priest shall write the curses in a book, and blot them
out with the bitter water," was with a kind of ink
prepared for the purpose, without any salts of iron or
other material which could make a permanent dye;
these maledictions were then washed into the water,
which the woman was obliged to drink, so that she
drank the very words of the execration. The ink
still used in the East is almost all of this kind; a wet
sponge will obliterate the finest of their writings.

In the book of Jeremiah, chap. xxxvi. verse 18, it
says: "Then Baruch answered, He pronounced all
these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote
THEM with ink in the book," and in Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11,
"Ink horn" is referred to.

Six hundred years later in the New Testament is
another mention of ink "having many things to write
unto you. I would not write with paper and Ink,"
&c.; second epistle. of John, 12, and again in his
third epistle, 13, "I had many things to write, but
I will not with pen and Ink write unto thee."

The illustrative history of the ancient Egyptians
does not point to a time before the reed was used as a
pen. The various sculptures, carvings, pottery and
paintings, exhibit the scribes at work in their avocations,
recording details about the hands and ears of
slaughtered enemies, the numbers of captives, the
baskets of wheat, the numerous animals, the tribute,