to his son, is,
perhaps, the oldest book in the world. Two words which we are constantly
using might help to remind us of how much we owe to their cleverness.
The one is "Bible," and the other is "paper." When we talk of the Bible,
which just means "the Book," we are using one of the words which the
Greeks used to describe the plant out of which the Egyptians made the
material on which they wrote; and when we talk of paper, we are using
another name, the commoner name, of the same plant. For the Egyptians
were the first people to make paper, and they used it for many centuries
before other people had learned how much handier it was than the other
things which they used.

Yet, if you saw an Egyptian book, you would think it was a very curious
and clumsy thing indeed, and very different from the handy volumes which
we use nowadays. When an Egyptian wanted to make a book, he gathered the
stems of a kind of reed called the papyrus, which grew in some parts of
Egypt in marshy ground. This plant grew to a height of from 12 to 15
feet, and had a stalk about 6 inches thick. The outer rind was peeled
off this stalk, and then the inner part of it was separated, by means
of a flat needle, into thin layers. These layers were joined to one
another on a table, and a thin gum was spread over them, and then
another layer was laid crosswise on the top of the first. The double
sheet thus made was then put into a press, squeezed together, and dried.
The sheets varied, of course, in breadth according to the purpose for
which they were needed. The broadest that we know of measure about 17
inches across, but most are much narrower than that.

When the Egyptian had got his paper, he did not make it up into a volume
with the sheets bound together at the back, as we do. He joined them end
to end, adding on sheet after sheet as he wrote, and rolling up his book
as he went along; so when the book was done it formed a big roll,
sometimes many feet long. There is one great book in the British Museum
which measures 135 feet in length. You would think it very strange and
awkward to have to handle a book like that.

But if the book seemed curious to you, the writing in it would seem
still more curious; for the Egyptian writing was certainly the
quaintest, and perhaps the prettiest, that has ever been known. It is
called "hieroglyphic," which means "sacred carving," and it is nothing
but little pictures from beginning to end. The Egyptians began by