MATERIALS USED FOR PAPER. 133 



buried in mummy pits which have had the fortune to 

 escape the intrusion and plunder of modern times, 

 justify us in saying, as we have, that the quantity 

 of papyri anciently employed in this way was exces- 

 sively great. 



These papyri found in the mummy cases of Egypt 

 after so many centuries' interment, when not spoiled by 

 the hurry and ignorance of those who purloin them 

 and make a trade of them, are generally found in a 

 very perfect state of preservation. According to Dr. 

 Richardson, the fine one in the possession of Lord 

 Bel more was every way complete, not a device or 

 character wanting, or even obscured, but fresh and 

 legible as the day in which it was written. They are 

 always in compressed rolls. Sometimes their exterior 

 is highly gilt, in which case they are greatly prized. 

 When found with the body, they are generally thrust 

 into the breast, or between the knees ; occasionally they 

 are enclosed in small wooden boxes or leather purses. 



Additional evidence of the extensive use of the 

 papyrus by the ancients is afforded by the fact, that 

 there are now in the Museum of Naples nearly eighteen 

 hundred MSS. written on paper of this description, 

 which were all dug out of the lava that entombed 

 the city of Herculaneum. A very small portion 

 indeed of this city has been excavated ; in other 

 parts of it there are doubtlessly other libraries : and 

 Pompeii, another city buried by different eruptions 

 of the same volcano, was probably as literary and as 

 well furnished with books as its neighbour. Unfor- 

 tunately the volcanic matter that covered Pompeii 

 was such as would destroy books ; while, strange as 

 it may appear, the melted lava that buried Hercula- 

 neum, cooling and becoming hard and compact as 

 stone, tended to the preservation of the precious relics 

 collected in the latter place. 



These eighteen hundred papyri, which were dug, 



N 



