It should, perhaps, he added, that of the grain imported into the Peiræeus the surplus was frequently exported to other parts of Greece, when the wants of the commonwealth had been properly supplied, and that a slight fixed duty, for the sake of revenue, appears to have been always levied on imported grain.^[1647]

But this necessary of life was not generally paid for in specie. On the contrary, it was with manufactures that Greece purchased the corn of the rude nations on the Euxine, whom, by her trade, she gradually reclaimed from barbarism, inoculated with a taste for harmless luxuries, and, at length, even for Hellenic literature.^[1648]

In one case we find that the Nomadic Scythians applied themselves to the cultivation of the soil, and, of course, became stationary merely for the purpose of supplying Greece with corn.^[1649] Again, in the later ages of the Roman republic, when a corn-field was a rarity in Italy, which had been almost entirely converted by the nobility into gardens and pleasure-grounds,^[1650] Sicily, Egypt, and other agricultural countries of the Levant, furnished so ample a supply of grain, that scarcity was never experienced, except when the public officers were grossly negligent of their duty. In fact, the carrying trade devolved upon the Phœnicians, who, to a great extent subsisting by it alone, were necessarily most careful, for their own sake, to keep up the supply.^[1651] Had the Romans been themselves a commercial people, like the English, their traffic might have been still better regulated.

To return, however: it is admitted, that liberal as, upon the whole, the principles of trade were in antiquity, those of the Athenians were the most so of any.^[1652] The Argives and Æginetans, at one period, prohibited the importation of Athenian manufactures, particularly their pottery, or, at least, prohibited the use of them in religious ceremonies, though up to that period they had been allowed. The object, of course, was to bring their own earthenware into use, Argos,^[1653] especially, possessing a manufacture which at length rivalled that of Attica itself. It is regarded as a mark of ancient simplicity, that neither gold nor silver, nor jewelled plate, but fictile vases merely, were originally employed in making libations to the gods.^[1654]

The same principles which regulated maritime commerce governed also the intercourse which nations carried on by land. It would, therefore, be unreasonable to look for what is, oddly enough, denominated “unrestricted freedom,” since, without at all admitting that “the police mixed itself with everything,” we cannot deny that the state, in this, as in all other respects, sought to advance its own interests. Foolish attempts were sometimes made to bring down the price of certain necessaries, as salt, an example of which is mentioned by Aristophanes; but the law was soon abrogated.^[1655] Had the state been disposed to interfere tyrannically in anything, it would have been where corn was concerned. It is, however, admitted by Bœckh, who has taken the wrong side on this question, that in this article “we certainly find a great freedom of prices,” though the law interfered to prevent the evil consequences to the public of combinations among corn-dealers for the purpose of creating a monopoly.^[1656]

In general, the business of retail-dealing in the market was confined by law to the citizens, but this was not always rigidly enforced, since we find Egyptians, Phœnicians, and other foreigners, had their stalls there, for which, it would appear, they paid a distinct duty.^[1657] They were more especially found among the fishmongers and dealers in small wares. But, in the Peiræeus, the number of foreign traders greatly exceeded that of the natives. For their use, moreover, a species of exchange (δεῖγμα) was created, whither they brought specimens of their merchandise for exhibition, the place being usually crowded with buyers from all the neighbouring countries. This was, possibly, the most striking scene in Greece, crowded with merchants from the East, in their gorgeous and varied costumes, intermingled with Greeks of all classes, and gay women who came hither to see and be seen.^[1658]

On the prices of things in antiquity, compared with those at present prevailing, we have only one way of judging, and that is by ascertaining whether a greater degree of labour was required to provide the necessaries of life. The contrary was certainly the case in Attica, which, nevertheless, was, probably, the most expensive place of residence in the world. Even the slaves would appear to have enjoyed more leisure and exemption from toil than the industrious classes of our own most industrious community: and the citizens themselves, with their numerous festivals and amusements, public and private, evidently devoted a far greater proportion of their time to pleasure than would now be possible to any save the opulent. This, in fact, resulted from the moderate custom duties charged by the state, but much more from the superior fertility of the soil, which yielded greater returns for less labour, and from the comparative fewness of unproductive inhabitants. In modern language, the supply was greater in proportion to the demand. Still, it appears quite certain, that, though the duties laid on by the state were moderate, the merchants and retail dealers made very great profits. “This,” as Bœckh observes, “is sufficiently proved by the high rate of interest on money lent upon bottomry, in which thirty per cent for one summer was not unfrequently paid.”^[1659]

I am not quite sure that, as a general rule, “a high rate of interest and profit is an infallible sign that industry and trade are yet in their infancy,” and still less that lowness of interest is a sign of a flourishing country.^[1660] On the contrary, I should infer, from the former, that trade was in that healthy state in which it is scarcely a speculation; and, from the latter, that its current had become stagnant. However, a high interest was paid, and great profits were made in antiquity. Of this a striking example is furnished by Herodotus. A Samian ship trading with Egypt was, by some accident, led to push its way westward, as far as Tartessos, in Iberia, antecedent to the period at which the Greeks began to trade regularly with that port.^[1661] What the nature and value of its cargo may have been is not known, any more than the articles which it received in exchange. The conjecture, however, that it received silver at a low rate, as the Phœnicians anciently did, is not improbable. At all events, the merchants engaged in this adventure cleared upon that one cargo the sum of sixty talents, of which, in pious gratitude, they dedicated a tenth to Hera the tutelar goddess of their island. And this historian adds, that, with the exception of Sostratos of Ægina, the most fortunate of mercantile adventurers, no Grecian merchant had ever up to his time made so successful a voyage.

As the art of navigation was not invented by the Greeks, it will be in this place unnecessary to inquire very minutely into its rude beginnings. Most maritime tribes doubtless discovered for themselves the means of traversing such rivers, and creeks, and bays, and arms of the sea, as lay in their immediate neighbourhood and impeded their communication, whether hostile or friendly, with the various tribes on their borders. Another motive, moreover, which probably tempted men to trust themselves very early upon the waters, was the desire to regale on those dainty fish which abound on nearly all shores, and constitute among the most savage nations an important article of food. It will readily be believed that history cannot pretend to name the individual who in any country first launched his raft or canoe upon the deep. Nevertheless, tradition among the Phœnicians, endeavoured to supply the defect of history. Ousoös, we are told,^[1662] a primitive Arab hero, observing the trunk of a large tree overthrown, perhaps by a hurricane, near the shore, lopped off the branches, set it afloat, and committed himself along with it to the mercy of the waves. He had very soon an abundance of imitators. In every part of the Red Sea, on the Nile, the Indus, and the Persian Gulf, hardy navigators made their appearance, who undertook voyages more or less hazardous, in piraguas constructed of a single bamboo, or the shell of a vast tortoise, or of a wicker-work frame covered with leather^[1663]—the coracles of our British ancestors still in common use on many streams in Wales. Occasionally, too, more especially on the rivers and shores of the Euxine, capacious, long, and sturdy barks^[1664] were scooped out of the trunks of enormous trees, which were denominated Monoxyla, and seem to have been at one time or another in general use all over the world from the island of Australasia to the Arctic Circle. A specimen of those employed by our own forefathers may be seen in the colonnade of our national Museum. On the Nile were several kinds of barks peculiar to Egypt, such for example, as those which were plaited from the papyrus plant,^[1665] or from rushes. Most extraordinary of all, however, were their boats of earthenware, in which, furnished both with sails and oars, they glided over the serene bosom of the river.

As soon as the Greeks began to apply themselves to maritime affairs, they constructed ports and docks in various parts of the country, where they built numerous ships, rude enough at first, perhaps; but improving by experience and study^[1666] they in time equalled, and at length surpassed, the Phœnicians, by whom at the outset they may perhaps have been instructed. Among the greatest difficulties they had to encounter was the scarcity of ship-timber, for which they were always compelled greatly to depend on other countries. The materials, however, being collected, their shipwrights appear to have proceeded in much the same manner as those of modern times, laying down the keel, fixing in the ribs, planking, decking, caulking, and pitching, until the hull was completed.

In their war-galleys,^[1667] constructed under the superintendence of a naval architect elected by lot, they exhausted all the resources of art in their endeavours to communicate to them the greatest beauty of form and splendour of appearance. Painting, carving, and gilding,^[1668] were called in to cover both stern and prow with images and ornaments of the most fanciful kinds, glowing with bright blue or vermilion,^[1669] intermingled with scrolls and flourishes of other colours, and figures of burnished gold. Occasionally beneath the rim of the prow were bright cerulean bands,^[1670] painted in encaustic and defended by so durable a varnish that they could neither be blistered by the sun, nor dimmed by the action of the sea-water. In this part, beneath the roots as it were of the acrostolion, were placed those ornaments resembling eyes, one on either side, over which the name of the ship was written.^[1671] The sweep of the deck was a gentle curve, the lowest dip of which was at the ship’s waist. On the poop stood a deep alcove in which the pilot took his station,^[1672] protected in a great degree from wind and weather, and having over his head a large lantern, in which a bright light was kindled at nightfall.

Firm and lofty bulwarks rose along the ship’s sides, protecting the mariners from being swept off in tempests by the passing surge. On the bows again, there was usually a square tower furnished with lofty portals, through which the combatants, protected from annoyances on both flanks, poured, in close fight, their darts into the enemy’s ship, or rushed forward to board it. At the very front of the prow, where our bowsprit is now placed, arose an elegant winding scroll, which though projecting slightly beyond the hull, could never touch the corresponding part of the enemy’s galley until the iron or brazen beaks^[1673] below had met and shattered each other. The rudder^[1674] consisted of two paddles placed one on either side of the ship, which was impelled along by oar and sail. The row-ports of these galleys being somewhat capacious might, if left open, have shipped a great deal of water, on which account they were furnished with strong leather bags, in form like a woman’s breast, projecting outwards, nailed to the circle of the row-port, and fitting tight about the oar. The rowers, to render their condition more comfortable, were furnished with cushions or soft-dressed fleeces.^[1675]

The merchantmen differed considerably both in form and general arrangements from the war-galleys. As in our own ships of burden, under the old system of admeasurement, the hull instead of sinking down sharp towards the keel, bellied outwards at the sides, so as to render the bottom almost flat. They were very much shorter, moreover, in proportion to their height than ships of the line,^[1676] which, from their slender elongated figure, obtained the appellation of long galleys. In trading vessels,^[1677] much greater stress was laid on sails than on oars, since the crews could never be sufficiently numerous to furnish constantly fresh relays of rowers; and, in their protracted voyages, it would have been impossible for the same men to remain perpetually on the benches. The masts consequently were here of very great height, equalling, according to rule, the length of the ship, which rendered it practicable to crowd an immense quantity of canvass, but at the same time rendered them liable to capsize in a heavy gale, as is still the case with the Levant-built ships, which are generally much taller rigged than ours. They commonly gave a greater length to the hull of transports, though not altogether so great as to ships of war. Pirate luggers were always built without decks,^[1678] and extremely low that they might be the better able to approach their prey unperceived. Their sloops, smacks, and lighters,^[1679] together with all the other small craft employed in the coasting trade, exhibited every variety of form, but appear to have been generally stout-built and well-appointed.

Respecting the tonnage and dimensions of the largest class of merchantmen, we possess little positive information. It would appear, however, that in comparison with the vessels engaged in the corn-trade, between Alexandria and Italy,^[1680] they were of very moderate burden, since the appearance of one of those large ships in the Peiræeus excited general astonishment. The size of this Egyptian trader, which seems to have been no way distinguished from others engaged in the same traffic, may perhaps assist the imagination in forming some definite idea of an ancient merchantman: its length, from stem to stern, was one hundred and eighty feet, its breadth nearly fifty, and its clear depth in the hold about forty-five. It was furnished with one enormous mast, with yards in proportion, and a capacious mainsail, composed of numerous tiers of ox-hides. The cables and anchors, capstains, windlasses, with all the other appurtenances of a ship, were on a suitable scale, while the crew was so numerous as to be compared to an army. In the stem were airy and spacious cabins, above which rose the gilded figure of a goose. On either side of the bows stood an image of Isis,^[1681] bending over the waves and appearing to afford her divine protection to those who had chosen her for their tutelar goddess. Among the Greeks, however, the place assigned to the tutelar divinity was sometimes the stern, where oaths were taken, expiations made, prayers and sacrifices offered up, and where such of the crew as had committed any offence took sanctuary. On the top of the mast was a vane^[1682] of burnished metal which, turning and flashing in the sun, appeared like a streak of flame. As their ships, more especially during long voyages, ran perpetual risk of being assailed by pirates, they were abundantly supplied with all kinds of arms and implements of war, which were ranged along the cabin partitions and elsewhere with so much order and regularity, that they could always, by night or day, be found at a moment’s warning.

It was by very slow advances that the ancients arrived at that high degree of excellence in the art of ship-building, which, in the most flourishing ages of Greece, its maritime states exhibited. In the Homeric age, the largest vessels known were of very moderate burden, since even the poet, who would doubtless allow himself some licence, speaks of no transport which could carry more than one hundred and fifty men. These barks, too, Thucydides thinks, were undecked, like the pirate vessels of his own times, and indeed in ours also, in most parts of the Ægæan, though I have myself sailed in a large Greek brig, of piratical construction, which carried several guns, and was not only decked, but so admirably built, that after labouring ten days in a storm, she made not an inch more water than when in port.

The various stages in improvement have not been marked. They went on, however, each age excelling that which had preceded it, until at length having reached the utmost perfection of which their system was susceptible, they began to apply their skill to the creation of huge fabrics merely for show and magnificence, and calculated rather for the gratification of an insane luxury than for the genuine purposes of trade. One of these naval monsters was constructed at Syracuse under the eye of Archimedes, and at the expense of king Hiero.

Having procured from the forests of Mount Ætna timber sufficient for the building of sixty triremes, together with a variety of other materials from Italy, Spain, and Gaul, as crooked timber for ribs, hard wood for pegs, with pitch and hemp, and Spanish broom^[1683] for cables, he assembled a sufficient number of ship-wrights, with Archias, the Corinthian, at their head, and set them to work under the inspection of Archimedes, though he himself spent the greater part of his day overlooking the workmen at the dock. When in about six months the planking had been carried to about half the height of the hull, and properly sheathed with lead in lieu of the copper at present employed, the ship was launched^[1684] by means of a machine, invented for the purpose by Archimedes, into a sort of floating dock, where it was completed in other six months. The planks were fastened to the ribs with copper bolts, of which some were of ten and others fifteen pounds’ weight, passed through holes prepared for them by the auger; and over the heads of these bolts plates of lead were fixed, having been first lined, as it were, with a layer of wadding steeped in pitch.

They next proceeded to the interior arrangements, the explanation of which is replete with difficulty. The whole depth of the ship seems to have been divided into four stories, of which the lowest, or hold, was filled by the cargo; the second, descended to by long flights of steps, was appropriated to the rowers, who were ranged in twenty banks; the third was laid out in cabins for the use of the crew, while the military officers and the men occupied the uppermost. The kitchen was situated in the stern.

All these cabins were adorned with pavements in mosaic, representing in a long series of compartments the entire action of the Iliad; while the furniture, doors, and ceilings were furnished with proportionate splendour and elegance. On the upper deck was a gymnasium, exactly proportioned to the dimensions of the ship, together with a number of walks running through the midst of gardens laid out on leaden terraces, and containing all kinds of odoriferous plants and flowers. All these alleys were arched with trellis-work, overlaid with the intermingled foliage of the white-ivy and the vine growing out of troughs filled with earth, arranged along the promenades, and watered like other gardens. In a different part of the ship was a magnificent apartment called the Aphrodision, furnished with three couches, and having a pavement variegated with agates, and all the richest and most beautiful marbles of Sicily. It was wainscotted and roofed with cypress, while its doors were of Atlantic citron-wood inlaid with ivory. On all sides, moreover, it was adorned with pictures and statues and vases and goblets, of the most fanciful and varied forms. Contiguous to this chamber was the library, furnished with five couches and store of books. Its doors and wainscot were of box, and on its roof was a sun-dial, constructed in imitation of that in the Achradina. There was also a bath, in which were three couches, and three caldaria of bronze, together with a basin containing five metretæ, lined with Taurominian marble of various colours. There were numerous cabins fitted up for the soldiers and the crew, from whom was selected a number of persons whose sole business it was to superintend the pumps.^[1685] The ship likewise contained twenty stables, ten on either hand, well supplied with fodder, and every convenience for the grooms.

In the bows was a prodigious reservoir of fresh-water, lined with tarpaulin, and kept under lock and key; and near it lay the piscina or fish-pond, overlaid with lead, and filled with sea-water, in which was preserved an ample supply of fish for a long voyage. On projecting galleries, extending along the ship’s sides, were situated the wood-house, the kitchen, the bake-house, the mills, and other conveniences. At different distances along the sides were ranged numerous figures of Atlas, nine feet in height, supporting the triglyphs and the projecting portions of the ship: its whole surface, moreover, was adorned with suitable paintings.

There arose from the deck eight towers, two on the stern, two on the prow, and four in the ship’s waist, in diameter and elevation proportioned to the dimensions of the whole. From the outer battlements of each of these turrets projected two immense beams, hollowed out like troughs, which being balanced in the middle on the edge of the tower, could be filled with huge stones, that, by elevating the inner extremity of the machine, were launched into the enemy’s ship as it sailed beneath. These engines were probably worked by ropes and pulleys attached to the opposite battlements. Six armed men, two of whom were archers, took their station in each turret, the whole interior of which was filled with stones and darts. All round the ship, supported by a series of triangles, ran a gallery, defended by a parapet and battlements. On this stood a catapult, invented by Archimedes, which cast darts eighteen feet long, with stones upwards of three hundred and fifty pounds in weight, to the distance of a furlong. This gallery, as well, I presume, as the men who worked the engine, was protected by a close net-work of large ropes suspended from brazen chains. To each of the three masts was attached a couple of engines, which darted iron bars and masses of lead against the enemy. The sides of the ship bristled with iron spikes, designed to protect it against boarding; and on all sides were likewise grapples, which could be flung by machines into the galleys of the foe, so as to retain them within reach of the missiles from on board. Along the galleries, and round the masts and catapults, were drawn up two hundred and forty men in complete armour. In the fore, main, and mizen-tops were stationed other warriors, who were supplied with stones and similar missiles by baskets running on pulleys, and worked by boys. The ship was supplied with twelve anchors, of which four were of wood, and eight of iron.^[1686]

Very little difficulty was experienced in discovering pines sufficiently lofty for the fore and mizen-masts of this huge galley; but it was only by accident that a swineherd in the mountains of the Abruzzi found a tree of sufficient magnitude for the mainmast. It was conveyed to the sea by Philias, an engineer of Taurominium. The pump, notwithstanding its great depth, was easily worked by the screw of Archimedes, and only required the labour of one individual. The name first bestowed on this ship by Hiero was “The Syracusan;” but when afterwards he despatched it as a present to King Ptolemy, he changed it to that of the “The Alexandrian.”

Besides the individuals already enumerated, there were six hundred men stationed on the prow; and to administer justice in this floating commonwealth a court was instituted, consisting of the captain, the pilot, and the principal officers in command in the forecastle, who judged according to the laws of Syracuse. It was followed on the voyage to Egypt by a number of smaller craft, of which the majority were fishing-smacks.

The cargo of “The Alexandrian,” which, together with the vessel itself, was presented to King Ptolemy at a time when famine raged in Egypt, consisted of sixty thousand medimni of corn, two thousand jars of salt-fish, twenty thousand talents of wool, and an equal quantity of other commodities. The poet Archimelos having written a copy of verses on this nautical castle, Hiero felt so greatly flattered by the compliment that he sent the author a thousand medimni of wheat, which he landed for him at the Peiræeus.

In order to convey some idea of another department of nautical architecture among the ancients, in which there was probably a greater display of fancy than of science, we shall here introduce the description of a pleasure-barge in which Ptolemy Philopater and the ladies of his court used to sail upon the Nile.^[1687] Among the caliphs and sultans of the East we find traces of a similar taste for gorgeous and magnificent barks; but neither in history nor fiction do we remember to have met any account of a vessel so curiously constructed, or so superbly and sumptuously adorned. It was, in the first place, half a furlong in length, flat-bottomed, and rising high above the water on account of the swell, with projecting keel, and prow of most graceful curvature,—or, I should rather, perhaps, say, prows, for it appeared double in front, as though a pair of galleys had been lashed together. Along the sides and stern ran two galleries, the one above the other, where the persons on board might stroll and take exercise as the barge was wafted along by the wind. Of these the lower one resembled an open peristyle, the upper a close arcade furnished at intervals with windows looking out upon the river.

Considering the whole barge as one great building, the architect placed the extreme hall encircled by a single row of columns at the extremity of the stern, where it was, doubtless, approached from the upper gallery. Having traversed this, you next beheld a propylæon erected with the most precious wood and ivory. This led into a proscenion roofed over, in the vicinity of which lay a variety of chambers. Of these the most remarkable was a vast peripheral hall fitted up with twenty couches. This apartment was wainscotted with cedar and Milesian cypress; the doors, twenty in number, were formed of panels of citron wood richly inlaid with ivory. The hinges, the nails, the knockers, and door-handles, were of copper, gilt. The shafts of the columns were cypress wood, and the Corinthian capitals of gold and ivory were surmounted by an architrave richly overlaid with gold. Above this again was a broad frieze adorned with numerous figures of animals roughly sculptured in ivory, but remarkable for the costliness of the materials. The ceiling was of cedar wood elaborately carved and covered with a blaze of gilding. Close at hand were the apartments of the women, in the structure and ornaments of which equal magnificence was displayed. In another part of the bark was a chapel of Aphroditè surmounted by a dome. It contained a statue of the goddess in Parian marble. This sacred edifice was surrounded by other suites of apartments among which was a symposion adorned with pillars of Indian marble. Towards the prow was a saloon sacred to Dionysos, surrounded on all sides with pillars furnished with numerous couches, and adorned with gilded cornices. The roof was enriched with ornaments suited to the character of the god, that is, in all probability orgeastic processions of Bacchantes and Bacchanals, with crowns of ivy and vine leaves. On the right hand this saloon opened into a grotto or cavern, in which the colours of rocks were imitated by an incrustation of precious stones, whose brilliance was in various parts relieved by ornaments of gold. The busts of the royal family sculptured of Parian marble were ranged round the grot.

On the roof of the great saloon was erected a small symposion, in the form of a tent, exceedingly agreeable from its airiness and the fine prospect it commanded over the whole valley of the Nile. It was completely open in front, and the roof consisting of a series of semicircular hoops like the top of a calèche, it could be bent down and drawn forward at pleasure, and was covered with purple hangings. By a winding staircase constructed in a different part of the bark, you ascended to another hall, constructed and decorated after the Egyptian manner, being adorned with a number of round pillars composed of a succession of blocks of equal height, alternately white and black. Their capitals, likewise were round, but contracting rather than expanding at the top like an elongated rose-bud.

In all this part of the column, technically denominated calathos, there were neither volutes nor rows of open and projecting foliage as in Greek architecture, but bells of the river lotos, or other flowers, intermingled with newly formed fruit of the date palm. To correspond with these columns, the walls of Egyptian edifices were frequently lined with black and white slabs alternating with each other. Of these the white were sometimes of alabaster.

This bark was furnished with but one mast, one hundred and five feet in height, to which was fitted a single sail of byssus with purple fringe. The dimensions of the sail must, however, have been prodigious, but from the fineness of its fabric it could never have been hoisted in rough weather.

If we turn now to the materials wherewith the ships of the ancients were constructed we shall find that they here differed as much from the practice of modern nations, at least in the north, as in the form and style of rigging. With us scarcely anything but oak or teak is employed in those parts which come in contact with the water, whereas the Greeks constructed their war galleys, in which speed was of the greatest moment, of fir,^[1688] while they chiefly made use of pitch pine in the building of merchantmen, as that wood long resists the corrosive action of the sea.

The Cypriotes appear in all cases to have given the preference to the pine which abounds in the island, and was esteemed superior to the pitch tree,^[1689] though the latter was sometimes appropriated to the building of ships of war. Among the Syrians and Phœnicians, in whose country a supply of pine was not to be obtained,^[1690] the custom prevailed of building ships entirely of cedar.^[1691] The practice of employing oak^[1692] had, likewise, already been introduced, though it does not appear to have been common; but in the larger classes of ships the keel was always of that timber, in order that, when drawn on shore, it might be able to sustain the weight of the superincumbent mass. In the holcades or merchantmen, the keel, like the ship itself, was of pitch pine; but all such vessels were in those days supplied with a false keel, called chelysma,^[1693] of oak, or oxya, designed to act as a protection when they were drawn up into dry dock. Masts and yards were commonly of the silver fir;^[1694] oars of such timber as grew on the northern slopes of mountains.^[1695] The turned work used in ornamenting the interior was commonly of mulberry, ash, elm, or platane wood, of which the last was least esteemed.^[1696]

Sails were made and manufactured from a variety of materials. It has been seen above, in speaking of the Egyptian war ships, that they sometimes consisted of a number of hides sown together. They were, likewise, in various countries, plaited, as now in China,^[1697] from reeds, or rushes, but the sailcloth of the Greeks was generally, like our own, woven from hemp.^[1698] For this, in Egypt, the papyrus was sometimes substituted. Princes and grandees occasionally, in their pleasure-boats, employed, in lieu of these rude materials, cotton or fine linen, dyed, to augment their beauty, of the most brilliant purple. To this Shakespeare alludes in the following passage, which though familiar, perhaps, to the reader, I must, nevertheless, beg permission to quote: