Writing was sometimes put directly upon wood. Such is the case with the fragment of board from Egypt mentioned above. The lawyer's tablet (No. =612*=), of about the fifth century A.D., which deals with loans, etc., has the surface specially whitened for the writing and a space for keeping the pen. Parts of the two outer leaves, which contained between them eight inner leaves, are shown in the Case. (=604=) _B.M. Inscr._, 323; (=605=) _Journ. Hell. Stud._, XXVIII. (1908), p. 123; cf. Dumont, _Inscriptions céramiques_, p. 405 (5); (=608=) _Cat. of Sculpt._, III., 2192; (=610=) _B.M. Papyri_, ccclvi. On Greek education generally, see Freeman, _Schools of Hellas_, and the select bibliography there given. For ancient books, cf. E. M. Thompson, _Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography_. For relics of Graeco-Egyptian school-life, see _Journ. Hell. Stud._, _loc. cit._ [Illustration: FIG. 241.--ROMAN INKPOTS (NO. 612). Ca. 1:2.] =Painting.=--Adjoining the objects connected with writing, are illustrations of the art of painting in Roman times. They include a series of ancient colours, pestles and mortars, some paintings on wood, one, painted by the encaustic process, enclosed in its ancient wooden frame. The colours, as may be seen, were kept in a dry condition, and had to be pounded with pestle and mortar before they were mixed for the use of the artist. A good number of ancient colours are shown here, the blue (silicate of copper) being particularly prominent. The six saucers (No. =613=), found together in a tomb of the Roman period at Hawara, Egypt, contain water-colour paints. These are _dark red_ (oxide of iron), _yellow_ (ochre, oxide of iron), _white_ (sulphate of lime), _pink_ (organic colour, probably madder, in sulphate of lime), _blue_ (glass coloured by copper), _red_ (oxide of lead). The saucers were found piled by the side of the owner's body. Pestles and mortars for pounding the colours are shown in the Case. A favourite form of pestle is that which resembles a bent leg or thumb, such as the one from Rhodes (No. =614=), inscribed with what is probably the owner's name. Near it is the terracotta figure of a dwarf (No. =615=), seated (apparently in a violent passion) before a pestle and mortar. We may imagine that he is a slave set to mix his master's colours.