The bottom, root, or woody part of this plant, was likewise of several uses before it turned absolutely hard; it was chewed in the manner of liquorice, having a considerable quantity of sweet juice in it. This we learn from Dioscorides; it was, I suppose, chewed, and the sweetness sucked out in the same manner as is done with sugar-cane. This is still practised in Abyssinia, where they likewise chew the root of the Indian corn, and of every kind of cyperus; and Herodotus tells us, that about a cubit of the lower part of the stalk was cut off and roasted over the fire, and eaten. From the scarcity of wood, which was very great in Egypt for the reasons I have already mentioned, this lower part was likewise used in making cups, moulds, and other necessary utensils; we need not doubt too, one use of the woody part of this plant was to serve for what we call boards or covers for binding the leaves, which were made of the bark; we know that this was anciently one use of it, both from Alcæus and Anacreon. In a large and very perfect manuscript in my possession, which was dug up at Thebes, the boards are of papyrus root, covered first with the coarser pieces of the paper, and then with leather, in the same manner as it would be done now. It is a book one would call a small folio, rather than by any other name, and I apprehend that the shape of the book where papyrus is employed was always of the same form with those of the moderns. The letters are strong, deep, black, and apparently written with a reed, as is practised by the Egyptians and Abyssinians still. It is written on both sides, so never could be rolled up as parchment was, nor would the brittleness of the materials when dry, support any such frequent unrolling. This probably arises from their having first written upon papyrus, after the use of stone was laid aside, and only adopted skins upon their embracing the Jewish religion. The Ethiopians, indeed, write upon parchment, yet use the same form of books as we do. The outer boards are made of wood and covered with leather. It was the law only they say they were in use to preserve in one long roll of parchment, upon the foreside of which it was written; it being indecent and improper to write any part of it on the back, or a less honourable place of the skin: And such was the roll we have just mentioned as presented to Ptolemy, where such pains were taken in joining the several skins together, for this very reason.