"TO HIS BOOK.

"Nor shall huckleberries stain (literally veil) thee with purple
juice:
That color is not becoming to lamentations.
Nor shall title (or head-letter) be marked with vermillion, or
paper with cedar,
Thou shalt carry neither white nor black horns on thy forehead
(or front, or frontispiece)."

The traditions handed down as of this era relating
to the efforts to find some substitute for "Indian"
ink which would not only "bind" to parchment and
vellum but also would be satisfactory to the priests,
are more or less confirmed by the younger Pliny, and
makes it safe to assume that several were invented
and employed in writing, though possessing but little
lasting qualities. Their use and natural disappearance
is perhaps the real cause of the fact that there are no
original MSS. extant dating as of or belonging to the
time immediately preceding or following the birth of
Christ, or indeed until long after his death.

There is some authority though for the statement
that at this time two vitriolic substances were used in
the preparation of black ink,--a slime or sediment
(Salsugo) and a yellow vitriolic earth (Misy). This
last-named mineral, is unquestionably the same natural
chemical mentioned by writers, which about the end
of the first century was designated "kalkanthum" or