On Vessels made of the Papyrus, 



^.3^5 



Plutarch, among the ancient writers ; and by some modern 

 authors, as Shaw, Bruce, &c. 



Let us first consider what the earlier writers observe on 

 these vessels. 



Theophrastus says that, in Egypt, " they make boats of the 

 papyrus, and weave both sails and ropes of the bark." * 



Pliny states the same ; " of the papyrus itself they make sail- 

 ing vessels ; and of its bark, sails and cables." f Again, he 

 mentions " papyrine ships and equipments of the Nile" (papy- 

 raceis navibus, armamentisque Nili. lib. vi.c.22.) ; and, in 

 another place, he speaks more distinctly of their Egyptian 

 origin, as, *,* ships were first invented from papyrus in the Nile 

 in Egypt." :t 



Also, according to Plutarch : — " Isis, having heard of it, 

 sought about for the fragments (of Osiris), and sailed through 

 the midst of marshes, in a ship {baris) made of the paper reed. 

 From whence it is, that they who sail in boats of the papyrus 

 do not receive any harm from crocodiles, which either fear or 

 honour them for the sake of the goddess." § 



But Herodotus has given a good account of the ships of 

 burthen, called ba- 

 ris {fig, 88.), which 

 were commonlyused 

 on the Nile ; and he 

 thus describes the 

 ancient Egyptian 

 method of build- 

 ing them : — " Cut- 

 ting planks from 

 the thorn tree (most 

 probably the Mi- 

 mosa nilotica Lin,), 

 about two cubits 



large, they place them together in the form of bricks, build- 

 ing the vessel after this manner : they bind these planks of 

 two cubits around thick and long stakes ; when they have thus 

 put them together, they place benches upon them: they 

 never make use of carved ribs ; but they fill up the joints on 



* nXoTa TTOiovaiv k^ avTOV, Kai Ik Trig ftitkov lorta re TrXkowtri, .. . ,Kai oxoivia 

 re, (Lib. iv. cap. 9.) 



t Ex ipsa quidem papyro navigia texunt, et e libro vela . . . . ac funes. 

 {Hist. Nat., lib. xiii. cap. 11.) 



t Naves primum repertas in iEgypto in Nilo ex papyro. (Lib. vii. cap.56.) 



§ Trfv ^k "l<nv Trvdofxevrjv dva^riTtiv iv ^dpidi waTtvplvy, to. dk 'iXr] duKTrXsov- 

 aav. "OOev ovk ddiKti<j^ai rovg iv TraTTvpivoig crxaipecn TrXkovrag vrrb tu>v Kpo- 

 KoSeiKcovy ri (potovfisviov, rj aetofikvujv did Tr)v Oeov. {De Idde et Osiridej 

 p. 558.) 



