The Osceola times., 1882-12-30
STATIONERY OF THE ANCIENTS.
Various Substitutes for Paper In the Pres
eryation of Records.


Is it not strange in these days of cheap
stationery to think Of time when both
parchment and papyrus had become so
rare and so exorbitantly expensive that
both Greeks and Romans were in the
habit of using a palimpest, which was
simply some old manuscript with the
former writing erased?
Thus countless works of authors now
celebrated, and whose every word is held
priceless in this nineteenth century
were destroyed by their contemporaries
Verify those prophets lacked honor
Many were the expedients resorted to
by the early scribes for the supply Of
writing materials. There was no scrib-
bling paper whereon to jot down trivial
memoranda or accounts, but the heaps Of
broken pots and crockery of all Sorts
which are so abundant in all eastern
towns, prove the first suggestion for such
china tablets and states as we now use
and bits of smooth stone or tiles were
constantly used for this purpose and re-
main to the present day.
Fragments of ancient tiles thus scrib-
bled on (such tiles as that whereon Eze-
kiel was commanded to portray the city
of Jerusalem) have been found in many
places. The island of Elephantine, on
the Nile, is said to have furnished more
than hundred specimens OF these mem
oranda, which are now in various muse
ums. One of these is q soldiers leave of
absence, scribbled on fragment of an
old vase
How little those scribes and account
ants foresaw the interest with which
learned descendants of the barbarians Of
the isles would one day treasure their
rough notes.
Still quainter were the writing mate
rails of the ancient Arabs, who before the
time of Mohammed used to carve their
annals on the shoulder blades of sheep;
these sheep bone chronicles" were then
strung together, and thus preserved.
After awhile sleeps bones were re-
placed by sleeps skin, and manufacture
of parchment was brought TO such per-
fection as to place il among the refine
mcnts of art.
| We hear of vellums that were tinted
yellow, others white; others were dyed q
rich purple and the writing thereon was
in golden ink, with golden borders. and
many colorcd decorations These prec-
ious manuscripts were annointed with
oil of cedar to preserve them from the
moths.
We hear of one in which the name of
Mohammed is adorned with garlands of
tulips and carnations painted in many
colors.
Still more precious was the silky paper
of the Persians, powdered with gold and
silver dust, whereon were painted rare
illuminations, while the book was per-
fumed with altar OF rpses or essence Of
sandal wood.
OF the demand for writing materials
one may form some faint notion from
the vast manuscript libraries of which
records have been preserved, as having
been collected by The Caliphs both of
the East and West, the former in Bagdad
and the latter in Andalusia, where there
were so great public libraries, besides the
vast one at Cordova.
We also hear of private libraries, such
as that Of physician who declined an
invitation from the Sultan of Bokhara,
because the carriage of his books would
have required 400 camels
II all the physicians of Bagdad were
equally literary the city could scarcely