OF THE ARROW-HEADED CHARACTER. 495 
mode by which these remarkable characters were 
formed, he rested satisfied of the correctness of 
his conjecture, until, about seven years after, on 
again revisiting the same noble institution, and 
recurring to the Babylonian bricks, of which 
there are a great variety, he was so fortunate as 
to discover one in an obscure corner, on the 
edge of which (it being a very large brick) to 
his great inward delight he discovered among 
some very bold and deeply indented arrow-heads, 
one in which the brickmaker had some 4,000 
years ago pressed his style so deeply into the 
(then) soft clay, that it had left the very size, as 
well as the form of the end of the style, in the 
clay, and thereby transmitting to us a truly solid 
basis whereon to prove the correctness of the 
author’s theory of the manner in which the arrow- 
head character was originally produced.* 
* It may be as well to remark that the arrow-headed cha- 
racter is of such a nature, as regards its facility of produc- 
tion, on the surface of any soft substance, that on that 
account it would be admirably adapted for the system of 
writing on tablets of wax, which was so frequently applied 
or used for such purposes, as appears by the writings of many 
ancient authorities. The perishable nature of that material 
has doubtless prevented us from having ocular demonstration 
on the subject, so that I only throw out the idea as a pro- 
bability. The arrow-head is certainly a clay character, 
although, as we shall see shortly, it was applied to other ma- 
terials by the chisel, &c., &c. 
