to
imply strongly that the manufacture of colored glasses was not a
developed art at the time of this collection and came at a later
period.
The
remainder of the recipes in the collection deal with a subject which
was equally important in ancient times as it is with us, namely, the
methods of dyeing or coloring cloths. The recipes of this collection
and the few of the Leyden Papyrus are the earliest specific directions
for the use of dyes. A glance over the recipes on this topic shows
plainly that the art of dyeing was well understood from the practical
standpoint. The first step in the dyeing process was the cleaning of
the cloth to free it from dirt and grease. The various cleaning agents
employed included native soda, soap weed, and others. That the
importance of mordanting was well recognized is evident from the many
recipes on the subject. The materials used included alum, limewater,
iron and copper compounds, and some vegetable substances. There is no
doubt that the theory of their use was but faintly understood, but
there can be no question about their understanding of their practical
use. The dyes used included alkanet, archil, woad, madder, and other
less common ones together with various combinations of those named. It
is evident from the recipes that purple was the favorite color in
ancient Egypt at the time of this collection, but it is to be
remembered, however, that this term then included red and some other
shades also. One thing that the recipes on purple do show, however, is
that the purple of the ancients was not obtained exclusively from a
certain species of shellfish as has been generally believed. Other
colors mentioned include blue, yellow, and scarlet. The use of
different rinsing solutions and the preparation of some of the dyes
used is also described in this collection. The remarkable nature of
these recipes on dyeing as practiced in ancient times is seen when we
remember that the methods mentioned here were essentially the ones used
for a period of fifteen hundred years after, or up until the advent of
our modern coal-tar dyes.
We
are always somewhat interested in the personalities connected with any
period or development of human knowledge and we may well ask ourselves
as to the author or authors of the Stockholm and Leyden Papyri. The
Leyden Papyrus X gives no hint as to its authorship, but the Stockholm
Papyrus at least gives us some hint as to the probable character of the
writer. The last recipe in the collection is on a sheet separate from
the remainder and is not numbered like the other sheets. It contains a
magical or theurgical formula entirely different from the other
recipes. If it belonged to the owner of the remainder of the
collection, and it is probable that it did, then it tends to show that
chemical arts in ancient Egypt were largely in the hands of the
priestly caste, a fact that has been deduced from other sources and of
which this is the earliest direct evidence yet shown. The collection
also mentions several
