PAPYRUS. 
49 
for they were partly formed of a thorny kind of 
wood. The antient Egyptians pretend that the 
crocodiles, out of respect to the goddess Isis, who 
was once afloat in one of these barks, will never 
hurt those who steer their vessels in her manner. 
The inhabitants on the borders of the Nile eat 
the lower and succulent parts of the stem of the 
papyrus, after having baked it to make it more 
palatable ; and they express the antiquity of their 
origin, hieroglyphically, by a fagot of papyrus, be- 
cause they consider the plant as having afforded 
nourishment to their forefathers. Guilandin, who 
lived in the sixteenth century, saw the inhabitants 
eating the succulent part of the papyrus; and Bruce 
tells us that, at this day, the people in Abyssinia 
pursue the same practice, and that they likewise 
chew the root of Indian corn, and of every kind of 
cyperus. 
But the chief use the Egyptians made of the 
papyrus, and that for which it justly became cele- 
brated, was the making of paper. The time when 
this useful article was first invented, is involved in 
obscurity, and authors have differed in their con- 
jectures about its antiquity. Varro dates the dis- 
covery from the time of Alexander the Great, when 
that prince founded the city of Alexandria in 
Egypt ; but Pliny endeavours to establish a con- 
trary opinion, and refers it to a more remote period, 
upon the authority of several Greek authors, who 
lived before the time of Alexander, and who speak 
of the papyrus. 
VOL. III. E 
