The _red ink_ used for ancient manuscripts was of three different kinds, namely red lead, vermilion or sulphuret of mercury, and red ochre. The ancient names for these red pigments were used very indiscriminately, [Greek: miltos], _minium_, _cinnabaris_ and _rubrica_. In some cases [Greek: miltos] certainly means the costly vermilion; and again the word is also used both for red lead and for the much cheaper red ochre. The latter appears to be always meant by the name [Greek: miltos Sinôpis]; see Choisy, _Inscrip. Lebadeia_, p. 197. The Latin words _minium_ and _rubrica_ are used in the same vague way; see Vitruv. VII. 9; and Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ XXXV. 31 to 35. In mediaeval manuscripts red ink (_rubrica_) was largely used not only for headings and glosses, but also in Service books for the ritual directions, which have hence taken the name of _rubrics_. _Purple ink._ The purple ink (_coccus_), which Martial mentions in the passage quoted above at page 27, was made from the _kermes_ beetle, which lives on the ilex trees of Greece and Asia Minor. This was one of the most important of the ancient dyes for woven stuffs and it was also used as a pigment by painters; see below, page 246. _Double inkstands._ The inkstands of ancient scribes were commonly made double, to hold both black and red ink. Many examples of these from Egypt and elsewhere still exist, and they are shown in many of the Pompeian wall-paintings. They usually are in the form of two bronze cylinders linked together, each with a lid which is attached by a little chain. Other inkstands are single, little round boxes of bronze, in shape like a large pill-box. Another method, specially common in ancient Egypt, was for the scribe to carry about his ink, both black and red, in a solid form; he then rubbed up with water just as much as he needed at the time. The box and palette mentioned below was made for this use of solid inks, except that the whole thing, handle and all, is made out of one piece of metal. _Reed pens._ The pens used by ancient writers of manuscripts were mainly some variety of reed ([Greek: kalamos], _calamus_ or _canna_), cut diagonally to a point like a modern quill pen. Great numbers of reed pens have been found in Egyptian tombs and also in Pompeii; they exactly resemble those still used in Egypt and in Oriental countries generally. _Metal pens._ Metal pens were also used by Greek and Roman scribes. Examples both in silver and bronze have been found in Greece and in Italy, shaped very much like a modern steel pen[20]. _Scribes' palettes._ In some cases manuscripts were written with a fine brush instead of a pen, especially the hieroglyphic manuscripts of ancient Egypt. Many combined scribes' palettes and brush cases have been found in Egyptian tombs. These are long slips of wood, partly hollowed to hold the brushes, and with two cup-like sinkings at one end for the writer to rub up his cakes of black and red ink.