luxury of the Egyptians.
It were easy to collect instances from the Bible in which mention is made of Egyptian embroidery, but one verse (Ezek. xxvii. 7), when the prophet is addressing the Tyrians, specifically points to the subject on which we are speaking: ”Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail,” &c.
A common but beautiful style of embroidery was to draw out entirely the threads of linen which formed the weft, and to re-form the body of the material, and vary its appearance, by working in various st.i.tches and with different colours on the warp alone.
Chairs and fauteuils of the most elegant form, made of ebony and other rare woods, inlaid with ivory, were in common use amongst the ancient Egyptians. These were covered, as is the fas.h.i.+on in the present day, with every variety of rich stuff, stamped leather, &c.: but many were likewise embroidered with different coloured wools, with silk and gold thread. The couches too, which in the daytime had a rich covering subst.i.tuted for the night bedding, gave ample scope for the display of the inventive genius and persevering industry of the busy-fingered Egyptian ladies.
We have given sufficient proof that the Egyptian females were accomplished in the art of needlework, and we may naturally infer that they were fond of it. It is a gentle and a social occupation, and usefully employs the time, whilst it does not interfere with the current of the thoughts or the flow of conversation. The Egyptians were an intelligent and an animated race; and the sprightly jest or the lively sally would be interspersed with the graver details of thoughtful and reflective conversation, or would give some point to the dull routine of mere womanish chatter. It seems almost impossible to have lived amidst the stupendous magnificence of Egypt in days of yore, without the mind a.s.similating itself in some degree to the greatness with which it was surrounded. The vast deserts, the stupendous mountains, the river Nile--the single and solitary river which in itself sufficed the needs of a mighty empire--these majestic monuments of nature seemed as emblems to which the people should fas.h.i.+on, as they did fas.h.i.+on, their pyramids, their tombs, their sphynxes, their mighty reservoirs, and their colossal statues. And we can hardly suppose that such ever-visible objects should not, during the time of their creation, have some elevating influence on the weakest mind; and that therefore frivolity of conversation amongst the Egyptian ladies was rather the exception than the rule. But a modern author has amused himself, and exercised some ingenuity in attempting to prove the contrary:--
”Many similar instances of a talent for caricature are observable in the compositions of Egyptian artists who executed the paintings on the tombs; and the ladies are not spared. We are led to infer that they were not deficient in the talent of conversation; and the numerous subjects they proposed are shown to have been examined with great animation. Among these the question of dress was not forgotten, and the patterns or the value of trinkets were discussed with proportionate interest. The maker of an earring, or the shop where it was purchased, were anxiously inquired; each compared the workmans.h.i.+p, the style, and the materials of those she wore, coveted her neighbour's, or preferred her own; and women of every cla.s.s vied with each other in the display of 'jewels of silver and jewels of gold,' in the texture of their 'raiment,' the neatness of their sandals, and the arrangement or beauty of their plaited hair.”
We are too much indebted to this author's interesting volumes to quarrel with him for his ungallant exposition of a very simple painting; but we beg to place in juxta-position with the above (though otherwise somewhat out of its place) an extract from a work by no means characterised by unnecessary complacency to the fair s.e.x.
”'Cet homme pa.s.se sa vie a forger des nouvelles,' me dit alors un gros Athenien qui etait a.s.sis aupres de moi. 'Il ne s'occupe que de choses qui ne le touchent point. Pour moi, mon interieur me suffit. J'ai une femme que j'aime beaucoup;' et il me fit l'eloge de sa femme. 'Hier je ne pus pas souper avec elle, j'etais prie chez un de mes amis;' et il me fit la description du repas. 'Je me retirai chez moi a.s.sez content.
Mais j'ai fait cette nuit un reve qui m'inquiete;' et il me raconta son reve. Ensuite il me dit pesamment que la ville fourmillait d'etrangers; que les hommes d'aujourd'hui ne valaient pas ceux d'autrefois; que les denrees etaient a bas prix; qu'on pourrait esperer une bonne recolte, s'il venait a pleuvoir. Apres m'avoir demande le quantieme du mois, il se leva pour aller souper avec sa femme.”
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