CHAPTER XVI.
God's Remembrance.
How fond people are of collecting old books, and what a large price old books will fetch! Those who are so fortunate as to obtain possession of a book which is four or five hundred years old may put their own price upon it, for some antiquarian will be sure to purchase it.
But how modern, how very far from being ancient, the oldest of our English books, printed in the most primitive black letter, appears, when it is laid side by side with that curious old book which travellers, visiting the little village of Nablus, are shown this very day.

Well may the old white-headed man who has charge of that book bring it out with pride, for it is one of the oldest books in the world.
The book is in the form of a roll of parchment.

It is made of goat skins, twenty-five inches broad, and about fifteen feet long.

The skins are neatly joined together, but in many places they have been torn and rather clumsily mended.

The roll is kept in a grand silver-gilt case in the form of a cylinder, embossed and engraved.