THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA.
The Umbrella is derived from a stately family, that of the Parasol,
the legitimate use of the Umbrella, though sufficiently obvious,
being almost ignored in those countries whence it derives its being,
since it was as a protection against the scorching heat of the sun
that it was first used. The Parasol, then, or Umbrella--since for all
practical purposes the two are really identical--dates from the
earliest ages, some commentators on the Bible fancying they can
discover it in places where a shade protecting from the sun is
mentioned. This is not unlikely, but it is certain that the Parasol
has been in use from a very early period.
Chinese history goes a very long way back, inasmuch as it places the
invention of these elegant machines many thousand years anterior to
the Mosaic date of the world's creation. Their antiquity among the
Hindoos is more satisfactorily proved by the following passage from
the dramatic poem of _S'akuntâla_, the date of which is supposed
to be the 6th century of the Christian era:--
("The cares of supporting the nation harass the sovereign, while he
is cheered with a view of the people's welfare, as a huge Umbrella,
of which a man bears the staff in his own hand, fatigues while it
shades him. The sovereign, like a branching tree, bears on his head
the scorching sunbeams, while the broad shade allays the fever of
those who seek shelter under him.")
The origin of the Parasol is wrapped in considerable obscurity. Some
profound investigators have supposed that large leaves tied to the
branching extremities of a bough suggested the first idea of the
invention. Others assert that the idea was probably derived from the
tent, which remains in form unaltered to the present day. Dr.
Morrison, _however_, tells us that the tradition existing in
China is, that the _San_, which signifies a shade for sun and
rain, originated in standards and banners waving in the air. As this
is a case in which we may quote the line--"Who shall decide when
doctors disagree?"--we may with safety assume that all are in the
right, and that the Parasol owed its origin to all or any of the
above-mentioned fortuitous circumstances.
In the Ninevite sculptures the Umbrella or Parasol appears
frequently. Layard gives a picture of a bas-relief representing a
king in his chariot, with an attendant holding an Umbrella over his
head. It has a curtain hanging down behind, but is otherwise exactly
like those in use at the present time, the stretchers and sliding
runner being plainly represented. To quote the words of that
indefatigable traveller:--
"The Umbrella or Parasol, the emblem of royalty so universally
accepted by eastern nations, was generally carried over the king in
time of peace, and sometimes even in time of war. In shape it
resembled, very closely, those in common use; but it is always open
in the sculptures. It was edged with tassels, and was usually
ornamented at the top by a flower or some other ornament. On the
later bas-reliefs, a long piece of embroidered linen or silk falling
from one side like a curtain, appears to screen the king completely
from the sun. The parasol was reserved exclusively for the monarch,
and is never represented as borne over any other person."
In Egypt again, the Parasol is found in various shapes. In some
instances it is depicted as a _flabellum_, a fan of palm-leaves
or coloured feathers fixed on a long handle, resembling those now
carried behind the Pope in processions. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in his
work on Egypt, has, an engraving of an Ethiopian princess travelling
through Upper Egypt in a chariot; a kind of Umbrella fastened to a
stout pole rises in the centre, bearing a close affinity to what are
now termed chaise Umbrellas. To judge from Wilkinson's account, the
Umbrella was generally used throughout Egypt, partly as a mark of
distinction, but more on account of its useful than its ornamental
qualities.
The same author is rather doubtful whether, in the picture given by
him of a military chief in his chariot, the frame which an attendant
holds up behind the rider is a shield or a screen, but the latter is
the more probable supposition, as it has all the appearance of an
Umbrella without the usual handle. In some paintings on a temple
wall, an Umbrella is held over the figure of a god carried in
procession, and altogether we may, perhaps, consider it decided,
beyond dispute, that the Umbrella in its modern shape was used in
Egypt. [Footnote: To silence captious critics, who may find fault with
the designs of our artist, we may once for all remark that an idealised
conception of the figures only is given. The style of the ancient
draughtsmen was by no means so perfect that we, who live in a more
civilised age, should be entirely fettered by their conceptions, and
the records of ancient life are not nearly full enough to justify any
one who may Assert that the pictures in our pages are not as accurate
as those in the British Museum. Anyhow, what they ought to have been,
rather than what the ancient were, our artist has striven to
delineate.]
In Persia the Parasol is repeatedly found in the carved work of
Persepolis, and Sir John Malcolm has an article on the subject in his
"History of Persia." In some sculptures--of a very Egyptian
character, by the way--the figure of a king appears attended by a
slave, who carries over his head an Umbrella, with stretchers and
runner complete. In other sculptures on the rock at Takht-i-Bostan,
supposed to be not less than twelve centuries old, a deer-hunt is
represented, at which a king looks on, seated on a horse, and having
an Umbrella borne over his head by an attendant.
This combination of business and comfort forcibly reminds us of a
certain wet day in Carlsruhe, where we witnessed from the window of
the Hôtel d'Angleterre a stout, martial-looking national guardsman
marching to the exercising-ground with an Umbrella over his head, and
a maid-servant diligently tramping through the mud behind him,
bearing his musket.
As in Assyria, so in most other Eastern countries, this use of the
Parasol carried with it a peculiar and honourable significance. The
tradition relating to its origin in China has been already alluded
to, and we can trace notices of its use a very long way back indeed.
According to Dr. Morrison, Umbrellas and Parasols are referred to in
books printed about A.D. 300, but their use has been traced still
further back than this. A very ancient book of Chinese ceremonies,
called "Tcheou-Li, or The Rites of Tcheou," directs that upon the
imperial cars the dais should be placed. "The figure of this dais
contained in the Chinese edition of Tcheou-Li, and the particular
description of it given in the explanatory commentary of Lin-hi-ye,
both identify it with an Umbrella. The latter describes the dais to
be composed of 28 arcs, which are equivalent to the whalebone ribs of
the modern instrument, and the staff supporting the covering to
consist of two parts, the upper being a rod 3/18ths of a Chinese foot
in circumference, and the lower a tube 6/10ths in circumference, into
which the upper half is capable of sliding."
In the second Tartar invasion of China the emperor's son was taken
prisoner by the Tartar chief, and made to carry his Umbrella when he
went out hunting.
Starting from the royal significance attached to the Umbrella, came
a feeling of veneration for it, very different from the contempt with
which we are now-a-days too apt to regard it. It was represented by
many ancient nations as shading their gods. In the Hindoo mythology
Vishnu is said to have paid a visit to the infernal regions with his
Umbrella over his head. One would think that in few places could an
Umbrella have been less appropriate, but doubtless Vishnu knew what
he was about, and had his own reasons for carrying his _Parapluie_
under his arm. Perhaps like Mrs. Gamp he could not be separated from
it. So much for the ancient history of our subject in the East. We may
now go on to countries about which we know a little more than of ancient
China and Assyria.
In Greece, as Becker tells us in his "Charicles," the Parasol was an
indispensable adjunct to a lady of fashion. It had also its religious
signification. In the Scirophoria, the feast of Athene Sciras, a
white Parasol was borne by the priestesses of the goddess from the
Acropolis to the Phalerus. In the feasts of Dionysius (in that at
Alea in Arcadia, where he was exposed under an Umbrella, and
elsewhere) the Umbrella was used, and in an old has-relief the same
god is represented as descending ad _inferos_ with a small
Umbrella in his hand, like Vishnu before mentioned.
There was also another festival in which they appeared, though
without any mystical signification. In the Panathenæa, the daughters
of the Metceci, or foreign residents, carried Parasols over the heads
of Athenian women as a mark of inferiority,
"tas parthenons ton metoikon skiadaephorein en tais rompais
aenankazon."
--_OElian, V. H._, vi. 1.
[Footnote: "They compelled the maidens of the Metceci to act as
umbrella-bearers in the processions."]
Its use seems to have been confined to women. In Pausanias there is
a description of a tomb near Pharæ, a Greek city. On the tomb was the
figure of a woman--
"themapaina de autae prosestaeke skiadeion pherousa."
--_Pausanias_, lib. vii., cap. 22, Section 6.
[Footnote: "And by her stood a female slave, bearing a parasol."]
Aristophanes seems to mention it among the common articles of female
use--
"aemin men gar son eti kai nun tantion, o kanon, oi kalathiokoi,
to skiadeion."
--_Aristophanes, Thesmoph._, 821.
[Footnote: "For now our loom is safe, our weaving-beam, our baskets
and umbrella."]
It occurs frequently on vases, and is in shape like that now used.
It could be put up and down.
"ta d' ota g'an son, nae AL', exepetannuto osper skiadeion, kai
palin xunaegeto."
--_Arist. Eq._, 1347.
[Footnote: "But your ears, by Jove, are stretched out like a
parasol, and now again shut up."]
Which the Scholiast explains, _ekteinetai de kai systelletai pros
ton katepeigonta kairon._ [Footnote: "Are opened and shut as need
requires."] For a man to carry one was considered a mark of
effeminacy, as appears from the following fragment of Anacreon:--
"_skiadiskaen elephantinaen phorei gunaixin autos._"
_Athenaeus_, lib. xii., cap. 46, Section 534.
[Footnote: "He carries an ivory parasol, as women do."]
Plutarch makes Aristides speak of Xerxes as sitting under a canopy
or Umbrella looking at the sea-fight--
"_kathaeenos hupd skiadi chrysae._"
_Plut. Therm., c. 16_ (p. 120),
[Footnote: "Sitting under a golden canopy."]
and of Cleopatra in like manner--
"_upo skiadi chrysopasto._"
_Plut. Anton., c. 26_ (p. 927).
[Footnote: "Under a gold-wrought canopy."]
From Greece it is probable that the use of the Parasol passed to
Rome, where it seems to have been commonly used by women, while it
was the custom even for effeminate men to defend themselves from the
heat by means of the _Umbraculum_, formed of skin or leather,
and capable of being lowered at will. We find frequent reference to
the Umbrella in the Roman Classics, and it appears that it was, not
unlikely, a post of honour among maid-servants to bear it over their
mistresses. Allusions to it are tolerably frequent in the poets.
Virgil's "Munimen ad imbres" [Footnote: "A shelter for the shower."]
probably has nothing to do with Umbrellas, but more definite mention
of them is not wanting. Ovid speaks of Hercules carrying the Parasol
of Omphale:--
"Aurea pellebant rapidos umbracula soles,
Quæ tamen Herculeæ sustinuere manus."
--_Ov. Fast._, lib. ii., 1. 31 I.
[Footnote: "A golden umbrella warded off the keen sun, which even
the hands of Hercules have borne."]
Martial speaks of a servant carrying the Parasol:--
"Umbellam lusca, Lygde feras Dominæ."
--_Mart._, lib. xi., ch. 73.
[Footnote: "Mayst thou, Lygde, be parasol-carrier for a publind
mistress."]
Juvenal mentions an Umbrella as a present:--
"En cui tu viridem umbellam cui succina mittas"
--_Juv._, ix., 50.
[Footnote: "See to whom it is sent a green umbrella and amber
ornaments"]
Ovid advises a lover to make himself agreeable
by holding his mistress's Parasol:--
"Ipse tene distenta suis umbracula virgis"
_Ov. Ars._ Am., ii., 209.
[Footnote: "Yourself hold up the umbrella spread out by its rods"]
This shows that the Umbrella was of much the same construction as
ours.
A very common use for it was in the theatre, whenever, from wind or
other cause, the _velarium_ or huge awning stretched over the
building (always open to the air) could not be put up:--
"Accipe quæ nimios vincant umbracula soles,
Sit licet, et ventus, te tua vela tegont."
--_Mart.,_ lib. xiv., Ep. 28.
[Footnote: "Take this, which may shield you from the sun's excessive
rays. So may your own sail shield you, even should the breeze blow."]
By _tua vela_ is to be understood "your own Umbrella." And
elsewhere the same writer gives the advice:--
"Ingrediare viam coelo licet usque sereno
Ad subitas nunquam scortea desit aquas."
--Man'., lib. xiv. Ep. 130.
[Footnote: "Though with a bright sky you begin your journey, let
this cloak ever be at hand in case of unexpected showers."]
It will be noticed from the above extracts that the Umbrella does
not appear to have been used among the Romans as a defence from rain;
and this is curious enough, for we know that the theatres were
protected by the _velarium_ or awning, which was drawn across
the arena whenever a sudden shower came on; strange that this
self-evident application of the Umbrella should not have occurred to a
nation generally so ingenious in the invention of every possible
luxury. Possibly the expense bestowed in the decoration of the
_umbraculum_ was a reason for its not being applied to what we
cannot but regard as its legitimate use.
After the founding of Constantinople, the custom of great people
carrying an Umbrella seems to have arisen, but in Rome it appears
only to have been used as a luxury, never as a mark of distinction,
Pliny speaks of Umbrellas made of palm-leaves, but from other sources
we may gather that the Romans--at all events in the days of the
empire--lavished as much splendour on their Umbrella as on all the
articles of their dress. Ovid (as above quoted) speaks of an Umbrella
inwrought with gold, and Claudian in the same way has:--
"Neu defensura calorem
Aurea submoveant rapidos umbracula soles."
--_Claud._, lib. viii., De. iv. cons. Honorii, 1. 340.
[Footnote: "Nor to protect you from the heat, let the golden
umbrella ward off the keen sun's rays."]
From this we may conclude that the carrying an Umbrella was in some
sort a mark of effeminacy. In another place carrying the Umbrella is
alluded to as one of the duties of a slave:--
"Jam non umbracula tollunt
Virginibus," etc.
[Footnote: "_Now_ they do not carry girls' parasols."]
Gorius says that the Umbrella came to Rome from the Etruscans, and
certainly it appears not infrequently on Etruscan vases, as also on
later gems. One gem, figured by Pacudius, shows an Umbrella with a
bent handle, sloping backwards. Strabo describes a sort of screen or
Umbrella worn by Spanish women, but this is not like a modern
Umbrella.
Very many curious facts are connected with the use of the Umbrella
throughout the East, where it was nearly everywhere one of the
insignia of royalty, or at least of high rank.
M. de la Loubère, who was Envoy Extraordinary from the French King
to the King of Siam in 1687 and 1688, wrote an account entitled a
"New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam," which was
translated in 1693 into English. According to his account the use of
the Umbrella was granted to some only of the subjects by the king. An
Umbrella with several circles, as if two or three umbrellas were
fastened on the same stick, was permitted to the king alone, the
nobles carried a single Umbrella with painted cloths hanging from it.
The Talapoins (who seem to have been a sort of Siamese monks) had
Umbrellas made of a palm-leaf cut and folded, so that the stem formed
a handle. The same writer describes the audience-chamber of the King
of Siam. In his quaint old French, he says:--"Pour tout meuble il n'y
a que trois para-sol, un devant la fenêtre, a neuf ronds, & deux à
sept ronds aux deux côtéz de la fenêtre. Le para-sol est en ce Pais-la,
ce que le Dais est en celui-ci."
Tavernier, in his "Voyage to the East," says that on each side of
the Mogul's throne were two Umbrellas, and also describes the hall of
the King of Ava as decorated with an Umbrella. The Mahratta princes,
who reigned at Poonah and Sattara, had the title of Ch'hatra-pati,
"Lord of the Umbrella." Ch'hatra or cháta has been suggested as the
derivation of _satrapaes_ (_exatrapaes_ in Theopompus), and
it seems a probable derivation enough. The cháta of the Indian and
Burmese princes is large and heavy, and requires a special attendant,
who has a regular position in the royal household. In Ava it seems to
have been part of the king's title, that he was "King of the white
elephant, and Lord of the twenty-four Umbrellas." Persons of rank in
the Mahratta court, who were not permitted the right of carrying an
Umbrella, used a screen, a flat vertical disc called AA'-ab-gir,
carried by an attendant. Even now the Umbrella has not lost its
emblematic meaning. In 1855 the King of Burmah directed a letter to
the Marquis of Dalhousie in which he styles himself "His great,
glorious, and most excellent Majesty, who reigns over the kingdoms of
Thunaparanta, Tampadipa, and all the great Umbrella-wearing chiefs of
the Eastern countries," &c.
Thus we see that the same signification which was attached to the
Umbrella by the ancient people of Nineveh, still remains connected
with it even in our own time.
In the Great Exhibition of 1851 was the splendid Umbrella belonging
to his Highness the Maharajah of Najpoor. The ribs and stretchers,
sixteen in number, divided the Umbrella into as many segments,
covered with silk, exquisitely embroidered with gold and silver
ornaments. The upper part of the design was complete in each
department, but at the lower, it was formed into a graceful running
border, to which a fringe was attached. The handle was hollow and
formed of thick silver plates.
In Bengal it appears that no distinction is attached to the
Umbrella, since the poorer classes there use a cháta or small
Umbrella, made of leaves of the _Licerata peltata_. These are of
conical form and have numerous ribs and stretchers. The higher class
in Assam use a similar Umbrella.
In China the use of the Umbrella does not appear to have been
confined, as in India and Persia, to royalty; but it was always, as
it is now, a mark of high rank, though not exclusively so. There
seems to have been no particular rule about it, but it carried with
it some peculiar distinction; for, on one occasion at least, we hear
of twenty-four Umbrellas being carried before the Emperor when he
went out hunting. Here it is, what it appears to be in no other
Eastern country, a defence against rain rather than sun, and while
the richer people do not go out much while it is wet, the poorer
classes wear a dress that protects them from the weather. In the
rainy season, for instance, a Chinese boatman wears a coat of straw,
and a hat of straw and bamboo. Such a dress, of course, renders an
Umbrella superfluous, and it matters little to the wearer how hard
the rain may pelt. Nevertheless great numbers of Umbrellas are
exported from China to India, the Indian Archipelago, and even South
America. In the 1851 Exhibition two only were shown. Of them the
report says, "They present nothing remarkable beyond the great number
of ribs, which amount to forty-two. The ribs are formed of wood; and
instead of being embraced by the fork of the stretcher, as in the
case of European Umbrellas, they have a groove cut out in the middle
of their lengths, into which the stretcher is secured by a stud of
wood. The head of each rib fits into a notch formed in the ring of
wood, which is fastened on to the top of the stick, there being a
separate, notch for each rib. The slide is of wood, and has forty-two
notches, namely, one for each stretcher, which like the ribs, is
formed of wood. The covering of the Umbrellas exhibited is of oiled
paper coarsely painted."
But the use of the Umbrella travelled westward, and with it the
custom of regarding it as a mark of dignity.
Amongst the Arabs the Umbrella was a mark of distinction. Niebuhr,
who travelled in Southern Arabia, describes a procession of the Iman
of Sanah. In it the Iman and each of the princes of his numerous
family, caused a _madalla,_ or large Umbrella, to be carried by
his side; and it is a privilege which, in this country, is
appropriated to princes of the blood, just as the Sultan of
Constantinople permits none but his vizier to have his caique, or
gondola, covered behind, to keep him from the heat of the sun. The
same writer goes on to say that many independent chiefs of Yemen
carried _madallas_ as a mark of their independence.
In Morocco, according to a passage quoted by a writer in the
_Penny Magazine_ from the Travels of Ali Bey, the emperor alone
and his family are allowed to use it. "The retinue of the Sultan was
composed of a troop of from fifteen to twenty men on horseback. About
a hundred steps behind them came the Sultan, who was mounted on a
mule with an officer bearing his Umbrella, who rode by his side also
on a mule. The Umbrella is a distinguishing sign of the sovereign of
Morocco. Nobody but himself, his sons, or his brothers dare to make
use of it." In Turkey the Umbrella is common. A vestige of the
reverence once attached to it remains in the custom of compelling
everybody who passes the palace where the Sultan is residing to lower
his Umbrella as a mark of respect. And--at all events some years
back, before the Crimean war had introduced so many Europeans to
Constantinople--any one neglecting to pay the required reverence,
stood in considerable danger of a lively reminder from the sentry on
duty.
Before concluding this chapter, it may not be out of place to make a
few remarks as to the origin of the word Umbrella, as we have done
regarding the thing itself. The English name is borrowed from the
Italian _Ombrella_. The Latin term _Umbella_ is applied by
botanists to those blossoms which are clustered at the extremities of
several spokes, radiating from the common stem like the metallic
props of the Umbrella. The name, as is seen, does not give the
slightest idea of the use of the article designated, as is often the
case with words we practical folk employ; and we might well take a
lesson from our cousins German or French, who have invented distinct
names for the weapon used to ward off the rays of the sun, and that
employed against rain, namely,--Regenschirm, _parapluie;_
Sonnenschirm, _parasol._ These are better than our names, even
though both the French words labour under the disadvantage of being
hybrids, half Greek and half Latin.
Such, then, is the ancient history of the Umbrella, as far as our
research has enabled us to trace it, and, indeed, we are now not a
little surprised at the result of those labours which have enabled us
to discover so much.