The tools used for working in leather were a semi-circular knife, a sort of chisel, an awl, a stone for polishing, cutting table, bending form, hone, and a few others. They made shoes, sandals, coverings and seats for chairs and sofas, bow-cases, ornaments and harness for chariots, and adornments for harps. Skins were used to cover shields and other things and they were shaped into forms for carrying water, wine, and other liquids. They made thongs by twisting leather strips together, cutting the strips from circular pieces of leather as is done now. The Egyptians were famed for their manufacture of paper, which was made from the papyrus plant. This grew almost altogether in Lower Egypt, on marshy land or in the ponds left after the inundation of the Nile. The right of growing and selling it belonged to the government and the particular species from which the paper was made was closely guarded and perhaps not allowed to grow anywhere else than in the restricted territory in the Delta. The paper was made by removing the outer covering of the stalk, cutting the interior lengthwise into thin pieces and laying these together side by side on a flat board and across them another layer, cementing the strips together with a kind of glue, then putting all under pressure, and after drying the paper was completed and ready for use. The paper made from the papyrus differed in quality according to the growth of the plant and from which part of the stalk the pieces were taken, the stalk growing to about fifteen feet in height. The breadth of the paper differed, running from six inches under an early Dynasty to fourteen and a half inches under a later Dynasty. When a sheet of papyrus had been used for writing, it was rolled up, and if important and to be preserved for any length of time, tied round the middle and secured by clay stamps with a seal. The cost of the papyrus was so great that it was used only in funeral rituals, conveyances, deeds, and other public documents, and sometimes the old writing was erased and then the roll was written on again. For ordinary purposes of writing, pieces of broken pottery, stone, board, and leather were used.