essage has also a
long and interesting history.

No objects could be much more unlike than a Babylonian tablet, an
Egyptian papyrus roll, and a Mexican book. They are as different as a
brick, a narrow window-shade, and a lady's fan; they have nothing common
in their development, yet they were used for the same purpose and might
bring identically the same message to the mind. Inwardly, as regards
writing or printing, all books have a parallel development; but
outwardly, in their material and its form, they are the results of local
conditions. In Babylonia, which was a fertile river-bottom, bricks were
the only building material, and clay was therefore a familiar substance.
Nothing was more natural than that the Babylonian should scratch his
record or message on a little pat of clay, which he could afterwards
bake and render permanent. Some day all other books in the world will
have crumbled into dust, their records being saved only when reproduced;
but at that remote time there will still exist Babylonian books, even
now five thousand years old, apparently no nearer destruction than when
they were first made.

The Babylonian book carried its message all on the outside; the Egyptian
book went to the opposite extreme, and we should find our chief
objection to it in the difficulty of getting readily at its contents.
There flourished on the banks of the Nile a stout reed, six feet high,
called by the Egyptians "p-apa" and by the Greeks "papyros" or "byblos."
It was the great source of raw material for Egyptian manufactures. Its
tufted head was used for garlands; its woody root for various purposes;
its tough rind for ropes, shoes, and similar articles--the basket of
Moses, for instance; and its cellular pith for a surface to write on. As
the stem was jointed, the pith came in lengths, the best from eight to
ten inches. These lengths were sliced through from top to bottom, and
the thin slices laid side by side. Another layer was pasted crosswise
above these, the whole pressed, dried in the sun, and rubbed smooth,
thus giving a single sheet of papyrus. As the grain ran differently on
the two surfaces of the papyrus sheet, only one side was written on.
Other sheets were added to this by pasting them edge to edge until
enough for a roll had been made, usually twenty, a roller being fastened
to the last edge and a protecting strip of wood to the front. The
manuscript was unrolled by the right hand and rolled up by the left. It