Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/137

 While, therefore, the times were doubtless wild, the political unity very slight, and the unity of worship even less, there is evidence that there were both political and religious libraries throughout the period—both probably even more illy or irregularly kept than similar libraries were in Europe in feudal times (if that be possible) but like them transmitting some thing of the old to posterity.

Very near the end of the period of the Judges, just before the reign of Saul and contemporary perhaps with Samuel, about 1100 B.C., is a most illuminating account of the record system of the neighboring city-state of Byblos. It is found in the so-called Report of Wenamon, an Egyptian document of the reign of Rameses XII. Wenamon had been sent with written credentials and money to Zakar-Baal of Byblos to get Lebanon cedar wood but arrived penniless and without credentials, having been robbed on the way. He tried