The Finger Of The Scribe: The

Beginnings Of Scribal Education And

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William M. Schniedewind
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The Finger of the Scribe
The Finger of the Scribe
How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible

W I L L IA M M . S C H N I E D EW I N D

1
 3
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the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2019

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 Contents

Preface vii
List of Abbreviations ix

1. The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 1

2. Scribal Curriculum at Kuntillet ʿAjrud 23
3. Alphabets and Acrostics 49
4. From Lists to Literature 70
5. Letters, Paragraphs, and Prophets 95
6. Proverbial Sayings 120
7. Advanced Education 141

Epilogue 165

Notes 171
Bibliography 209
Index of Citations of Primary Texts 227
Index Term List 233
 Preface

According to the writer of Exodus, God gave Moses “two tablets of the cove-
nant, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” It is a glorious anthropo-
morphic image of divine inspiration. In contrast, I write about the finger of the
scribe, which depended on education. Scribes depended on teachers and curric-
ulum to learn how to write. Throughout the Bible, a variety of figures—​scribes,
prophets, priests, kings, and even a young boy—​write various things, including
both mundane and profound texts. The Hebrew Bible contains lists and letters
but also liturgies and stories, all written by scribes. This book explores how the
early alphabetic scribes began to learn how to write and, eventually, how they
learned to write the Bible. In this book, I am particularly interested in scribal
education—​or, more specifically, scribal curriculum. What were scribes’ text-
books? What did they practice? What did they memorize? And, how did this
shape the Bible? I believe that I found the key to unlocking these questions in
the scribal scribbles at Kuntillet ʿAjrud as well as in the cuneiform school texts
used in Canaan at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
The project was many years in the making and was helped along the way by
innumerable people. First of all, I want to thank my colleagues and students at
UCLA, from whom I believe I learned and received more than I taught and gave.
In particular, I wish to acknowledge Aaron Burke, Bob Cargill, Elizabeth Carter,
Kara Cooney, Jacco Dieleman, Brian Donnelly-​ Lewis, Elizabeth VanDyke,
Robert Englund, Tim Hogue, Moise Isaac, Alice Mandell, Roger Nam, Jason
Price, Rahim Shayegan, Jeremy Smoak, Matt Suriano, Stephen Ward, and
Jonathan Winnerman. I have a special appreciation for Elizabeth VanDyke,
whose critical eye working as my Graduate Research Assistant improved this
book immeasurably. I also received a great deal of support, encouragement,
and critique along this journey from a variety of fellow travelers, including
Susan Ackerman, Erhard Blum, David Carr, Aaron Demsky, Dan Fleming,
Ron Hendel, Jan Joosten, Anat Mendel-Geberovich, Anson Rainey (z”l), Gary
Rendsburg, Seth Sanders, Joachim Schaper, Mark Smith, Jeff Stackert, Steve
Tinney, David Vanderhooft, Jackie Vayntrub, and Ed Wright. I have presented
this material to a variety of audiences who have all shaped my thinking in a va-
riety of ways. It began with the invitation by Gabrielle Boccacini to a conference
on early Jewish education in Naples. There, I especially benefited from extended
conversations with Steve Tinney about Mesopotamian education. I also wish
to thank the Near Eastern Studies Department at Johns Hopkins University for
the invitation to give the Samuel Iwry Lecture. I also presented parts of this
viii Preface

book to the Biblical Colloquium and its members in the seminar organized by
David Vanderhooft. Their interaction and comments were particularly stimu-
lating. Finally, I need thank UCLA, which has given me the resources and sup-
port for this research. I appreciate the many people and places at UCLA that
made this book possible, including Dean of Humanities David Schaberg, the
Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for the Study of Religion and its director
Carol Bakhos, and finally our Department chair Kara Cooney. Support for this
research was also provided by the Reuben and Norma Kershaw Term Chair in
Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies. Last but not least, I thank my family—​
my wife, Jeanne, and my daughters, Tori and Mikaela—​and, a special shout-​out
for Tori, who discussed many things Egyptological with me and spurred my
decipherment of the Lachish jar inscription. Nothing was here accomplished
alone, but I take credit for all its shortcomings.
 Abbreviations

ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary

AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
BA Biblical Archaeologist
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
COS K. Lawson Younger and William W. Hallo, eds., The Context of
Scripture, 3 volumes (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
EA Amarna letters. See Anson F. Rainey, The El-​Amarna
El-​
Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the
Site of El-​Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets, ed.
William Schniedewind, vol. 1 (HdO 110; Leiden: Brill, 2015).
GKC Gensenius-​Kautzsch-​Cowley, Gensenius’ Hebrew Grammar,
Wilhelm Gesenius, Emil Kautzsch, and Arthur Ernest Cowley
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1910).
HALOT Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Ludwig Kohler
and Walter Baumgartner, 4 volumes (Leiden: Brill, 1994–​2000).
HS Hebrew Studies
HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
JANES Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSS Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
KAI Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften (2nd edition), Herbert
Donner and Wolfgang Röllig (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002).
KTU Dietrich Manfried, Oswald Loretz, and Joaquín Sanmartín,
eds., The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani
and Other Places: From Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places
(Münster: Ugarit-​Verlag, 1995).
NEA Near Eastern Archaeology
x List of Abbreviations

OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis

RA Revue d’assyriologie et d’archaéologie orientale
RB Revue Biblique
RS Ras Shamra
RSOu Ras Shamra–​Ougarit
SAA State Archives of Assyria
SAOS Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series
SVT Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
TB Tyndale Bulletin
VT Vetus Testamentum
ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie
ZAW Zeitschrift für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft
 1
The Emergence of Scribal Education
in Ancient Israel

Where is the finger of the scribe in the Bible? Can we trace some tangible indi-
cations of how scribes learned to write? Can we tease out the way scribal edu-
cation was reflected in the scrolls of the ancient parchment? And, in particular,
how did scribes learn to write the Bible? In this book, I reconstruct some of the
early scribal curriculum in ancient Israel, beginning with the material evidence
of education—​that is, ancient inscriptions and their historical contexts. I will
reexamine scribal education from the context of recent archaeological finds and
from the context of ancient Near Eastern educational paradigms. I will dem-
onstrate that the early Israelite scribes borrowed and adapted from cuneiform
curricular traditions in the early Iron Age in creating early Hebrew curriculum.
And I will illustrate how this scribal curriculum influenced the writing of the
Hebrew Bible.
The genetic code of early Hebrew education is broken. It is incomplete. It has
suffered from the ravages of time, and it now has missing strands and connec-
tions. Can we reconstruct it? In ancient Hebrew inscriptions, I find traces of an
array of different elementary scribal exercises used by Hebrew scribes. In cu-
neiform curriculum, I find parallels that fill out the missing code. The Hebrew
inscriptions are like pieces of an incomplete puzzle. Now, however, it seems that
early alphabetic scribes were closely related to their cuneiform forebearers. As a
result, we can use cuneiform parallels to reconstruct some of the missing pieces
of early Hebrew scribal curriculum. Using the educational DNA of curriculum
from scribes who were working in Canaan as the Egyptian New Kingdom col-
lapsed in the twelfth century BCE, we can re-​create the genetic code for the ed-
ucation of the early Israelite scribes. Thereby, we can glimpse the fingerprint of
scribes in the Bible.
The problem with the Bible itself as a testament to education is that it is a
disembodied text. That is to say, we often have no concrete time or place for
it. Scholars endlessly debate who wrote the Bible, when the Bible was written,
etc. Answers are contested. The evidence is equivocal. I have not despaired on
this account, but there is reason to be cautious in relating the Bible to scribal
2 The Finger of the Scribe

education. In this book, biblical literature is the (sometimes speculative) end of

the discussion rather than the beginning. The beginning has to be an investi-
gation into what we know from inscriptions and archaeology about the school
curriculum of the early alphabetic scribes. The discipline of archaeology can
give us some insight into the social, political, religious, and historical contexts
of the texts. As for the inscriptions, this investigation searches far and wide for
the fragments of school curriculum in the epigraphic record and tries to piece
them together into a coherent narrative.

Scribal Curriculum and the Bible

Up until now, the scribal curriculum in ancient Israel has been a crux for biblical
scholars. On the one hand, some scholars have envisioned a varied scribal cur-
riculum with a considerable network of schools that included the biblical writ-
ings.1 On the other hand, other scholars have argued that “our knowledge of the
scribal curriculum in Israel is almost nil.”2 Even scholars such as Christopher
Rollston who take an optimistic approach to our ability to reconstruct the
scribal curriculum of ancient Israel offer almost no actual examples from the
epigraphic record, apart from a few abecedaries.3 Likewise, David Carr, in his
influential book Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and
Literature, can offer only “faint clues that Israel was influenced by the textual-​
educational systems of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.”4 Carr suggests that
“biblical literature came to serve as key parts of an indigenous curriculum for
early Israelite scribes,”5 but the tangible evidence for this use of biblical literature
as part of the ancient scribal curriculum has been absent. The ancient Israelite
scribal curriculum has been essentially unknown or unsubstantiated.
Understanding the scribal curriculum is important because it presages the
canonization process. As Karel van der Toorn has pointed out, “Precisely be-
cause a curriculum is subject to closure, texts are in competition for a place.
Unlike a place in a library, inclusion in a curriculum asserts the superiority of
a written text over other texts. In this respect, the scribal curriculum could be
viewed as a laboratory from which the canon was issued.”6 In Mesopotamia,
scribes made an effort to put certain texts into the scribal curriculum. So, for
example, in the conclusion to the Enuma Elish (the Babylonian Creation Epic), a
scribal editor adds, “The wise and the learned should ponder them together, the
teacher should repeat them and make the pupil learn by heart. . . . This is the rev-
elation which an Ancient, to whom it was told, wrote down and established for
posterity to hear.”7 Once a text became part of the scribal curriculum, it would
 The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 3

be learned, studied, and passed on. In this way, it had lasting influence in ways
that other literature would not have.
This book also begins with the premise that education shapes what we write
and how we write it. In subtle ways, biblical literature has been shaped and
influenced by the education and training of the scribes who wrote it. While a
main focus of this book is reconstructing the educational curriculum of the
early Israelite scribes, it also suggests a variety of ways in which this curriculum
framed, influenced, and shaped biblical literature. The influence of scribal edu-
cation touched on many spheres of scribal composition. Sometimes it involved
mundane details like the language used in structuring devices to mark new
paragraphs and ideas. Sometimes it was general, such as the adaptation of mun-
dane literary genres into new literary genres. Sometimes the curriculum had a
conceptual impact like the use and adaptation of memorized literary exercises.
In small and large ways, education affected the composition of biblical literature.
And the better we understand scribal education, the more clearly we can see
how it influenced biblical literature.

The Late Bronze Age Context of the Israelite

Scribal Curriculum

The first problem that we must solve is the fragmentary nature of our evidence.
What was the “school” curriculum of the scribes who wrote the Bible, and when
did it develop? To begin with, we should clarify what we mean by “school.”8 I do
not use the term in an institutional sense but rather as an abstract noun relat-
ing to education—​that is, as the process of learning under instruction. There
is no evidence for formal “schools” in ancient Israel; rather, scribal education
was done in an apprenticeship context. A master scribe took on “sons”—​not
necessarily a familial relationship, although we may assume that some scribal
apprentices were the actual sons of the master. The apprenticeship system of
scribal training is nicely laid out in documents from the Late Bronze Age city
of Emar.9 Hints of a similar system are evident in the administrative list of 1Kgs
4:3: “Elihoreph and Ahijah were sons of Shisha, scribes.” The term Shisha was
probably not a personal name but a corruption of the Egyptian title for a royal
scribe, sš, “scribe.”10 In any case, the use of the expression “sons of ” here already
suggests a scribal apprentice system at work in early Israel similar to the model
known from Emar. This cuneiform apprentice system utilized a standardized
“school” curriculum.
4 The Finger of the Scribe

The “Scribe” of the Lachish Jar Inscription

A recently published jar inscription from Lachish provides the first example
of the title “Scribe” used in a linear alphabetic inscription. The inscription is
also significant because it adapts Egyptian accounting symbols, making it the
earliest example of the borrowing of hieratic accounting in alphabetic texts.11
The inscription was excavated by a team led by Yosef Garfinkel at the site of
Lachish, and it dates to the twelfth century BCE—​that is, to the very end of the
New Kingdom period in the southern Levant.12 In Figure 1.1, we see a clearly
and carefully inscribed, albeit fragmentary, inscription.

Figure 1.1 Lachish jar inscription with the title “Scribe.” Courtesy of The
Fourth Expedition to Lachish; photo by Tal Rogovsky; jar drawing by
O. Dobovsky; inscription drawing by the author.
 The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 5

1) [...]pkl Personal Name?

2) [...]spr [ . . . ] Scribe
3) [ . . . ] X 5 ḥqꜢ.t [ . . . ] 5 Hekat (of wheat)

The inscription was written on a large, common storage jar that typically held
about 20–30 liters. The inscription was inscribed on the storage jar before firing—​in
other words, this is a planned inscription. And the letters are carefully and skill-
fully formed. This scribe knew what he was doing. Line 2 clearly reads spr, which
is probably the title “Scribe.” Although there are other ways of reading this,13 jar
inscriptions typically have personal names, titles, places, or commodities. Thus,
the title “Scribe” is the most straightforward and logical reading of line 2. It fol-
lows, then, that line 1 was most likely the personal name of the scribe. Lemaire has
suggested reconstructing the scribe’s name as Pikol, a name known elsewhere in
the Bible (see Gen 21:22; 26:26). Line 3 is the most difficult. The first grapheme is
broken, and the second grapheme looks like the Hebrew letter peh, which is how
the original publication has understood it. The third grapheme(s), however, are un-
usual: the oblong circle with a line under it is not otherwise known in the alphabetic
corpus. However, the original editors correctly understood that it might “stand for
a numeral or measure,”14 but they offered no decipherment. If we suppose that this
line refers to a commodity, interesting possibilities present themselves. First of all,
a single line is sometimes used in Egyptian hieratic accounting texts for marking
a plural.15 Second, an oblong circle is used in hieratic as a simplified form of the
hieroglyphic sign for ḥqꜢ.t ( ), that is, a measure of wheat.16 Once we recognize
this sign as deriving from Egyptian accounting symbols, everything becomes in-
telligible. The second sign on the third line should be read as the typical hieratic
number “5.”17 Since the Egyptian ḥqꜢt was about four to five liters,18 5 ḥqꜢt would
have been about 20–25 liters, which is the size of the storage jar upon which this
inscription is written.19 This final observation confirms the suggested reading.
In sum, we have a carefully planned and written inscription on a storage
jar where an early alphabetic “scribe” borrows the symbols from the Egyptian
accounting system. This inscription stands at a transition point when linear
alphabetic is beginning to be used administratively and when the Egyptian hi-
eratic tradition is being adopted by alphabetic scribes. The careful planning and
writing, as well as the integration of a bureaucracy for accounting, suggests an
alphabetic scribal curriculum underlines this fragmentary inscription.
The beginnings of an alphabetic curriculum presumably coincided with the
emergence of alphabetic writing at the end of the Late Bronze Age and in the early
Iron Age. We know that the alphabet developed and spread during the early Iron
Age—​at the end of the second millennium BCE. We must assume that a school
curriculum developed with the emergence of the alphabet. But what was the
basis of this school curriculum? One answer is implied in the older hypothesis
6 The Finger of the Scribe

that there was a major break between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the
rise of early Israelite polities. Scholars like David Jamieson-​Drake had argued
that there was a gap between the end of the New Kingdom Egyptian administra-
tion of the Levant and the rise of early Israel.20 Orly Goldwasser suggested that
the hieratic accounting system (now seen above in the Lachish Jar Inscription)
was borrowed during the administration of David and Solomon.21 If this were
true, then the early Israelite scribal curriculum developed in a vacuum. It could
not have been influenced by either Egyptian or cuneiform traditions of the Late
Bronze Age. It was created ex nihilo. But new data show this to be wrong. An
alphabetic scribal curriculum in the southern Levant emerged from and was
influenced by its Near Eastern context at the end of the Late Bronze Age.

The End of the New Kingdom

Our misunderstanding of early alphabetic scribalism is grounded in the dating

of the end of the New Kingdom and the Late Bronze Age. It is now increas-
ingly clear that the Late Bronze Age extended to the end of the twelfth century
BCE.22 And recent epigraphic discoveries make it clear that alphabetic writing
was emerging and spreading already in the twelfth century—​that is, on the heels
of the collapse of the New Kingdom in the Levant. Moreover, the technologies
and terminology for writing were taken directly from the Egyptian administra-
tion into early Hebrew alphabetic scribal culture. This includes the use of ink
and papyrus, the adoption of hieratic accounting systems, and many loanwords
from Egyptian relating to scribal practice.23 It is hardly surprising in this re-
spect that the administrative lists for early Judean kings have foreigners engaged
as “scribes” and “recorders.”24 In other words, early alphabetic scribal educa-
tion did not need to be invented ex nihilo. There were ready examples to adapt,
and there were capable scribes and administrators that were “left behind” in the
lands of Retjenu (as the Egyptians called ancient Canaan and Syria).
In this light, new alternatives present themselves. We must consider whether
and how an early alphabetic scribal curriculum could have been influenced by
its predecessors. The Egyptians certainly influenced the technologies of early al-
phabetic writing, such as the use of ink. The words for ink, papyrus, seals, scribal
palettes, accounting and measuring, etc. were all taken from the Egyptian ad-
ministration. However, the borrowing was strictly technological. Egyptians
did not teach hieroglyphic writing to foreigners. “Hieroglyphic” means “sacred
writing,” and it was a sacred writing system for Egyptians alone. This is demon-
strated by the fact that there are no Egyptian school texts found outside of Egypt.
The Egyptians themselves actually used cuneiform for the administration of
their empire in the Levant during the New Kingdom period (fifteenth through
 The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 7

twelfth centuries BCE). The Canaanite Amarna letters—​that is, letters from the
servants of Pharaoh presiding over various cities under Egyptian hegemony—​
are written in cuneiform script and a Canaano-​Akkadian dialect.25 Egyptian
scribes learned Akkadian for diplomatic communication and imperial admin-
istration. In this respect, the Egyptians participated in the use of Akkadian cu-
neiform as the lingua franca of the ancient Near East in the second millennium
BCE. In other words, while Egyptian writing technology was borrowed in the
Levant, their scribal curriculum does not seem to have been widely dissemi-
nated. The Egyptian literature that does influence biblical literature seems to
have been preserved orally and by chance. In contrast, it was the cuneiform cur-
riculum of Mesopotamia that was readily available to early alphabetic scribes.

Cuneiform School Curriculum in the

Eastern Mediterranean

During the late second millennium BCE, cuneiform school texts were found
throughout the ancient Near East, including the southern Levant and in
Egypt. This contrasts sharply with the situation in the first millennium BCE as
Dominique Charpin observes in Reading and Writing in Babylon, “In the first
millennium, the geographical influence of cuneiform narrowed: only a few
traces remained west of the Euphrates, directly linked to the political presence
of the Assyrian and then the Babylonian kings. But there was no center remi-
niscent of Ebla in the third millennium.”26 This is borne out in the cuneiform
record in Canaan. In the compendium Cuneiform in Canaan, there are fifty-​five
cuneiform texts dating to the second millennium from Israel, but only twenty-​
seven dating to the first millennium.27 Even more instructive is the fact that the
second millennium tablets from Canaan include a great variety of school texts; in
striking contrast, no school texts dating to the first millennium BCE were found
in Israel. More generally, there are few Akkadian school texts found outside of
Mesopotamia in the first millennium. Akkadian was no longer a lingua franca in
the first millennium, particularly in the West. Charpin suggests that the literary
corpus in Assyria and Babylonia came to be ossified in the first millennium, and
it was increasingly studied by a closed group of literati. The libraries of Nineveh,
Sultanantepe, and Sippar contained almost all the same texts!28 They had a rigid
canon to their curriculum, but these texts were not spread outside the confines
of the empire. Outside of Assyria in the first millennium, we find royal inscrip-
tions, administrative documents, letters, and cylinder seals.29 These data are crit-
ical for assessing the possible points of contact during the Late Bronze Age, Iron
Age, Babylonian period, and Persian period. In terms of cuneiform curriculum,
the late second millennium provides the only strong evidence for the spread of
8 The Finger of the Scribe

cuneiform education and literary culture outside of Mesopotamia. In this book,

I will trace how this cuneiform curriculum was adapted by early Israelite scribes.
Once we know some of the outlines of the early alphabetic scribal curric-
ulum we may ask: How did it shape what is actually written in the Bible? As
an entry into this question, I believe that we can reconstruct some examples of
the ancient Israelite curriculum with a new investigation of the fully published
inscriptions from a remote military outpost known as Kuntillet ʿAjrud.30 This
is one of the earliest corpora of Hebrew inscriptions dating to about 800 BCE.
When this corpus of inscriptions is viewed as a whole, we see that they repre-
sent fragments of the entire range of an educational curriculum for an ancient
Israelite scribe. They will also help us contextualize earlier Hebrew inscriptions
such as the Gezer Calendar and the Qeiyafa Ostracon. And the outlines of this
early scribal curriculum will correspond strikingly with the framework of the
Mesopotamian scribal curriculum. Using these observations, we can recon-
struct the framework for an elementary school curriculum for the scribes of the
Bible. This discovery has profound implications for our study of the writing of
the Bible itself. For the first time we have examples of the rudimentary scribal
curriculum of ancient Israelite scribes and can show how their education shaped
the composition of biblical literature.

Searching for a “Vector of Transmission”: Mesopotamian

Influence on the Alphabetic Curriculum

Scholars have questioned the timing and avenue of the influence of cuneiform
literature on biblical writers. Many scholars have seen the Late Bronze Age as
a time of transmission; others have pointed to the late Iron Age during Neo-​
Assyrian domination; and still others have suggested the exilic or postexilic
periods.31 An older view also saw the Solomonic period (i.e., tenth century)
as the vector of transmission. James Crenshaw, for example, writes, “It makes a
great deal of difference, therefore, whether an interpreter thinks Israel’s schools
evolved in the tenth century, when knowledge of Akkadian and Egyptian was
essential for international relations, or in the eighth century, when familiarity
with Aramaic would normally have sufficed.”32 Crenshaw’s perspective reflects
some older scholarly perspectives that envisioned a Solomonic enlightenment
period.33 Egyptian influence has been a focus for the study of education in an-
cient Israel, but in actuality Akkadian is a more viable vector of transmission.
Indeed, Akkadian, not Egyptian, was the lingua franca in the Late Bronze Age.
The Egyptian language was never essential for international relations, even in
the heyday of the New Kingdom and certainly not in the tenth century or in the
later Iron Age (eighth and seventh centuries). The Egyptians always used foreign
 The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 9

languages and writing systems for international relations, whether Akkadian,

Aramaic, or later Greek. To be sure, the foreign entanglements are complex,
and the evidence is not as robust as we might hope. There is ample evidence
for Egyptian administration in the Levant in the late second millennium, some
of which lingered on after the collapse of the New Kingdom.34 And there likely
were influences of various types in all these periods, but this book is particularly
concerned with the genesis of the educational rubrics of early Israel, which I will
argue should be placed in the LB/​Iron I transition.
William Morrow’s concept of the “vector of transmission” is particularly
useful in our discussion of the development of a scribal curriculum.35 By vector
of transmission, we refer specifically to the physical mechanisms by which lit-
erature or an educational curriculum could have been known and transferred
from one culture to another. We refer to the basic questions: How, where, and
when? Many books and studies discuss the relationship between ancient Near
Eastern texts and biblical literature in general ways. This study is looking for the
tangible points of contact—​that is, for physical evidence of a vector of transmis-
sion between scribal cultures in the ancient world.
The starting point in this study is the concrete points of contact between the
epigraphic record and scribal education. We may suspect, for example, that
some biblical texts served in some way and in some period as a scribal cur-
riculum, but we lack actual evidence in the inscriptional record to bolster this
suspicion. So, for example, sometimes it is posited that the Book of Proverbs
served as a scribal curriculum in ancient Israel, but the only seemingly direct
point of contact is Prov 22:17–​24:10 and its parallels with the Egyptian school
text, The Instruction of Amenemope.36 Yet even this example is problematic. We
have no copy of The Instruction of Amenemope that was found in a Levantine
context. As a result, there is a great deal of debate as to when and to what extent
The Instruction of Amenemope was borrowed by the author or editor of the Book
of Proverbs.37 Up to this point, there is no physical evidence that proverbial
sayings such as The Instruction of Amenemope were part of a scribal curriculum
in the Levant during the Late Bronze Age or the Iron Age. Still, we do know
that proverbial sayings were an important component of a Near Eastern scribal
curriculum.38 Thus scholars must infer on the basis of parallels that there must
be some vector of transmission, even though the actual time and manner of
contact is uncertain. This book will focus, as much as possible, on the tangible
evidence of a scribal curriculum in the Levant from inscriptions—​beginning
with Hebrew inscriptions but also looking at other Levantine inscriptions in cu-
neiform. The physical evidence is fragmentary, but it is the place to begin. The
completely published Kuntillet ʿAjrud inscriptions are now a major step forward
in this search.
Mesopotamia has the earliest and best-​documented example of an educa-
tional system that we have in the ancient Near East. Moreover, Mesopotamian
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 „Hoekom die baas hy vra vir Swartbooi? Die baas hy het hom mos
opgepas. En al is hy weg, die baas hy het mos baja sjeld, hy kan
mos maklik betaal,” sê die skepsel met so ’n sataniese glimlaggie
van hartlike voldoening, dat ek somar lus voel om ’n handvol gruis by
sy keelgat af te druk.
Ek het gelukkig my £150 behou, want Swartbooi was eerlik
genoeg om die diamant aan sy baas terug te besorg, maar hierdie
voorvalletjie het vir my geleer hoe onmoontlik dit vir die delwer is om
sy werksvolk op te pas, en dat hy feitlik aan hulle genade oorgegee
is. Het hy eerlike kaffers, dan is dit ook nie nodig om hul op te pas
nie, maar het hy oneerlike volk, nou ja, dan moet hy maar self ’n plan
uitdink. Ek het nie raad vir hom nie.
Hoe Swartbooi daardie kosbare steentjie so vlak voor my oë kon
verduistermaan, weet ek tot vandag toe nog nie, maar die feit bly
daar dat hy dit wel gedoen het.
Nou, leser, sal jy miskien beter verstaan waarom die owerheid die
trepstelsel op die delwerye ingevoer het. Was dit nie in swang nie,
dan sou die onwettige diamanthandel welig op die diekens gefloreer
het, en sou die eerlike delwer maar baie min vrug op sy arbeid
gesien het. Selfs onder bestaande omstandighede gaan dit maar
moeilik en vind daar nog baie oneerlikheid plaas.
Maar ongelukkig is hierdie trepstelsel ’n uiters gevaarlike wapen in
die hande van die minder eerlike speurder, en kan dit alte maklik
gebeur dat die onskuldige persoon in die val gelei en gevang word.

II.
Koos Blikkies was ’n interessante persoonlikheid. Nie juis rysig
van gestalte nie, was hy die besitter van ’n paar krom bene en
besonder lang arms. As ’n mens hom op ’n afstand sien aankom,
dan dink jy onwillekeurig aan Darwin se ewolusieteorie. Beskou jy
hom egter van naderby en kyk jy hom reg in die oë, dan vergeet jy
heeltemal sy krom bene en sy abnormale arms. So ’n ope en eerlike
gesig sien jy nie aldag nie, en al is dit miskien ’n bietjie vuil van die
stof, dan nog trek dit dadelik die aandag van elkeen wat hom vir die
eerste keer ontmoet.
Die naam Blikkies, verstaan ek, het hy met die driejarige oorlog
verwerf. Hy was eintlik die groot man gewees om vyandelike forte op
te blaas. En vir hierdie doel het hy kondensmelkblikkies gebruik wat
hy met dinamiet gelaai het. Koos self het die bynaam as ’n eretietel
beskou en was selfs trots daarop.
„Ek hou baie van boerdery, maar die boerdery hou niks van my
nie,” het hy eendag geantwoord op my vraag wat of hom dan
delwerye-toe gedrywe het. Maar ek het later uitgevind dat Koos
Blikkies se bure en sogenaamde vriende so van sy goedhartigheid
en vrygewigheid misbruik gemaak het dat hulle hom totaal
gerinneweer het. Met ’n wa, ’n span osse, ’n tent, ’n vrou en ses
kinders, ’n paar pikke en grawe en £100 kontant het hy uit die
boerdery gestap en op Kreepoort geland.
Die eerste jaar het die Geluksgodin haar gesigskant vir hom
getoon en het hy goed geld gemaak. Maar hier het dit ook maar nes
voorheen op sy plaas gegaan. Sy bure wat minder gelukkig was as
hy, het so dikwels van hom geleen en so selde weer die geleende
terugbetaal, dat Koos Blikkies aan die end van die jaar ryk aan
vriende maar arm aan geld was.
„Ek kan tog nie die arme mense rondom my van ellende sien
vergaan nie, en hulle sal my weer op ’n ander keer help as ek in
verleentheid is,” het hy aan sy vrou gesê toe sy hom vir die
duisendste keer gesmeek het om tog minder rojaal geld en goed uit
te leen.
Koos Blikkies is een van die weinige mense op aarde wie se
vertroue in sy medemens nie maklik kan geskok word nie. Self so
eerlik, opreg, eenvoudig en goedhartig, kon hy nooit iemand anders
van verkeerde of oneerlike motiewe verdink nie. Maar aan die ander
kant het hy nie geskroom om ’n man in sy gesig te sê wat hy van
hom dink as hy hom op ’n skelmstuk betrap het nie. En by so ’n
geleentheid kon hy hom nogal van besonder keurige taal bedien.
 Speurder Midas was g’n vriend van die delwers nie, en hy het
onomwonde verklaar dat in sy opienie al die delwers ’n klomp skurke
was. Die leser sal derhalwe maklik kan begryp waarom hy en die
delwers mekaar nie juis uit liefde omhels het nie. Op die delwerye
het die gerug weleens die rondte gedoen dat Midas self nie bo
verdenking was nie. En die een delwer het in sy buurman se oor
gefluister dat die oneerlike skurk minder kans staan om getrep te
word as die eerlike man. Ja, dat Midas self ’n aandeel had in die
I.D.B.
„Het oom Koos gehoor dat die arme Jan Emmer vanmôre vroeg
getrep is?” sê Gert Struis aan sy buurman.
„Jy wil tog nie vir my kom vertel dat daardie arme sukkelaar
gevang is nie? Ek sal nooit glo dat Jan Emmer skuldig is nie!” sê
Koos Blikkies, en sy oë blits van verontwaardiging.
„Ja, Oom, ek het so flussies gesien dat Midas hom dorp-toe vat.
Hy loop tussen twee kafferpolies, en een van hulle het my vertel dat
Jan Emmer vir I.D.B. gevang is,” gaan Gert voort.
„En wat moet nou van sy siek vrou en babetjie word?” vra Koos
Blikkies weer.
„Die Here alleen weet, Oom. Dis juis deur hulle wat hy getrep is.”
„Hoe kan dit deur hulle wees, man? Jy praat nou somar nonsens,”
sê Koos, en ’n mens kon sien dat hy hom vererg.
„Nee, tog nie, Oom. Gister was die dokter by Jan Emmer se tent
en hy het die vrou en die babetjie see-toe georder. As hulle nie gaan
nie, het hy gesê, dan sou hul nog uiters ’n ses maande kan lewe.
Oom weet seker hoe hardop die arme Jan is en hoe lank Midas al
probeer om vir hom te trep. Dis hierdie soort game wat Midas speel
wat my bloed laat kook. Hy wis dat Jan byna enigiets sou waag om
geld in die hande te kry, sodat hy sy vrou en kind kan see-toe stuur
volgens die dokter se orders, en nou maak Midas van Jan se ellende
gebruik om die arme sukkelaar te trep en...”
Hier raak Gert se verontwaardiging vir hom meester en kon hy nie
voortgaan nie.
 „Skandelik!” roep Koos Blikkies, „skandelik! En dan is die vent
nogal kamtig iemand wat moet toesien dat die wet uitgevoer en die
orde gehandhaaf word. Maar kan ons dan niks doen om die arme
Jan uit die tronk te hou nie?”
„Ek vrees ons kan niks daaraan doen nie, Oom, want Jan is
werklik getrep. Verlede nag om drie-uur het ’n kaffertrep hom ’n tien-
carat aangebied vir £10 en Jan het in die strik geloop. Die gedagte
aan sy vrou en babetjie se toestand het natuurlik die deurslag
gegee. Maar is dit nou regverdig om iemand in Jan se toestand so in
die versoeking te bring? Is dit nou reg om ’n man wat nog altyd eerlik
en ordentlik was, in ’n skelm te herskep? Waarom probeer hy nie
liewer daardie Moor Seal vang nie? So wragtag, Oom, as hul
daardie duiwel van Kreepoort nie wegneem nie, dan word hy nog
gelynch!”
Hierdie laaste sin het Gert op so ’n toon geuit dat Koos Blikkies jou
werklik-waar moes skrik.
„As ek in Jan Emmer se plek was, dan sou ek dieselfde gedoen
het,” sê Koos Blikkies, „en die persoon wat vir so iemand ’n trep stel,
is absoluut uit die bose en verdien om gestraf te word honderd maal
meer as die arme slagoffer wat deur sy duiwelse lis gevang is.”
In ’n armoedige hut op Kreepoort lê ’n arme vrou en haar kindjie
op hulle uiterste; maar wat het die wet daarmee te maak? Jan
Emmer is skuldig en moet gestraf word!

III.
Die treppery van Jan Emmer het ’n groot opskudding verwek op
Kreepoort. Die volgende dag kon ’n mens orals tussen die kleims
groepies delwers druk in gesprek met mekaar opmerk. Dit het alles
oor die een onderwerp gegaan, en die gemoedere was net warm.
Het Koos Blikkies nie die delwers tot gematigdheid aangespoor nie,
dan weet die liewe Vader alleen wat sou plaasgevind het.
„Nie met geweld nie,” het hy gesê, „maar met uitoorlê sal ons vir
Midas die les leer. Moet net nie oorhaastig te werk gaan nie.” En
hierop het die delwers na hulle kleims toe gegaan en die verder
verloop van sake in Koos se hande gelaat.
Vir Gert Struis en Piet Visasie het hy sy planne meegedeel. „Dit
sal nooit gaan om teveel konfidante te hê nie, want dan is ons
geheim netnou op die vlakte,” het hy aan hulle gesê.
„Maar wat is dan Oom se planne?” vra Gert.
„Kyk, neef, ek het vanmôre weer ’n mooi vyftiencarat-klippie gekry;
Swartbooi het dit so ’n uur of wat gelede vir my gebring. Hy het dit
somar in die kleim uitgekap.”
„Maar hoor, Oom is darem gelukkig,” val Gert hom in die rede.
Sonder om notiesie te neem van Gert se interrupsie gaan Koos
Blikkies voort: „Ek kan vir Swartbooi vertrou, want jy weet seker dat
ek eenmaal sy lewe gered het—maar dis nou tot daar-en-toe—en ek
gaan hom as trep gebruik om daardie Moor Seal te vang. Want as ek
vir Seal gevang het, dan het ek vir Midas ook in die hande.”
„En is Oom nie bang om die diamant te verloor nie?” vra Gert.
„Glad nie, neef, glad nie; ou Swartbooi sal my nooit bedrieg nie, en
hy is vir Seal te slim. Maar ek het jou en Piet Visasie se hulp nodig.
Ek weet Piet is ’n kêrel wat sy mond kan hou en wat nie maklik skrik
nie.”
„En hoe sal Oom vir Midas vang deur vir Seal te trep?” vra Gert
weer.
„Dis te lank om vir jou nou al die redes vir my gevolgtrekkings hier
uiteen te sit. Oefen maar geduld; jou nuuskierigheid sal oor ’n dag of
wat bevredig word. Seal ag homself so veilig met sy onwettige
handel dat hy baie maklik gaan gevang word.”
„Nou goed, Oom kan op my reken. Laat hoor nou Oom se planne.”
„Kyk,” begin oom Koos, „Swartbooi vertel aan my dat hy Seal se
rolplek ken. En hy weet te sê dat Midas altyd sorg dra dat daar nooit
’n kafferpolies in die nabyheid kan kom nie. Nou het Swartbooi al vir
Seal gepols, en hy sê die Moor is baie gretig om besigheid te doen.
Ons weet ook dat Midas op Smartendal se groot dans is. Môre-
oggend om drie-uur gaan Swartbooi my vyftiencarat-diamant aan
Seal verkoop, en jy, Piet Visasie en ek, sowel as twee
kafferkonstabels gaan die Moor vang. Verstaan jy nou?”
„Ja, Oom, en as ons daardeur somar vir Jan Emmer ook kan
loskry, dan sal ek meer as beloon vir die moeite voel.”
„Wie weet, neef, wie weet? Miskien het alles vir die beste gebeur!”
En met hierdie woorde stap Koos Blikkies na sy tent toe.
Daardie nag is die net nog ’n slaggie uitgesprei, maar hierdie keer
om ’n regte roofvoël te vang, en dit was nie tevergeefs nie. Seal is
op heterdaad betrap, en daar was vyf ooggetuies!

IV.
Belangstelling sowel as nuuskierigheid het my hof-toe gedrywe op
die gedenkwaardige dag van 9 Junie, 192..., toe Jan Emmer en Seal
voor die regter moes verskyn.
Dit was op ’n Vrydag, en daar die meeste delwers tog op daardie
dag na Smartendal moes kom om hulle diamante te laat registreer
alvorens hulle dié mag verkoop, was die hofsaal ver te klein om die
skare van delwers te bevat en moes etlike honderde teleurgesteld
omdraai.
Daar is ’n doodse stilte in die hof toe die regter sy plek op die
regbank inneem, en toe Jan Emmer se naam uitgeroep word, kon ’n
mens ’n speld hoor val.
Die beskuldigde stap met lustelose tred die boks binne, en dit
moes ’n hart van staal gewees het wat op daardie oomblik g’n
medelyde met hom gehad het nie. Die versreël uit Gesang IV het my
onwillekeurig te binne geskiet: „Wordt ergens zo betreurenswaard ’n
schepsel Gods gevonden?” toe ek my oë op hom rig.
Met geboë hoof, arms wat slap langs sy liggaam hang, en oë wat
te skaam is om op te kyk, staan hy daar, waarlik ’n
betreurenswaardige skepsel Gods. Sy klere is nog vuil van die rooi
stof van die diekens, en sy hare hang in toiings oor sy voorkop. Ja,
ek kon sweer dat selfs oor die juts se gesig ’n sweem van jammerte
vir ’n oomblik geflits het.
„Jan Emmer, pleit jy skuldig of onskuldig op die aanklag?” vra die
publieke aanklaer.
„Skuldig,” klink die nouliks hoorbare antwoord.
„Jy pleit skuldig op die aanklag dat jy onwettig ’n ruwe diamant van
’n kaffer gekoop het,” sê die regter, „en as delwer behoort jy tog te
weet dat dit as ’n baie ernstige oortreding in die oog van die wet
beskou word. Jy weet ook wat die straf is in so ’n geval. Sover ek
weet was daar g’n versagtende omstandighede wat jou tot so ’n
misdaad gedrywe het, gewees nie, en daarom vonnis ek jou tot......”
Onverwags klink daar ’n stem van uit die gehoor in die hofsaal.
Verstoord kyk die regter in daardie rigting, en aan die uitdrukking op
sy gesig was dit duidelik te sien dat hy daardie persoon sonder
verder versuim gaan laat uitgooi. Dog tot aller verbasing verander
die kwaai uitdrukking op die juts se gesig, en op byna vriendelike
toon vra hy: „Weet u miskien iets van die saak af en wil u getuienis
aflê?”
„Ja, edelagbare,” sê Koos Blikkies, en sy stem klink helder deur
die hofsaal.
„Nou kom dan vorentoe en kom lê jou getuienis hier in die
getuiehokkie af,” herneem die regter.
Sonder om ’n oomblik te aarsel vleg Koos Blikkies sy weg deur die
gedrang na die getuieboks toe, en met ’n diep buiging aan die regter
en die jurielede begin hy sy verklaring, wat egter meer ’n pleidooi
was as iets anders:
„Edelagbare regter, en here lede van die jurie, ek weet ek praat
namens al die delwers van Kreepoort as ek u my hartlike dank
toebring vir die geleentheid om ’n woordjie ter verdediging van Jan
Emmer te spreek.” Ek het my verbaas oor die keurige taal waarvan
Koos Blikkies hom bedien en kon merk dat die regter en die jurie
ewe verbaas was as ek. „U het soewe van versagtende
omstandighede gewag gemaak,” gaan Koos voort, „en edelagbare
regter en lede van die jurie, as daar ooit versagtende omstandighede
bestaan het, dan was dit in hierdie geval wat u nou geroepe word om
vonnis oor te vel. Hier het u voor u ’n man wat beter dae geken het;
’n man uit ’n goeie huis, fyn opgevoed en getroud met ’n dame ewe
goedgekonnekteer as hy. Sonder sy eie toedoen bevind hy hom met
famielie en al op Kreepoort vandag; sy sogenaamde vriende,
waarvan party gegoede mense is, het hom tot die bedelstaf
gedrywe. Maar ek wil u kosbare tyd nie alte lank in beslag neem nie,
en sal dus nie verder oor die beskuldigde se verlede uitwei nie... Op
die delwerye het dit met die beskuldigde van sleg tot erger gegaan.
Die eerste ses maande het hy ’n blink geloop, en tot oormaat van
ramp word sy vrou en kind ernstig siek. Die dokter besoek die
delwerye, en op mooipraat van enige delwers beskuldigde se tent.
„‚Jou vrou en kind moet see-toe,’ raai die dokter aan, ‚anders gee
ek hul nog uiters ses maande om te lewe.’ Edelagbare, stel u nou in
die plek van die beskuldigde! Ek weet u het ook ’n dierbare eggenoot
en kinders,—wat sou u gedoen het as u onder daardie
omstandighede die kans aangebied is om geld in hande te kry om
die kosbare lewe van u dierbares te red?—As u anders sou
gehandel het as Jan Emmer, dan is u van beter stoffasie gemaak as
hy en ek en die gewone delwer.”
Hier breek Koos Blikkies se woordevloed vir ’n oomblik af, en die
hoofde van al die teenwoordiges gee ’n nouliks sigbare knik van
instemming met sy pleidooi.
„Ten volle bewus van Jan Emmer se ellendige toestand,” vervolg
Koos Blikkies, „stel Midas, wat u ’n speurder noem, maar vir wie ons
’n minder vleiende naam het, sy trep vir hom.” Met moeite bedwing
die spreker hom, en met ’n stem wat van verontwaardiging tril, bars
hy uit: „Is dit nou reg en geregtigheid, edelagbare regter en here lede
van die jurie, om ’n man wat in Jan Emmer se gemoedstoestand
verkeer, te trep?—Dis die werk van die duiwel, edelagbare, dis uit
die bose!”
Koos bly weer ’n rukkie stil. ’n Mens kon sien dat èn die juts èn die
jurie getroffe was. „Ons pleit vir die ligste straf wat u kan oplê,
edelagbare. As dit moontlik is, vra ons om die genade van die hof.
Kan dit egter nie, dan versoek ons nederig om ’n opgeskorte vonnis
of ’n geldelike boete, want dié sal ons betaal, en namens die
delwersgemeenskap beloof ek dat ons sal sorg dra dat die
beskuldigde saam met sy vrou en kind see-toe sal gestuur word.
Ons onderwerp ons volgaarne aan u uitspraak.”
Koos Blikkies gaan sit, en die atmosfeer is nou so gespanne dat ’n
mens amper bang voel om asem te haal.
Die jurie is sigbaar aangedaan, en hoewel die regter niks laat
merk nie, kon ’n mens tog aan sy stem hoor dat ook hy onder die
betowering van Koos Blikkies se welsprekendheid geraak het.
„Ek simpatiseer met jou, Jan Emmer,” sê die regter eindelik, „want
die bose self kon nie ’n beter tyd en geleentheid uitgesoek het om
jou val te bewerkstellig as wat Midas die speurder geprakseer het
nie. Maar jy is skuldig, en die wet moet gehoorsaam word. Ek maak
jou straf egter so lig as ek kan, en hiervoor moet jy die vriend wat so
’n kragtige pleidooi vir jou gelewer het, danksê. Dis jou eerste
misdaad, en die vonnis van die hof lui: agtien maande tronkstraf,
opgeskort vir agtien maande! Laat dit vir jou ’n waarskuwing wees!”
Noudat die spanning van die laaste paar uur verby is, vergeet die
delwers glad waar hulle is. Dit klap in die hande en stamp met die
voete dat hoor en sien vergaan. Dit het moeite gekos om weer stilte
in die hof te verkry.
Dit was die merkwaardigste hofsitting wat ek ooit in my lewe
bygewoon het.
Seal is gevonnis, en Midas se medepligtigheid het met die verhoor
uitgekom. Hy is saam gevonnis en later uit die diens ontslaan.
Jan Emmer se vrou en kind is fris en gesond, en hulle woon nie
meer op die delwerye nie. Hy is voorman op Koos Blikkies se plaas.
Laasgenoemde se geluk het spreekwoordelik geword op Kreepoort,
en ’n jaar na die hofsitting het hy genoeg geld gemaak om ’n mooi
plaas te koop en kontant af te betaal.
Ek hoop ek klap nie uit die skool as ek aan die nuuskierige leser
vertel dat Koos Blikkies in die jaar 18... een van die briljantste
debatteerders was wat ooit op die Kollegebanke in Kaapstad gesit
het.
 HIERDIE BOEK IS GEDRUK DEUR
MASKEW MILLER BEPERK,
IN HUL STANDERD-PERS, KAAPSTAD.

MASKEW MILLER SE

LEES-MET-LUS
LEESBOEKE
DEUR
P. IMKER HOOGENHOUT, B.A.,
J. P. BOTHA, B.A., en P. M. van der LINGEN, B.A.
(Skoolinspekteurs in Transvaal.)
Die boekies bevat ’n groot aantal illustrasies, waarvan die
meerderheid heeltemaal origineel, en die inhoud van die boekies is
fris en lewendig.
Dit is die bedoeling van die skrywers om ’n serie Leesboeke in die
skool te bring wat alles wat tot dusver uitgegee is, sal oortref.
VIR SUB-STANDERD A. OF GRAAD I.

Eerste Boekie
Twede Boekie

VIR SUB-STANDERD B. OF GRAAD II.

Derde Boekie

VIR DIE STANDERDS:

Standerd Een.
Standerd Twee.
Standerd Drie.
Standerd Vier.
Standerd Vyf.
Standerd Ses.
Standerd Sewe.

Maskew Miller Beperk

KAAPSTAD

MASKEW MILLER’S

English Readers
FOR

SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS

AND SCHOLARS
A Series of Ten Books, including a Teachers’ Handbook
 THE WHOLE UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF
Mr. JAMES RODGER, M.A.
Inspector J. F. SWANEPOEL, B.A.
Inspector CHARLES HOFMEYR, B.A.
The Series referred to above is the result of many months
thought and practical experiment on the part of the editors, two of
whom—Inspectors of Education for the Cape Province—have for
some years made the teaching of English to Afrikaans-speaking
children a special study, and it is in a measure to provide a well
graded series, with a distinct South African atmosphere, that this
work has been undertaken.
The format of the series will be uniform in style and size with that
highly successful series of Afrikaanse Leesboeke „Lees met Lus.”
MASKEW MILLER, LIMITED
CAPE TOWN
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OP DIE
DELWERYE ***

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