The practice of writing upon rolls made of the barks
of trees is very ancient. It is alluded to in the Book
of Job: "Oh! that mine adversary had written a book;
surely I would take it upon my shoulders, and bind
it as a crown to me." (Old version.) The new one
runs: "And that I had the indictment which mine
adversary hath written!" The rolls, or volumes,
generally speaking, were written upon one side only.
This is intimated by Ezekiel who observes that he
saw one of in extraordinary form written on both
sides: "And when I looked, behold, an Hand was sent
unto me, and lo! a roll of a book was therein; and he
spread it before me, and it was written within and
without."

To have been able to write on dry tablets of wood
or barks of trees with the reed or brush, the then only
ink-writing instruments in vogue would have necessitated
the employment of lampblack suspended in a
vehicle of thick gum, or in the form of a paint. Both
of these maybe termed pigmentary inks. The use of
thin inks would have caused spreading or blotting and
thus rendered the writing illegible.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica generalizes its remarks
on this subject:--

"The earliest writings were purely monumental
and accordingly those materials were chosen which