g brought to light of the perfection of their skill in various
arts, and we are not without testimony that the practice of the
lighter and more ornamental bore progress with that of the stupendous
and magnificent. Of these lighter pursuits we at present refer only to
the art of needlework.

The Egyptian women were treated with courtesy, with honour, and even
with deference: indeed, some historians have gone so far as to say
that the women transacted public business, to the exclusion of the
men, who were engaged in domestic occupations. This misapprehension
may have arisen from the fact of men being at times engaged at the
loom, which in all other countries was then considered as exclusively
a feminine occupation; spinning, however, was principally, if not
entirely, confined to women, who had attained to such perfection in
the pretty and valuable art, that, though the Egyptian yarn was all
spun by the hand, some of the linen made from it was so exquisitely
fine as to be called "woven air." And there are some instances
recorded by historians which seem fully to bear out the appellation.
For example: so delicate were the threads used for nets, that some of
these nets would pass through a man's ring, and one person could carry
a sufficient number of them to surround a whole wood. Amasis king of
Egypt presented a linen corslet to the Rhodians of which the threads
were each composed of 365 fibres; and he presented another to the
Lacedemonians, richly wrought with gold; and each thread of this
corslet, though itself very fine, was composed of 360 other threads
all distinct.

Nor did these beautiful manufactures lack the addition of equally
beautiful needlework. Though the gold thread used at this time was, as
we have intimated, solid metal, still the Egyptians had attained to
such perfection in the art of moulding it, that it was fine enough not
merely to embroider, but even to interweave with the linen. The linen
corslet of Amasis, presented, as we have remarked, to the
Lacedemonians, surpassingly fine as was the material, was worked with
a needle in figures of animals in gold thread, and from the
description given of the texture of the linen we may form some idea of
the exquisite tenuity of the gold wire which was used to ornament it.

Corslets of linen of a somewhat stronger texture than this one, which
was doubtless meant for merely ornamental wear, were not uncommon
amongst the ancients. The Greeks made thoraces of hid