We have it upon the authority of ancient writers that the Egyptians of olden time embroidered as skilfully as those of the Middle Ages.  The surcoats given by Amasis, one to the Lacedaemonians, and the other to the temple of Athena at Lindos, were of linen embroidered with figures of animals in gold thread and purple, each thread consisting of three hundred and sixty-five distinct filaments.  To go back to a still earlier period, the monumental tableaux show portraits of the Pharaohs wearing garments with borders, either woven or embroidered, or done in applique work.  The most simple patterns consist of one or more stripes of brilliant colour parallel with the edge of the material.  Elsewhere we see palm patterns, or rows of discs and points, leaf-patterns, meanders, and even, here and there, figures of men, gods, or animals, worked most probably with the needle.  None of the textile materials yet found upon royal mummies are thus decorated; we are therefore unable to pronounce upon the quality of this work, or the method employed in its production.  Once only, upon the body of one of the Deir el Bahari princesses, did I find a royal cartouche embroidered in pale rose-colour.  The Egyptians of the best periods seem to have attached special value to plain stuffs, and especially to white ones.  These they wove with marvellous skill, and upon looms in every respect identical with those used in tapestry work.  Those portions of the winding sheet of Thothmes III. which enfolded the royal hands and arms, are as fine as the finest India muslin, and as fairly merit the name of “woven air” as the gauzes of the island of Cos.  This, of course, is a mere question of manufacture, apart from the domain of art.  Embroideries and tapestries were not commonly used in Egypt till about the end of the Persian period, or the beginning of the period of Greek rule.  Alexandria became partly peopled by Phoenician, Syrian, and Jewish colonists, who brought with them the methods of manufacture peculiar to their own countries, and founded workshops which soon developed into flourishing establishments.  It is to the Alexandrians that Pliny ascribes the invention of weaving with several warps, thus producing the stuff called brocades (polymita); and in the time of the first Caesars, it was a recognised fact that “the needle of Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of the Nile.”  The Alexandrian tapestries were not made after exclusively geometrical designs, like the products of the old Egyptian looms; but, according to the testimony of the ancients, were enriched with figures of animals, and even of men.  Of the masterpieces which adorned the palaces of the Ptolemies no specimens remain.  Many fragments which may be attributed to the later Roman time have, however, been found in Egypt, such as the piece with the boy and goose described by Wilkinson, and a piece representing marine divinities bought by myself at Coptos.[76] The numerous embroidered winding sheets with woven borders which have recently been discovered near Ekhmim, and in the Fayum, are nearly all from Coptic tombs, and are more nearly akin to Byzantine art than to the art of Egypt.