326 Oil Vessels made of the Papyrus. 



the inside with papyrus. They make one rudder, which 

 passes through the keel ; and they have a mast formed of the 

 thorn tree, and sails of the paper reed." * 



Of our modern travellers in Africa, Bruce observes : " Pliny 

 says that the whole plant together was used for making boats, 

 a piece of the acacia tree being put in the bottom to serve as 

 a keel ; to which plants were joined, being first sewed together, 

 then gathered up at stem and stern, and the ends of the plant 

 tied fast there ; and this is the only boat they still have in 

 Abyssinia." (Travels, vol. v. p. 6.) 



Also, Belzoni describes a curious boat which he hired on the 

 Lake Moeris, and compares " to old Baris, or boat of Charon 

 (the boat in which the Egyptians carried their dead to the 

 grave). The outer shell, or hulk, was composed of rough 

 pieces of wood, scarcely joined, and fastened by four other 

 pieces, wrapped together by four more across, which formed 

 the deck; no tar, no pitch, either inside or out; and the only 

 preventive against the water coming in was a kind of weed, 

 moistened, which had settled in the joints of the wood." 

 (p. 380.) 



This vessel bears a great resemblance to the baris of Hero* 

 dotus, and its seams were in like manner stuffed with a sort 

 of weed, or reed, which we consider to be the paper reed, the 

 head or panicle of it being extremely well adapted for filling 

 up holes and crevices, as Pliny testifies in the following words : 

 ** The filaments or hair of the panicle, beaten and put be-^ 

 tween the joints of ships, cements the weaving, being more 

 tenacious than glue, and firmer than pitch, in closing up the 

 leaks." t 



Strabo concisely, but very accurately, characterises the plant 

 thus, " The papyrus is a slender rod, bearing a head of 

 hair (panicle) on its top " J ; and Pliny likens this head to a 

 thyrsus (thyrsi modo cacumen). 



The ship Baris appears in all the hieroglyphics of Egypt; 

 and, as the learned Kircher states, " this most celebrated ship 

 of the Egyptians, Baris, is a sailing vessel made of papyrus, 



* 'Ek Trjc aKavBriQ KO-^anivoi ^vka oaov ts Snrrixia, 7r\iv9r}^6v crvvTiOeXcrif 

 vavTTijyevfievoi rpoirov roiovde' irtpi yofx^ovg ttvkvovq kuI fxaKpovg Trtpuipovai 

 rd SiTciix^a ^i}\a' kTrkav de rpoTr^ Tovrtj) vavTrrjyfjrrcjvraij ^vyd eTrnroXrig rei- 

 •X^ovai aifTdv. vofisvai Se ovdev xpkii)VTaC ioojQtv St rag cipjxoviag ev u)v STraKrioaav 

 Ty (5ut\<i>. TrrjSdXiov Sk ev TTOievvTaiy Kal tovto Sid Trjg rpoiriog SiatvvsTai' i<TTt^ 

 dk aKavOlvqt ')(^p'ni)VTaiy larioiai dk jSvtXivoim. {Euterpe^ cap. 96.) 



f Paniculae coma .... contusa et interjecta navium commissuris ferrumi- 

 nat textus, glutino tenacior, rimisque explendis fidelior pice. (Lib. xvi. 

 cap. 36.) 



J 'H fiiv j3i€Xog i//i\j) pd€6og 'ianv ctt' ae/ay ixovffa xa^rijv. {Geogr, 1, xvii.) 



