is trace, like that of the
hieroglyphs, would have been well fitted for the succinct imitation of
natural objects but for a rigid exclusion of those curves of which nature
is so fond. This exclusion is complete, all the lines are straight, and cut
one another at various angles. The horror of a curve is pushed so far that
even the sun, which is represented by a circle in Egyptian and other
ideographic systems, is here a lozenge.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Brick from Erech.]

It is very unlikely that even the oldest of these texts show us Chaldaean
writing in its earliest stage. Analogy would lead us to think that these
figures must at one time have been more directly imitative. However that
may have been, the image must have been very imperfect from the day that
the rectilinear trace came into general use. Figures must then have rapidly
degenerated into conventional signs. Those who used them could no longer
pretend to actually represent the objects they wished to denote. They must
have been content to suggest their ideas by means of a character whose
value had been determined by usage. This transformation would be
accelerated by certain habits which forced themselves upon the people as
soon as they were finally established in the land of Shinar.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Fragment of an inscription engraved upon the back
of a statue from Tello. Louvre. (Length 10-1/4 inches.)]

We are told that there are certain expressions in the Assyrian language
which lead to the belief that the earliest writing was on the bark of
trees, that it offered the first surface to the scribe in those distant
northern regions from which the early inhabitants of Chaldaea were
emigrants. It is certain that the dwellers in that vast alluvial plain were
compelled by the very nature of the soil to use clay for many purposes to
which no other civilization has put it. In Mesopotamia, as in the valley of
the Nile, the inhabitants had but to stoop to pick up an excellent
modelling clay, fine in texture and close grained--a clay which had been
detached from the mountain sides by the two great rivers, and deposited in
inexhaustible quantities over the whole width of the double valley. We
shall see hereafter what an important part bricks, crude, fired, and
enamelled, played in the construction and decoration of Chaldaean buildings.
It was the same material that received most of their writing.

Clay offered a combination of facility with durability which