98 THE REV. r. A. WALKERj D.D., F.L.S., ON 



The fifth word, agmOu, reed or cane, occurs twice in a 

 proverb, Isaiah ix, 14, and xix, 15, " Head and tail," " Branch 

 and rush," i.e., top and bottom. It occurs in Job in the phrase 

 '•• bowing the head Hke a buh'ush," whence it evidently had 

 a high stem surmounted with a tuft. It is the arundo donax 

 of botanists, and probably the common reed of Egypt and 

 Palestine, a tall thin cane, 12 feet high, Avith a bushy 

 blossom bending flat before the wind and rising again. 

 "The reed shaken with the wind," Matthew xi, 7, groAving 

 luxuriantly by the Dead Sea and by the Jordan. On 

 December 29th, 1883, I myself gathered the bushy blossoms 

 of this anuido at Esneh, Avhere it grew to twice the height of 

 a man in the shalloAv Avaters by the Avest bank of the Nile. 



The sixth word is KoXafio^, calamus, a reed, and this is the 

 general term for a stem or stalk, as a stalk of Avheat in 

 Pharaoh's dream (Genesis xli, 5, and ^'l). It is also used 

 (Exodus XXV, 31) for the stem of a candlestick (Ezekiei 

 xl, 5), for a measuring rod. 



Ancient date of the papyrus. — The use of the papyrus as 

 Avriting material was common (together Avith the reed pen, 

 palette, and other implements of later Egyptian scribes, in 

 the time of the earliest Pharaohs, at least as early as the Ilird 

 and IVth dynasties. 



Different (jnalities of the papyrus according to Pliny. — (1) 

 Largest in old times, the Hieratic (for holy purposes). 



(1) Afterwards the best was called the Augustan. 



(2) The Livian. 



(3) The Hieratic. 



(4) Amphitheatric (from the place Avhere made). 



Fannius at Rome made an improved kind called Fannian. 

 That, not passing through his hands being still called 

 Ampliitheatric. 



Saitic, a common kind from inferior stalks. 

 Emporetic of shops for packing, not for Avriting upon. 



Breadth of best 13 fingers (about 9f inches) broad. 

 Hieratic 11 „ „ 



Fannian 10 „ „ 



Amphitheatric 9 „ )» 



Saitic less. 

 Emporetic, used for business, not aboA^e 6. 



But some sheets of Egyptian papyrus Avere much larger 

 than the best of Eoman time. The Turin papyrus, dating 



