Chap. 28.] THE TREES OF ETHIOPIA. 193 



matters, and as many in Greek, containing philosophical pre- 

 cepts. The same author states also in his Third Book why 

 it was thought proper to burn them. 



It is a fact acknowledged by all writers, that the Sibyl 35 

 brought three books to Tarquinius Superbus, of which two 

 were burnt by herself, while the third perished by fire with 

 the Capitol 36 in the days of Sylla. In addition to these tacts, 

 Mucianus, who was three times consul, has stated that he had 

 recently read, while governor of Lycia, a letter written upon 

 paper, and preserved in a certain temple there, which had 

 been written from Troy, by Sarpedon ; a thing that surprises 

 me the more, if it really was the fact that even in the time 

 of Homer the country that we call Egypt was not in exist- 

 ence. 37 And why too, if paper was then in use, was it the 

 custom, as it is very well known it was, to write upon leaden 

 tablets and linen cloths ? Why, too, has Homer 38 stated that 

 in Lycia tablets 39 were given to Bellerophon to carry, and not 

 a paper letter ? 



Papyrus, for making paper, is apt to fail occasionally ; such 

 a thing happened in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, when 

 there was so great a scarcity 40 of paper that members of the 

 senate were appointed to regulate the distribution of it : had 

 not this been done, all the ordinary relations of life would 

 have been completely disarranged. 



CHAP. 28. (14.) THE TREES OF JETHIOPIA. 



^Ethiopia, which borders upon Egypt, has in general no 

 remarkable trees, with the exception of the wool-bearing 41 

 ones, of which we have had occasion to speak 42 in our descrip- 

 tion of the trees of India and Arabia. However, the produce 



35 See B. xxxiv. c. 11. 36 See B. xxxiii. c. 5. 



37 He implies that it could not have been written upon paper, as the 

 papyrus and the districts which produced it were not in existence in the 

 time of .Homer. No doubt this so-called letter, if shown at all, was a for- 

 gery, a "pia fraus." See c. 21 of the present Book. 



38 II. B. vi. 1. 168. 



39 " Codicillos," as meaning characters written on a surface of wood. 

 7riVcr£, as Homer calls it. 



40 It was probably then that the supply of it first began to fail; in the 

 sixth century it was still -used, but by the twelfth it had wholly fallen 

 into disuse. 



41 The cotton-tree, Gossypium arboreum of Linnaeus. 

 « See B. xii. c. 21, 22. 



VOL. III. O 



