That was what he chiefly used the Chinese ink for.

But he also used to copy the inscriptions from these things." Here Stephen lifted from the mantelpiece what looked like a fossil Bath bun, but was actually a clay tablet covered with minute indented writing.
"Your uncle could read the cuneiform character, then ?" "Yes; he was something of an expert.

These tablets are, I believe, leases and other legal documents from Eridu and other Babylonian cities.
He used to copy the inscriptions in the cuneiform writing and then translate them into English.

But I mustn't stay here any longer as I have an engagement for this evening.

I just dropped in to get these two volumes--Thornton's History of Babylonia, which he once advised me to read.