colour of distinction, he continues: "Let us be prepared
to excuse the frantic passion for purple, though we are impelled to
inquire why such a high value is placed on the produce of this fish,
seeing that in the dye the smell of it is offensive, and the colour,
of a greenish hue, resembles the sea when tempestuous." He describes
purples[294] as being differently coloured according as to whether
these "conchylia" inhabited the sea mud, the reefs, or the pebbly
shores, the last being the most valuable.[295] This purple, said to
have been imported from the coasts of Tyre, was till lately sold in
Rome for its weight in gold; it gave the burning rosy red dye of the
Cardinal's robes, and was called "Porpora encarnadina," purple
incarnadine. It is full of light and freshness, and never fades; in
fact, it has all the qualities ascribed to it by Pliny. It intensifies
in the light.[296]

After purple, scarlet was the colour most esteemed by the ancients.
The Israelites must have carried with them the dyes which coloured the
hangings, woven or embroidered, belonging to the sanctuary in the
wilderness, of which the outer covering of rams' skins was dyed
scarlet, and was probably of the nature of red morocco.[297]

There was the mineral dye, (cinnabar or red sulphate of mercury), and
the insect dye; the first was probably used in mural painting. It is
translated in our Bible as vermilion, in the account given by Jeremiah
of a "house, ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion."[298] Also
Ezekiel gives us another instance of house-painting in vermilion.[299]
Homer, who as a rule does not describe colouring, says the Greek ships
were painted red.

It is probable that cinnabar was tempered, by admixture of white or
other colours, for the monochrome painting of the Egyptians and
Greeks. It was called by the Greeks miltos, by the Romans minium.

The dye of the red portions of the funeral tent of Queen Isi-em-Kheb,
Shishak's mother-in-law, is found by analysis to be composed of
hematite (peroxyde of iron) tempered with lime. This is a beautiful
pink red.[300]

The mineral red now called vermilion must have borrowed its name from
the insect dye which the Greeks and Romans called "kermes." In the
Middle Ages the dye from the kermes was still called "vermiculata," of
which the word vermilion is a literal translation.

We should be fortunate if we could find how the Greeks and Romans
prepared the cinnabar for mural painting, of wh