cloth ; /. Jars of soap.
mentioned in Scripture, fulling appears to have con- sisted chiefly in cleansing garments and whitening them (compare vElian, Var. Hist, v, 5). The use of white garments, and also the feeling respecting their use for festal and religious purposes, ma}' be gathered from various passages: Eccl. ix, 8; Dan. vii, 9; Isa. Ixiv, 6; Zech. iii, 3, 5 ; 2 Sam. vi, 14; 1 Chron. xv, 27; Mark ix, 3 ; Rev. iv, 4 ; vi, 11 ; vii, 9; compare ^lishna, Taanilh, iv, 8 ; see also Statins, Silu. i, 2, 237 ; Ovid, Fast, i, 79; Claudian, De Land. Siil. iii, 289. This branch of the trade was parhaps exercised by other persons than those wh(J carded the wool and smoothed the cloth when woven (Mishna, Baha Kama, i, X, 10). In applying the marks used to distinguisli cloths sent to be cleansed, fullers were desired to be careful to avoid the mixtures forbidden by the law (Lev. xix, 19; Deut. xxii, 11 ; Mishna, Masseh. Kilaim, ix, 10). Colored cloth was likewise fulled (Mishna, Shabb. xix, 1). See Schiittgen, Triturm etfullonice an- tiquitates (2d ed. Lips. 1763). — Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. V. See Handicraft.
Fuller's Soap (D^d33"a T'^'^in, borith' melcahbe- sMin , alkali of those treading cloth, i. e. washers' pot- ash ; Sept. Tvoia Tr\in>uvTO)i>), some alkaline or sapo- naceous substance mixed with the water in the tubs used for stamping or beating cloth. Two substances of the nature are mentioned in Scripture : "IPS, ne- ther, nitre (j'irpov, nitrum, Prov. xxv, 20 ; Jer. ii, 22), and ri'^'13, borith', soap (jroia, herba fidloniim, herba borith, Mai. iii, 2). Nitre is found in Egypt and in Syria, and vegetable alkali was also obtained tliere from the ashes of certain plants, probabh' Salsola kali (Gesenius, Thesaur. Iltb. p. 246; Pliny, xxxi, 10, 46; Hasselquist, p. 275 ; Burckhardt, Sp-ia, p. 214). The juice also of some saponaceous plant, perhaps Gypsa- phila strnthium, or Saponaria officinalis, was some- times mixed with the water for the like purpose, and may thus be regarded as representing the soap of Scripture. Other substances also are mentioned as beiivg employed in cleansing, which, together with al- kali, seem to identify the Jewish with the Roman pro- cess (Pliny, XXXV, 57), as urine and chalk (creta cimo- lia), and bean-water, i. e. bean-meal mixed with water (Mishna, Shabb. ix, 5 ; Niddah, ix, 6). Urine, both of men and of animals;, was regularly collected at Rome for cleansing cloths (Plin. xxxviii, 26, 48 ; Athen. xi, p. 484; Mart, ix, 93; Plautus, Asm. v, 2, 57); and it seems not improbable that its use in the fullers' trade at .Jerusalem may have suggested the coarse taunt of Kabshakeh during his interview with the deputies of Ilezekiah in the highway of the fullers' field (2 Kings xviii, 27) ; but Schiittgen thinks it doubtful whether the Jews made use of it in fulling (Antiq.full. § 9). The process of whitening garments was per- formed by rubbing into them chalk or earth of some kind (55':3X). Creta cimolia (cimolite) was probably the earth most frequently used (" creta; fuUonias," Plin}', xvii, 4 ; compare Theophr. Charact. 11). The whitest sort of earth for this purpose is a wliite pot-
Smith, Diet, of Classical Antiq. s. v. Eullo.- Smith, s. V. See Soap.
FULLER'S FIELD (0313 nnb, sedeh' lobes'; Sept. aypug tov yvaAiojc, or Kva<p'nijQ ; Vulg. acjirful- lonis'), a spot near Jerusalem (2 Kings xviii, 17 ; Isa. xxxvi, 2 ; vii, 3) so close to tlie walls that a person speaking from there could be heard on them (2 Kings xviii, 17, 26). It is only incidentally mentioned in these passages, as giving its name to a "highway"' (n^ipp — an embanked road, Gcsen. Thes. p. 957 h), "in" (a) or "on" (3N, A. V. "in") which highway was the "conduit of the upper pool." The "end" (riiSp) of the conduit, whatever that was, appears to have been close to the road (Isa. vii, 3). In consider- ing the nature of this spot, it should be borne in mind that sadeh, "field," is a term almost invariably con- fined to cultivated arable land, as opposed to unre- claimed ground. See Topographical Terms. One resort of the fullers of Jerusalem would seem to have been below the city on the south-east side. See En- rogel. But Rabshakeh and his "great host" can hardly have approached in that direction. They must have come from the north — the only accessible side for any body of people — as is certainly indicated by the route traced in Isa. x, 28-32 (see Gibeah); and the fuller's field, from this circumstance, has been located by some (Hitzig, zu Jesa. vii, 3 ; Williams, Ilohj City, ii, 472) on the table-land on the northern side of the cit}', near the Damascus gate. See Fuller's Monu- ment (below). The " pool" and the "conduit" would be sufficient reasons for the presence of the fullers, and their location would therefore determine that of the "field" in question. See Conduit. On the other hand, Rabshakeh and his companions may have left the army and advanced along the east side of Mount Moriah to En-rogel, to a convenient place under the temple walls for speaking. There can be little doubt, however, that the " upper pool" is the cistern now call- ed Birket el-Mamilla, at the head of the Valley of Hin- nom, a short distance west of tlie Yafiv gate (Porter, Ilatulbookfor S. and P. p. 99, 136). Hezekiah conveyed the waters from it by a subterranean aqueduct to the west side of the city of David (2 Chron. xxxii, 30). The natural course of this aqueduct was along the an- cient road to the western gate beside the castle, and this was the road by which the Assyrian ambassadors would doubtless approach the city, coming as they did from Lachish. The position of the fuller's field is tiius indicated. It lay on the side of the highway west of the city. See Fuller's Gate (below). The fullers' occupation required an abundant suppl}' of water, and an open space for drying the clothes. We may therefore conclude that their "field" was beside, or at least not far distant from, the upper pool. — Smith, s. V. ; Kitto, s. V. See GiaoN.