Lives of Alcyone

painting and music were taught as a matter of course to the higher
classes, though Alcyone did not take any special interest in either,
devoting himself almost entirely to the production of beautiful temple
writings. The painting was curious being done with rapid dashes
which dried instantly, and could not be altered. They had some
exceedingly fine colours, more brilliant and yet purer than any that
we have now; indeed, colour took a prominent part in civilisation.
The clothing of the people was of bright, yet tasteful and harmonious
colour; Alcyone, for example, almost always dressed himself from
head to foot in a most lovely shade of pale blue. The very food
which they ate was coloured, for the upper classes at least lived
almost entirely upon a sort of cake made of flour much like wheat,
and these cakes were flavoured in many different ways and
coloured according to the flavour, red, blue, yellow or variegated
with stripes. Fruit also was extraordinarily plentiful, and a great deal
of it was eaten, even by the poorest of the people.
The books in which Alcyone wrote were composed of thin
sheets of enamelled metal of some kind; the surface was almost
exactly like porcelain, but the plates were flexible. The characters
were painted on, rather than written, and then the whole sheet was
subjected to great heat so that the characters were rendered
indelible by it—fired in, as it were. These books were of course of
different sizes, but the most ordinary kind was about eighteen inches
by six, the writing running along the page from left to right, as on a
palm-leaf manuscript. The sheets were fastened together at the
upper corners, and when not being used were kept in a shallow
metal box. These metal boxes were frequently ornamented with
carved horn, which was inlaid in some curious manner, and caused