lips, and covering with thin glass, so as to find out
its plan of composition and the number of warp and weft threads per
linear inch. Afterwards, a little of the warp threads as well as of
the weft, was untwisted and the fibres separated, and these mounted
apart on another 3" x 1" slip (76 x 25 mm.), so that the kind of
textile fibre used and the diameter of the fibres could be measured.
These microscopical preparations will be kept in Bankfield Museum, as
they may be of interest to microscopists in the locality.

The cloths are from three sources:--Nos. 1 and 2 being from the
private collection of Dr. Wallis-Budge, who has given the specimens to
Bankfield Museum; Nos. 3 to 8 are from the old Meyer collection in the
Liverpool Museum (unfortunately the origin of them is unknown); and
those marked 9 to 15 were taken from a mummy of the XXVI. Dynasty,
brought to this country by Lord Denbigh, and now also in the Liverpool
Museum.

A.--Specimens of Mummy cloths from Theban Tombs date about B.C. 1400,
presented by Dr. Wallis-Budge.

1. A plain "one-up-and-one-down" linen cloth. The yarns
in this example are more irregular in diameter than
usual--the warp strands varying from 1/25"th to 1/71"st
(1 mm. to .2/8 mm.) The warp has about half its strands
doubled (that is twined together), whereas the weft has
only about one in twenty doubled. See Fig. 26.

2. This is a coarser fabric, has been dyed with
saffron, and is somewhat brittle to tease out the
fibres. Both these cloths had evidently absorbed some of
the gums or balsams used in the process of embalming,
and hence the difficulty of separating the fibres for
identification is increased. The structure of the fabric
is peculiar, and, indeed, the only instance I have seen
in Egyptian cloths. A portion, near the middle of the
piece sent, has the warp strands in pairs parallel to
each other, a few of them being double yarns, while all
the remainder are doubled. Of the weft, nearly half are
double yarns. See Fig. 27.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Magnified 10 diameters.]

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Magnified 10 diameters, showing the warp yarn
in pairs.]

B.--Specimens from the Meyer Collection, marked No. 11088. (Date of
acquisition about 1856; date and place of origin unknown).

3. This is a beautifully soft, fine _Wool_ fabric,
containing no size or balsam. From the fineness of the
yarn a