Evening star., 1928-12-15
PAPER PERFECTED
BY ANCIENT ARABS
Clay, PapyruS, VeIIum and
Parchment Were Used to
Preserve Manuscripts.

An explorer in a savage country not
long ago saw one of his native guides
sitting on the ground beating time to
n1onotonouS chant Asked what he
was doing, the native replied, II am
making q song about how the tiger
sprang at you today and how I saved
your life. / am making it into a song
SO that may not forget it." The ex-
plorer realized that was how literature
began. The first poet was perhaps a
half-nude savage who told stories of
his personal bravery SO often that all
his kinsmen knew them by heart.
From the family circle these stories
spread through the tribe, decorated on
the way until they became epics, and
the victor of a petty skirmish became
legendary hero who had defeated
armies.
As time went on the singing of these
Story-poemS became a profession and
was paSSel from father to son as kind
of legacy. The story of Ulysses, the
hero of the Trojan War, is said to have
lived for many years from lip to lip
like a folk-song. There came time,
however, when men, no longer willing
to instrust their thoughts to the memory
of people, sought way for permanent
preservation and writing was invented.
Clay Tablets Employed.
It was hundreds of years after this
before pens and paper were known,
but the people of olden times found
other ways of recording their thoughts.
The Assyrians employed tablets and
cylinders of clay, on which they printed
letters with a three-cornered metal
tool. Then came tablets of wax on
which men wrote with sharp-pointed
stylus. A great improvement over the
wax tablet was the clever discovery OF
the Egyptians that from the papyrus,
one of their native plants, writing ma
terial closely resembling smooth sheets
of paper could be made. The manu-
facture of paper from papyrus was
relatively simple, since it was only nee
essary to cut the reeds into strips, soak
them in water for few hours and
then hammer them into sheets which,
dried in the sun, were ready to use
Ink also was easily obtained, for SCOT
mixed with oil of vitriol as well as the
sepia of the cuttle-flsh made excellent
writing ink which could be applied With
a piece of reed.
1t would seem that the problem OF
writing paper was now at an enc. But
there came, in time, serious shortage
of papyrus which necessitated the dis
coyery of an entirely new material
This difficulty was met by the inven-
ton of vellum and parchment maoe
from the skins of animals. One would
naturally think man had then found
a way of permanently preserving ms
words from forgetfulness, but the tough
veIlum proved more dangerous tnan
the frail papyrus, for by scraplng ana
washing, it could be used many times.
This practice became so common that
vellum and parchment were given tne
name palimpseStS because the words on
them could be rubbed out.
Manuscripts Misused.
Manv priceless manuscripts OF an
tiulIity were misuSed in this way, but
with the revival of learning this prac-
tice was stopped and much has been
done. by the aid of chemicals, to revive
the original writings of these palimp-
sestS.
Among the great works thus recovered
are parts Of Homer's Iliad ana
Euclid's Elements. Cicero's Repub-
lie was discovered under the writ
ings of Augustine and the letters OF
Marcus Aurelius suffered the same
fate. A curious discovery Is said TO
have been made by Prof. Petrie at
PavIm in 1889. 1t was coffin made
of many sheets of papyrus pasted to-
eether. When the professor succeeded
in separating the sheets he found
among some dull legal documents OF the
third century BIC, parts of Plato and
Euripides. In spite Of their disad-
vantages, vellum and parchment were
used for a very long time.
Although writing paper similar to
the paper of today was known to the
Arabs as early as the middle OF the
eighth century, it was not until the
middle of the twelfth century that the
industry was introduced into Europe
by the Moors Of Spain and as late as
the early part of the fourteenth cen
turv when writing paper came into
common use in England.