were cut upon sticks: these may still be found among the inhabitants of Sweden.

The ancient letters sent by persons, one to another, were in general written upon tablets of wood. The different pieces were tied together with a thread or string, and a seal from an engraved signet was put upon the knot, so that no one could read what was written till the seal was broken.

Among the natives of Africa, and in the east, it is very common to have writing boards, like schoolboys' slates, upon which persons write with ink, and rub it out when done with. When Park was at Koolkorro, in Africa, his landlord brought him a writing board, asking him to write upon it. Park did so the African then washed the writing from the board, and drank the water; for the poor ignorant man thought this would protect him from harm! Such tablets of wood are commonly used in schools in those countries. The prophets sometimes wrote upon tables of wood: see Isa. xxx. 8; Hab. ii. 2: the writing table which Zacharias made signs for, when desired to name his son, Luke i. 63, was a wooden tablet; perhaps it was covered with wax. Such a table is mentioned, Is. xxx. 8; what was written thereon would be openly seen. The prophet Habakkuk was thus to make his vision plain upon tables, ii. 2. In this manner the Romans caused their laws to be written on tables of brass and hung up in public. Such tablets are

mentioned by Greek and Roman writers, and were used in England till after the year 1300.

Leaves were formerly used, and still are so, for writing upon; many ancient authors mention them. In India, particularly in Ceylon, they use the leaves of some trees which are very broad and thick; these are cut into slips, and smoothed they write upon them with sharp-pointed bodkins. To make a book, several leaves are strung together. These leaves are called ollas, and the missionaries have frequently used them for writing tracts upon. But this way of preparing tracts is very expensive, and the leaves are liable to break, so that they now use paper, and print the tracts. For that purpose, large quantities of paper are sent out every year by the Religious Tract Society. But children in India often write their lessons on the ground, or on sand strewed for that purpose. Thus Jeremiah xvii. 13; and our Lord wrote on the ground, John viii. 6.

The bark of trees has been used in all countries to write upon. The word book, in Latin liber, is the name by which the inner bark of trees is called in that language. In Sumatra, bark is still much used for books: the North American Indians used it for picture writing.

Linen was used in former times, particularly by the Egyptians many of their linen books, and writings upon linen, remain to this day. They are frequently found inside the wrappers of the mummies, or dead bodies of persons who died a long time ago, which have been preserved or embalmed in the same manner as the bodies of Jacob and Joseph. See Gen. 1. 2, 26.

Skins of animals were used long before people had found out how to make them into parchment. These leather and linen books were in the form of long rolls. It is probable that the book of the law, written by Moses, and given by him to the priests, Deut. xxxi. 24, etc., was of linen or leather; and that the book of the law, found by Hilkiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, was so. It may have been the same book that was written by Moses. When Dr. Buchanan was in India, he found a very old copy of the law, written on a roll of leather about fifteen feet long. Many such rolls exist, some more than a hundred feet in length. It must have been very troublesome to read in such a book or roll, which was the general form of books in ancient times. The rolls were several feet long, but not very wide, generally about twelve or fourteen inches; the writing was

in pages beginning at one end of the roll, and so proceeding to the other. The ends of the roll were often fastened upon sticks; the roll was opened at the beginning enough to allow of a page or two being read. The ancient manuscripts were all written in capital letters, and without divisions of the words, so that the roll, when first opened, looked something like this.

Of course, there were more lines in a page and more letters

in a line than in this representation

The part first opened, when read, was rolled up again, and more was opened: thus the whole book could be read without the difficulty which there must have been if the lines had gone all along, from one end to the other, so as to require the whole roll to be opened at once. Sometimes both sides of the roll were written upon, Ezek. ii. 10. Hartley describes a roll written on both sides, so that when the reader had read the page next the inner stick, he

turned the parchment over and read the other side. This was written within and without.

The roll described, Zech. v. 1-3, was about thirty-five feet long. The description, Rev. vi. 14, strikingly represents the removal of a roll when rolled up. That seen by the evangelist seems to have had seven leaves or skins, with a pictorial representation on each: the whole being rolled the edge of each could be sealed separately, so as to allow of their being opened one after the other.

up,

They were laid up in repositories especially for the purpose, as the house of the rolls, Ezra vi. 1.

The rolls, or books rolled up, are often mentioned or alluded to in the Bible: Ezra vi. 2; Isa. viii. 1, xxxiv 4; Jer. xxxvi. 2; Ezek. ii. 9; Rev. vi. 14. The scribes, or persons employed in writing, were considered persons of importance. From Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11, it appears that they wore their ink-bottles, or ink-horns, at their girdles. The prophecy of Jeremiah, sent to Jehoiakim, was written by Baruch, with ink, in the roll of a book: it is plain that this book was of some soft substance, as the king was able to cut it to pieces with a penknife, before he cast it into the fire, Jer. xxxvi. 23.

The word "scribe" requires explanation. It is used in the Bible for a secretary or clerk. These were persons of importance then, as in Europe during the Middle Ages, when but few persons could write. Such were those mentioned.

Such an officer would keep the records mentioned Est. vi. 1-3.

A scribe or secretary also was an officer of considerable importance, having duties of moment in his charge: these were of different kinds, as the scribe of the host, or muster-master of the army, 2 Kings xxv. 19. Such a list of names, kept by some official person, seems to illustrate the book of life, Phil. iv. 3; Rev. iii. 5; xx. 12; xxi. 27.

The scribes in the New Testament were doctors or learned men, skilled in the law their business was to interpret it; but, as our blessed Lord said, they oftener made it void by their traditions, Matt. xxiii. 2.

In Persia, at the present day, the meerzas, or scribes, are of importance. Travellers state that the higher classes employ them through indolence, instead of writing letters themselves; and the lower classes cannot write. Lane described them in Egypt as sitting in the street and writing for those who came to them.

Parchment is made of the skins of goats, sheep, or calves, prepared with care. It was known to the Jews, and being a later invention, and more valuable than skins of leather, was used for writings of the greatest importance. The apostle Paul, when writing to Timothy, desires him to bring the books he had left at Troas, but "especially the parchments," 2 Tim. iv. 13. The value and scarcity of parchment was so great, before the invention of paper, that the writing was frequently effaced from the rolls or books already written, and other works more desired were written instead. Some of the most ancient manuscripts of the Bible now known have been written over in this manner, but the first writing can still be made out, though with difficulty. Another substance much used for writing upon, was a kind of paper made from the thin skin or film which covers a sort of bulrush that grows in Egypt, and is called papyrus, or biblos. It was found in abundance on the banks of the Nile and other streams, Isa. xix. 7. Among these reeds or bulrushes Moses was placed, when his parents dared not to keep him any longer. The daughter of the king found him there, as is related, Exod. ii. 5. These bulrushes are also mentioned in Isa. xviii. 2. This sort of paper was much used by the Romans and Greeks. The manuscripts or books found in Herculaneum-the city that was buried under the ashes and lava from Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79, and which remained unknown until about a hundred years ago—are all written on this sort of paper. They are rolls, or long slips, of different lengths, about twelve inches wide; but, from the heat of the lava, and the many centuries they remained untouched, it is very difficult to unroll or open them.

Different sorts of paper have lately been made of bark of trees, cotton, silk, straw, and many other substances; but these, as well as the paper now made of linen rags, were unknown to the ancient Jews. The paper mentioned 2 John 12 was made of papyrus.

The ancients wrote upon these substances with ink. The first mention of ink is in the writing of the prophecy of Jeremiah by Baruch, which we find was written "with ink in a book," or roll, Jer. xxxvi. 18. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a writer's ink-horn. Lane describes the literary men and those who are writers by profession, in Egypt, as wearing a silver, brass, or copper case at their girdle, with a receptacle for ink and pens. Other travellers

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