Chap. 28.] 
THE TEEES OF -31THI0PIA. 
193 
matters, and as many in Greek, containing philosophical pre- 
cepts. The same author states also in his Third Book why 
it was thought proper to burn them. 
It is a fact acknowledged by all writers, that the SibyP^ 
brought three books to Tarquinius Superbus, of which two 
were burnt by herself, while the third perished by fire with 
the CapitoP^ in the days of Sylla. In addition to these facts, 
Mucianus, who was three times consul, has stated that he had 
recently read, while governor of Lycia, a letter written upon 
paper, and preserved in a certain temple there, which had 
been written from Troy, by Sarpedon ; a thing that surprises 
me the more, if it really was the fact that even in the time 
of Homer the country that we call Egypt was not in exist- 
ence.^'^ And why too, if paper was then in use, was it the 
custom, as it is very well known it was, to write upon leaden 
tablets and linen cloths? Why, too, has Homer stated that 
in Lycia tablets^^ were given to BeUerophon to carry, and not 
a paper letter ? 
Papyrus, for making paper, is apt to fail occasionally ; such 
a thing happened in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, when 
there was so great a scarcity*^ of paper that members of the 
senate were appointed to regulate the distribution of it : had 
not this been dpne, all the ordinary relations of life would 
have been completely disarranged. 
CHAP. 28. (14.) THE TEEES OF ETHIOPIA. 
JEthiopia, which borders upon Egypt, has in general no 
remarkable trees, with the exception of the wool-bearing^^ 
ones, of which we have had occasion to speak*^ in our descrip- 
tion of the trees of India and Arabia. However, the produce 
*5 See B. xxxiv. c. 11. ggg 3^ xxxiii. c. 5. 
3^ He implies that it could not have been written upon paper, as the 
papyrus and the districts which produced it were not in existence in the 
time of Homer. No doubt this so-called letter, if shown at all, was a for- 
gery, a *'pia fraus." See c. 21 of the present Book. 
38 II. B. vi. 1. 168. 
3^ Codicillos," as meaning characters written on a surface of wood. 
TTtVal, as Homer calls it. 
^ ^0 It was probably then that the supply of it first began to fail ; in the 
sixth century it was still used, but by the twelfth it had wholly fallen 
into disuse. 
*i The cotton-tree, Gossypium arboreum of Linnoeus. 
*2 See B. xii. c. 21, 22. 
VOL. Ill, O 
