,
which, being carefully detached, were pasted crossways one over the
other, like the warp and woof in woven manufactures, so that the
fibres ran longitudinally in each direction, and opposed in each an
equal resistance to violence. The surface was then polished with a
shell, or some hard smooth substance. The ink used was a simple black
liquid, containing no mordant to give it durability, so that the
writing was easily effaced by the application of a sponge. The length
of the Greek papyri is said to vary from eight to twelve inches; the
Latin often reach sixteen; the writing is in columns, placed at right
angles to the length of the roll.

To each of them is appended a sort of ticket, which served as a title.
Hence the end of the roll, or volume, was called _frons_, a term of
frequent recurrence in Ovid and Martial, and not always rightly
understood. Hence, also, when we meet with the expression, _gemina
frons_, we must understand that the volume had a ticket at each end.
These books were also composed of two tables or pages, and served for
memoranda, letters, and other writings, not intended to be preserved.
They were composed of leaves of wood or metal coated over with wax,
upon which the ancients wrote with a _stylus_, or iron pen, or point
rather, for it was a solid sharp-pointed instrument, some 6 to 8
inches in length, like a lady's stiletto upon a large scale. In the
middle of each leaf there appears to have been a button, called
_umbilicus_, intended to prevent the pages touching when closed, and
obliterating the letters traced on the yielding wax.

The tablets here represented would be called twofold, as consisting
only of two leaves; in the following cut may be seen another sort,
consisting of several leaves, united at the back with hinges or rings.
In Latin they were called _tabulae_, or _tabellae_, and the epithets,
duplices, triplices, quintuplices, served to mark the number of the
leaves.

Beside them stands a double inkstand, intended probably to contain
both black and red ink. The former was made either of lampblack or
some other sort of charcoal, or from the cuttlefish, and was called
atramentum. As it contained no mordant, and was readily obliterated by
moisture, it could be used for writing upon ivory tablets; and it has
been conjectured that some sorts of paper were covered with a wash, or
varnish, to facilitate the discharge of the old writing, and render
the paper serviceable a second time. Re