199, and Douet d'
Arcq, Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France, etc., 334.) We find no
mention of Nakh or Nasij among the stuffs detailed in the Ain
Akbari, so they must have been obsolete in the 16th century.
[Cf. Heyd,
Com. du Levant, II. p. 698; Nacco, nachetto, comes from the Arabic
nakh (nekh); nassit (nasith) from the Arabic necidj. - H. C.]
Quermesis or Cramoisy derived its name from the Kermes insect (Ar.
Kirmiz) found on Quercus coccifera, now supplanted by cochineal. The
stuff so called is believed to have been originally a crimson velvet, but
apparently, like the mediaeval Purpura, if not identical with it, it
came to indicate a tissue rather than a colour. Thus Fr.-Michel quotes
velvet of vermeil cramoisy, of violet, and of blue cramoisy, and
pourpres of a variety of colours, though he says he has never met with
pourpre blanche. I may, however, point to Plano Carpini (p. 755), who
describes the courtiers at Karakorum as clad in white purpura.
The London prices of Chermisi and Baldacchini in the early part of the
15th century will be found in Uzzano's work, but they are hard to
elucidate.
Babylon, of which Baghdad was the representative, was famous for its
variegated textures in very early days. We do not know the nature of the
goodly Babylonish garment which tempted Achan in Jericho, but Josephus
speaks of the affluence of rich stuffs carried in the triumph of Titus,
"gorgeous with life-like designs from the Babylonian loom," and he also
describes the memorable Veil of the Temple as a [Greek:
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