198 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE.' 



The hieroglyphic form of description is said to have been used in 

 Egypt as early as the third dynasty, the date of which is placed 

 about 4,000 years B.C. by some chronologists ; but the markings 

 and engravings upon rocks have been mostly rubbed out by the hand 

 of time and we have to come down to the times when they wrote or 

 modelled in soft clay and baked it with fire. In that grand store- 

 house, the British Museum, many such indestructible terra-cotta 

 S|)ecimens may be seen from the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon and 

 whose decipherment reveal much concerning Chaldea, Babylonia and 

 Assyria. 



There is something about those tablets of clay that forbids any 

 desire on our part to discredit them. They seem to appeal to our 

 practical understanding and the tendency to doubt them is not so 

 sti'ong as with some modern written histories. The word ])aper is 

 derived from the Greek word '• Papyrus " and it was derived from 

 the Egyptian word "Papu" which name was given to a very useful 

 plant belonging to the family of the sedges. Itgi-ew, and still grows 

 on the marshy banks of rivers in tropical climes. 



The plant has large and abundant rootstocks which spread in the 

 mud and throw up numerous stems fi'om five to ten feet high. The 

 stem is triangular and smooth. 



The right of growing and selling the plant was a government mono- 

 poly in Egypt. It was used for a great variety of purposes besides 

 paper. 



Its graceful plumes, or drooping flower-tufts, crowded the statues 

 of the Gods and decorated their temples ; its pith was eaten as food ; 

 wicker-work boats, boxes, and baskets were woven of its stalks ; 

 while sails, cordage, cloth, mats and sandals for the priests were 

 made of its bark. It was applied as medicine to the cure of ulcers 

 and swellings ; it furnished material fo)- torches and candles, while 

 its roots were used for fuel and manufactured into furniture and 

 household utensils. 



In making paper the inner cuticle of the stalk was cut into very 

 thin slices. The finest slices were those next to the pith and decreased 

 in quality as they ap|)roached the outer integument. 



The slices were laid side by side on a smooth flat suri'ace and 

 covered with a second layer placed at right angles to them, after 

 which they were joressed so as to cause the difiereut laminae to 



