Forty Centuries of Ink; or, a chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curi by David Nunes Carvalho
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page 16 of 472 (03%)
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had been dyed with indigo. It was introduced into
Europe only in the sixteenth century. The use of madder as a red dyestuff dates from very early times. Pliny mentions it as being employed by the Hindoos, Persians and Egyptians. In the middle ages the names sandis, warantia, granza, garancia, were applied to madder, the latter (garance) being still retained in France. The color yielding substance resides almost entirely in the roots. Chilzon was the name given by the ancient Hebrews to a blue dye procured from a species of shell-fish. Herodotus, B. C. 443, asserts that on the shores of the Caspian Sea lived a people who painted the forms of animals on their garments with vegetable dyes: "They have trees whose leaves possess a peculiar property; they reduce them to powder, and then strip them in water; this forms a dye or coloring matter with which they paint on their garments the figures of animals. The impression is such that it cannot be washed out; it appears, indeed, to be woven into the cloth, and wears as long as the garment itself." We are informed by another ancient writer that the pagan nations were accustomed to array the images of their gods in robes of purple. When the prophet |
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