Page:The History of Ink.djvu/48

42 they wrote on boards or bamboos. Having next proceeded to the use of silken cloth for these purposes, the preparation of paper from that material naturally followed. Their ink, being carbonaceous and oleaginous, is, of course, (like that of the Egyptians and all the other ancients,) unfading, and unalterable by chemical agencies, though capable of being effaced or obscured by watery applications or exposure.

As to their claim of having invented the art of printing, we shall have something to say hereafter.

The Aztecs (in Mexico, before the Spanish discovery and conquest,) extensively employed a picture-writing, as a means of recording events, during a period not exceeding two centuries before that epoch. They had the art of manufacturing materials as a basis of such writing, from the Agave or American aloe, and from cotton, in the form of a very fine cloth. They also used prepared skins far the same purpose, the best specimens of which are pronounced to be more beautiful than the finest vellum. Their manuscripts were sometimes done up in rolls or scrolls, and frequently on tablets, in the form of a folding-screen. Their inks appear to have been coloring matters in watery solutions.