$ APPENDIX. 



port any fuch frequent unrolling. This probably arifes 

 from their having firft written upon papyrus, after the ufe 

 of ftone was laid afide, and only adopted llcins upon their 

 embracing the Jcwifh religion. The fthiopians, indeed, 

 write upon parchment, yet ufe the fame form of books as 

 we do. The outer boards are made of wood and covered 

 with leather. It was the law only they fay they were in 

 ufe to preferve in one long roll of parchment, upon the fore- 

 fi.dc of which it was written ; it being indecent and impro- 

 per to write any part of it on the back, or a lefs honour- 

 able place of the fkin : And fuch was the roll we have juft 

 mentioned as prefented to Ptolemy, where fuch pains were, 

 taken in joining the feveral fkins together, for this very 

 r,eafon. 



The manner paper was made has been controverted; but 

 whoever will read Pliny * attentively, cannot, as 1 imagine, 

 be long in doubt. The thick part of the ftalk being cut in 

 half, the pellicle between the pith and the bark, or perhaps 

 the two pellicles, were flript off, and divided by an iron in- 

 ftrument, which probably was fharp-pointed, but did not 

 cut at the edges. This was fquared at the fides fo as to be 

 like a ribband, then laid upon a fmooth table or drefler, af- 

 ter being cut into the length that it w*ts req-uired the leaf 

 mould be. Thefe ftripes, or ribbands of papyrus, were 

 lapped over each other by a very thin border, and then 

 pieces of the fame kind were laid tranfverfely, the length 

 of thefe anfwering to the breadth of the firft. The book 



which 



* Plin.^it. Hift. lib. £.ii. cap. n. 



