DYES. 339

Her giant statues, wrought from rocks of granite,
But puny ornaments for such a pile

As this stupendous mound of catacombs,

Fill’d with dry mummies of the builder worms.”

With regard to the Dyes used by the ancients,—purple,
blue, and scarlet are the only colours recorded in the Bible.
Joseph’s “ coat of many colours” may have been composed
of other hues; and “it would have been desirable to know
whether the art of weaving a piece in various colours was
at this time discovered or not. Judging from the informa-
tion which the text affords, it would seem not; for the word
which is constantly rendered ‘colours,’ may, as in the
marginal reading, with more than equal propriety be ren-
dered ‘ pieces,’ which makes it probable that the agreeable
effect resulting from a combination of colours, was obtained
by patchwork in the first instance, and in after times by
being wrought with a needle. The value and distinction at-
tached to such variegated dresses, shows that they were not
common, and were formed by some elaborate process. In
the time of David, such a dress was a distinction for a
king’s daughter; for we see ladies anticipating the return