Appendix 1.2 - Note on the use of Collyrium and Koḥl

The word collyrium has an interesting etymological history. It is a Latin word (κολλύριον, in Greek) meaning “a mass (or article) similar to the collyra-dough.” Collyra is a kind of pastry, round in shape, closely resembling vermicelli.

Thus collyrium came to mean

1. a pessary, suppository, etc., when used in a medical sense,
2. a liquid eye-wash, applied in a long thin line above the eye,
3. and koḥl, for beautifying the eyes.

The word collyrium is often used (as in our text) to mean koḥl, whereas its strict use in connection with the eye should be only in a medical sense. Koḥl is from the Arabic , kuḥl, koḥl, which means a “stain,” from kaḥala, “to stain.” In English the word is applied in chemistry to any fine impalpable powder produced by trituration, or especially by sublimation, and by further extension to fluids of the idea of sublimation—an essence, quintessence, or spirit obtained by distillation or “rectification,” as alcohol of wine. Thus our own word “alcohol” really means “a thing (produced) by staining.” Koḥl consists of powdered antimony ore, stibnite, antimony trisulphide (πλατυόφθαλμον στίμμι), galena or lead ore.

The custom of applying koḥl to the eyes dates from the dawn of history and is still practised in some form or other in almost every race of the world. After shortly considering its use in India, it will be interesting to give some account of the custom in other countries—chiefly in ancient Egypt and the Moslem East.

From a study of the Ajaṇṭā cave paintings and the work of the Indian court artists of the various schools, it is at once noticeable how exaggerated are the eyes of the women. They are very large and stretch in almond shape almost to the ears. This is considered a great attraction, and the painting of the eye is as important as the application of henna to the hands and feet. The koḥl (surmā) is used both as a means of producing large and lustrous eyes and as a collyrium (añjana).

In ancient India the recipes for making various añjanas are strange and numerous. In the Suśruta Saṃhitā of the first century either b.c. or a.d. (Bhiṣagratna’s trans., Calcutta) there are many, of which the following is an example:—

“Eight parts of Rasāñjana (antimony) having the hue of a (full-blown) blue lotus flower, as well as one part each of (dead) copper, gold and silver, should be taken together and placed inside an earthen crucible. It should then be burnt by being covered with the burning charcoal of catechu or aémantaka wood, or in the fire of dried cakes of cow-dung and blown (with a blow-pipe till they would glow with a blood-red effulgence), after which the expressed juice (rasa) of cow-dung, cow’s urine, milk-curd, clarified butter, honey, oil, lard, marrow, infusion of the drugs of the sarva-gandhā group, grape juice, sugar-cane juice, the expressed juice of triplialā and the completely cooled decoctions of the drugs of the sārivādi and the utpalādi groups, should be separately sprinkled over it in succession alternately each time with the heating thereof. After that the preparation should be kept suspended in the air for a week, so as to be fully washed bv the rains. The compound should then be dried, pounded and mixed together with proportionate parts (quarter part) of powdered pearls, crystals, corals and kālanu sārivā. The compound thus prepared is a very good añjana and should be kept in a pure vessel made of ivory, crystal, vaidūrya, śaṅkha (conch-shell), stone, gold, silver or of asand wood. It should then be purified (lit, worshipped) in the manner of the purification of the Sahasra-Pāka-Taila described before. It may then be prescribed even for a king. Applied along the eyelids as a collyrium, it enables a king to become favourite with his subjects and to continue invincible to the last day of his life free from ocular affections.”

In more recent days we find surmā used by both sexes of the Musulmāns of India. It is put on the inside of the eyelids with a stick called mikḥal. Surmā is variously powdered antimony, iron ore, galena, and Iceland spar from Kābul. The jars or toilet-boxes (surmā-dān) resemble those to be described later in modern Egypt.

The eyelashes and outer lids are stained, or rather smudged, with kājal or lamp-black, which is collected on a plate held over a lamp. The box where it is stored is called Kājalantī.

As black is one of the colours spirits fear, surmā and kājal are used as a guard against the evil eye at marriages., deaths, etc.

Herklots in his Qānūn-i-Islām (by Ja‘far Sharīf, with notes by Crooke, new edition, 1920) refers to a legend current in the Pañjāb. It is said that a fakir from Kashmir

“came to Mount Karanglī in the Jhīlam district and turned it into gold. The people fearing that in time of war it would be plundered, by means of a spell turned the gold into antimony, which is now washed down by the rain from the mountain. It is said that if it is used for eight days it will restore the sight of those who have become blind by disease or by accident, but not of those born blind.”

One of the chief attractions of surmā, especially in hot countries, is the coolness it imparts to the eyes. It is this attribute, coupled with its beautifying effects, which makes it so popular in India among both Mohammedans and Hindus.

When obtained in the crude ore it is laboriously pounded in a stone mortar, the process sometimes taking over a week. If the family can afford it, a few drops of attar of roses is occasionally added, thus giving a pleasant perfume to the preparation.

The amount of antimony-sulphide produced in India is very small, the chief localities being the Jhelum and Kangra districts of the Pañjāb; the Bellary, Cuddapah and Viza-gapatam districts of Madras; and the Chitaldroog and Kadur districts of Mysore.

The galena found in some of the above districts, particularly Jhelum, is sometimes sold in the Indian bazaars as surmā.

As we proceed westwards from India, we find everywhere that the practice of painting the eyes is a firmly established custom.

In Persia the preparation used for the eyes was known as tutia. Marco Polo, in describing the town of Cobinam, which has been identified as Kūh-Banān in Kermān, says that tutia is prepared there by putting a certain earth into a furnace over which is placed an iron grating. The smoke and moisture expelled from the earth adheres to the grating. This is carefully collected and is “a thing very good for the eyes.” In commenting upon this passage Yule says (Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 126) that Polo’s description closely resembles Galen’s account of Pompholyx and Spodos (see his De Simpl. Medic., p. ix, in Latin edition, Venice, 1576).

Writing about four hundred years later (1670) the Portuguese traveller Teixeira (Relaciones... de Persia, y de Harmuz. . .) also refers to the tutia of Kermān, and says the ore was kneaded with water and baked in crucibles in a potter’s kiln. The tutia was subsequently packed in boxes and sent for sale to Hormuz. The importation into India of moulded cakes of tutia from the Persian Gulf was mentioned by Milburn in 1813 (Oriental Commerce, vol. i, p. 139).

It is interesting to note that in The History of the Sung Dynasty an Arab junk-master brought to Canton in A.D. 990, and sent thence to the Chinese Emperor in Ho Nan, “one vitreous bottle of tutia.” (E. H. Parker, Asiatic Quarterly Review, January 1904, p. 135.)

Writing in 1881 Gen. A. Houtum-Schindler (Joum. Roy. As. Soc., N.S., vol. xiii, p. 497) says that the term tutia is not now used in Kermān to denote a collyrium, being applied to numerous other minerals. “The lamp-black used as collyrium is always called Surmah. This at Kermān itself is the soot produced by the flame of wicks, steeped in castor oil or goat’s fat, upon earthenware saucers. In the high mountainous districts of the province, Kūbenān, Pārīz, and others, Surmah is the soot of the Gavan plant (Garcia’s goan). This plant, a species of Astragalus, is on those mountains very fat and succulent; from it also exudes the Tragacanth gum. The soot is used dry as an eye-powder, or, mixed with tallow, as an eye-salve. It is occasionally collected on iron gratings.” In Persia to-day surmah forms a very important part of a lady’s toilet. She uses it from early childhood, and the more she puts on the more she honours her husband and her guests. It is considered to serve the twofold purpose of beautifying the eyes and preventing ophthalmia. It is also applied in a long thick line right across both eyebrows.

In all Mohammedan countries the meeting eyebrows are looked upon as beautiful, while in India the opposite is the case. Morier in his immortal Hajji Baba of Ispahan tells us that when Hajji had become a promoter of matrimony, among the charms enumerated by Zeenab her most alluring were her “two eyebrows that looked like one.”

In his edition of 1897, Dr Wills gives an illustration on page 428 of the surmah and tattoo marks on the chin and forehead.

Sir Percy Sykes recently reminded me of a Persian say ing which shows the esteem in which surmah is held:

“The dust of a flock of sheep is surmah to the eyes of a hungry wolf.”

Before considering the custom in ancient and modern Egypt it will be interesting to say a word on its great antiquity.

Mr Campbell Thompson, one of our leading Assyriologists, tells me that it seems certainly to have been in use by the Sumerian women (5000 b.c.) and in after years by the Babylonians and Assyrians. In one of the historical texts koḥl (küḥla) is mentioned as among the tribute paid by Hezekiah to the conquering Sennacherib (700 B.C.).

Even at this early date it was used as a collyrium as well as a “make-up” for the eyes.

In ancient Egypt the custom of applying koḥl to the lashes, eyelids, the part immediately below the lower lashes, and the eyebrows dates from the earliest dynasties. It seems to have been of numerous varieties and colours. Sesqui-sulphuret of antimony, sulphide of lead, oxide of copper and black oxide of maṅganese are among the chief substances used in powdered form. Miniature marble mortars were used for pounding the mineral into powder. The Egyptian name for any such powder was mesṭem, while the act of applying the powder was called semṭet, and the part painted was semṭi. The mesṭem was kept in tubes made of alabaster, steatite, glass, ivory, bone, wood, etc. These were single, or in clusters of two, three, four or five. In many cases the single tube was formed by a hole being bored into a solid jar of alabaster, granite, faience, steatite or porphyry. Such jars had lids, edges and sometimes stands for them to rest on. The stick for applying the mesṭem was usually of the same materials as the jars. One end was slightly bulbous. It was this end which, after being moistened and dipped in the mesṭem, was used in the application on the eyelids and eyebrows. The tubes and jars, from three to six inches in height, were often of the most beautiful workmanship, as an inspection of the numerous specimens at the British Museum will show. Several have been reproduced in Wilkinson’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, 3 vols., 1878 (vol. ii, p. 348). Some have a separate receptacle for the mesṭem stick, otherwise it remained in the bottle, after the manner of the small “drop” perfume bottles of to-day. Of particular interest are the inscriptions found on some of the boxes. Pierret (Die. d'Archæl. Egypt, p. 139) gives examples: “To lay on the lids or lashes”; “Good for the sight”; “To stop bleeding”; “Best stibium”; “To cause tears,” etc. One of the most interesting specimens of an inscribed koḥl- or stibium-holder is one which belonged to Lord Grenfell and is now in Case 316 of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in Wigmore Street, London. It is made of a brown wood and consists of a cluster of five tubes, one in the centre and the others surrounding it.

The central cylinder holds the koḥl- stick. On one side is a full face of Bes, who says he

“does battle every day on behalf of the followers of nis lord, the Scribe Atef, renewing life.”

On the other side is the figure of an ape, Nephrit, who

“anoints the eyes of the deceased with mesṭem.”

Each of the four remaining tubes held a mesṭem of a different tint, with instruction as to when they were to be used:

1. “To be put on daily”;
2. “For hot, dry weather”;
3. “For use in winter”;
4. “For the spring.”

This interesting specimen was found in the temple of Queen Hatshepset at Deir el Bahari.

Thus the great importance of the use of koḥl in ancient Egypt is undoubted, for the inscriptions show that besides its use for purposes of adornment it was recognised to have medicinal properties and to act as a charm; the application was, moreover, regulated by seasonal changes. I have in my collection examples of Egyptian heavily koḥled eyes with suspension eyelets. The mystic “Eye of Osiris” was worn as a protection against magic, and was of as great necessity to the dead as to the living, as can be seen by the large numbers found in mummy-wrappings, etc. Full details on this branch of the subject will be found in Elworthy’s Evil Eye, 1895.

We now turn to the Old Testament, where we find several references to the practice of koḥling the eyes. The most famous is the reference to Jezebel, in 2 Kings ix, 30, where the correct translation of the Hebrew is, “she painted her eyes,” or “set her eyes in koḥl” and looked out of the window.

In Jeremiah iv, 30 we read:

“though thou rent-est thy eyes [not face] with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair”;

and in Ezekiel xxiii, 40:

“and lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments.”

The custom was, and still is, universal throughout Islam, and the koḥled eye has always been prominent in the poetry and tales of Egypt, Arabia and Persia. The koḥl (mirwad) is of many kinds, but is commonly composed of the smoke-black produced by burning a cheap variety of frankincense. Almond-shells are also used in the same manner. These two kinds have no medicinal value, but koḥl produced from the grey powder of antimony and lead ores is, as Burton discovered, a preventive of ophthalmia.

The origin of the use of powdered antimony for the eyes among Mohammedans is, that, when Allah showed himself to Moses on Sinai through the opening the size of a needle, the prophet fainted and the mount took fire: thereupon Allah said:

“Henceforth shalt thou and thy seed grind the earth of this mountain and apply it to your eyes.” (See Burton’s Nights, vol. i, p. 59.)

The powdered ores are often mixed with sarcocolla, long pepper, sugar-candy, the fine dust of a Venetian sequin, and sometimes with powdered pearls, as in India.

The mirwad is usually kept in a glass vessel called muk-ḥulah, and similar varieties are found as in ancient Egypt. (For illustrations see Lane’s Modern Egyptians, 5th edition, 1860, p. 37.) The mirwad is applied with a probe wetted in the mouth or with rose-water. Both eyelids are blackened, but no long line is drawn out at the corners towards the ears as was the custom in ancient Egypt.

It is common to see children in Egypt with blackened eyes. This is merely a charm against the evil eye, as black is one of the colours feared by evil spirits. Koḥl has entered into many proverbs, and a popular exaggeration for an expert thief is to say,

“he would take the very koḥl off your eyelids.”

Mohammedans of both sexes use antimony for the eyes, and Mohammed himself did not disdain its use, as well as dye for the beard and oil for the hair. (See my Selected Papers of Sir Richard Burton, 1923, p. 37.)

In his Arabia Deserta (vol. i, p. 237) Doughty speaks of the fondness of every Arabian man and woman, townsfolk and bedouins, to paint the whites of their eyes with koḥl.

In Morocco the custom enters largely into marriage-ceremonies, where in addition the lips are painted with walnut juice. (For numerous references see the index of Westermarck’s Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco, 1914.)

In Central and Eastern Africa the Moslem natives apply koḥl to both outer lids by fixing it on with some greasy substance. (Burton, op. cit., i, 63.) I have in my collection little leather bags for holding koḥl from Zanzibar and koḥl- sticks of glass. Livingstone, in his Journal, says that the natives of Central Africa used powdered malachite as an eye paint.

In Europe koḥl was used by women in classical Greece and Rome. In his second Satire (85) Juvenal, in speaking of effeminate men who have copied the tricks of the women’s toilet, says:

“One with needle held oblique adds length to his eyebrows touched with moistened koḥl,
And raising his lids paints his quivering eyes.”

In modern days koḥl is in great demand among both the social and theatrical world throughout Europe. Although some Parisian “houses” still sell small flasks of powdered antimony, the usual forms are as an eyebrow-pencil, a black powder and a solidified block which is rubbed with a moistened brush and applied to the lashes, as described so clearly by Juvenal.

The composition of these cosmetics varies. Some are made by simply dissolving Chinese or Indian ink in a mixture of glycerine and water. In other cases the “black” is lampblack or fine carbon black.

The following is a recipe from Poucher’s Perfumes and Cosmetics. 1923: —

Ivory black, or vegetable black	100 grm.
Tragacanth in powder	15 grm.
Alcohol, 58 o.p.	135 cub.cm
Orange-flower water	750 cub. cm.

It is interesting to note the use of tragacanth gum> which, as we have already seen, appears in the Persian surmah. Directions for making the koḥl from the above ingredients are as follows:—

Place the alcohol in a bottle, add the tragacanth and shake until evenly distributed, pour in the orange-flower water and shake until a creamy mucilage is obtained. Rub down the pigment and gradually add this mucilage to it. Pass through muslin and transfer to bottles, which should be corked immediately.

The koḥl sold in paste form often consists of ivory black, soft yellow paraffin and a few drops of ionone (synthetic violet) or attar to give it a perfume.