The sun., 1916-11-05

vital Information. Scholars may come
to him with questions on the oldest
books in the world. The arrangement
Is unique and ought TO prove of in
estimable worth.
In $500 Il. c. papyrus and paper for
writing were unknown. Men scratched
with a pointed steel instrument called
a stylus on unbaked red clay tablets
OF various sizes. mostly about the size,
shape n thickness of a small book.
They wrote on both sides. and tho H., IL
they were not through. continued on
another ablct. The analogy of these
tablets to sheets of paper is not hard
to comprehend. Sometimes "A tale
stops in the middle and the next tablet
on which II was continued Is never
found, or is found years later.
In thu temples ananuenses were
busy copying o.d pieces of literature
to hand down 20 posterity. just as
later monks spent their days and their
nights copying lahorious,y and pre-
serving old books for the archives of
the monastery. The work OF the
afnaniicnses was placed on shelves II
a ~library-ncnt little rows and piles
Of clay hooks. Men digging five thou
sand years later have found them. and
other mn we spent their lives in
studying thtu. that they might tell us
what the tablets say.
The books cover n wide field and
comprise odes. cpics. religious hymns,
dictionaries, scientific pamphlets. The
old Babylonian and Sumcrian temples
We're. also. great industrial,
cial. agricultural and stock raising
centres. and they kept a vast number
of documents relating 10 these various
interests.
Millions of tablets have been found
recording sales Of cattle, slaves and
staple goods. marriage contracts and
agreements; divorce DEGREES; wills;
receipts for innunerable things from
jewelry and women's dresses to human
chattels. There are the t~imekeepers'
slips OF the temple workers. and book
keeping DR.. Langdon has
found that one big banking house did
business in the city OF Babylon for
six hundred years. the Rothschilds OF
those days.
The great bulk OF tho tablets have
been found on the site OF the ancient
temple OF Nippur in Bahylonia. This
temple was both n religious centre and
a college designed primarily for the
education Of priests, but the range OF
tex books unearthcd there shows that
instruction began at n primary stage
and continued through elementary and
grammar grades To the regulation col
lege course, as Babylonians conceived
Il. and t. theological classes The
text hooks show a high order Of intel
loctuaii;y, Indeed, the rcsemhlances
o. these people ~ us II to-day bring
home again tho observation-disclosures OF
the great antiquity OF civilization, so
called.
Boys exercise books have been
found repeatedly. in this and IN other
collections. They were like present
day school a'a'es but made OF wet clay.
and the little fellow marked on them
with "a stylus. and when he made "A
mistake bluttcd IT ont with his thumb.
DR.. Lancdon has found such a slate,
with the thumb print 50 clearly and
plainly defined that 1t could be used
in n criminal investisation'
ON one side the boy had scratched
his exercise lesson in the Sumerian
syllahles. the equivalent OF our alpha
bet. on the back was his spelling
lesson. all hethumbcd. lie was "A
wrctched little "pcller; one can see
him stahhing his dirty little thumb
into various had places. II seems in
credible thu: IN" lived and died 1900
years ago,