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The stalk is triangular, and terminates in a crown 

 of small filaments, resembling hair, which the 

 ancients used to compare to a thyrsus. It was 

 very useful to the inhabitants of the country 

 where it grew, for the stem not only served for 

 building small boats, but was likewise used for 

 making cups and other utensils. The pith of the 

 plant was eaten as food, and the root, being full 

 of a sweet juice, was frequently chewed. 



" But the manufacture of paper was the most 

 important of all its uses ; for I need not tell you, 

 Bertha, that before mankind had some means of 

 noting events, the recollection of them was 

 either lost, or became so mixed with error, in 

 being preserved by mere oral tradition, that we 

 have no records of the ancient transactions of 

 the inhabitants of the globe ; except those con- 

 tained in the Bible, which were, you know, written 

 by Moses retrospectively. Before the invention 

 of letters, mankind may be said to have been 

 perpetually in their infancy, as the arts of one 

 age or country generally died with their inventors. 



" When the outer skin or bark of the stem of 

 the papyrus," continued my aunt, " was taken off, 

 several slender films or pellicles were found one 

 within the other. These pellicles were carefully 

 separated with a pointed instrument, and spread 

 on a table so that the thickest parts were all 

 ranged together. On these, another layer of 



