of handwriting and writing materials. Even then it
must not be supposed that the history of ink is authentic
and continuous from the moment handwriting was
applied to the recording of events; for the earliest
records are lost to us in almost every instance. We
are therefore dependent upon later writers, who made
their records in the inks of their own time, and who
could refer to those preceding them only by the aid
of legends and traditions.

There is no independent data indicating any variation
whatever in the methods of the admixture of
black or colored inks, which differentiates them from
those used in the earliest times of the ancient
Egyptians, Hebrews or Chinese. On the contrary if we
exclude "Indian" and one of the red inks, for a period
of fourteen hundred years we find their number diminishing
until the first centuries of the Christian era.
Exaggerated tradition has described inks as well as
other things and imagination is not lacking. Some of
these legends, in later years put in writing, compel us
to depend on translations of obscure and obsolete
tongues, while the majority of them are mingled with
the errors and superstitious of the time in which they
were transcribed.

The value of such accounts depends upon a variety
of circumstances and we must proceed with the utmost
caution and discrimination in examining and weighing
the authenticity of these sources of information.