REMAINS OF ANCIENT TREES NEAR SAND-BURIED DWELLING-PLACE (N. VIII.).
CHAPTER XXVI
DECIPHERMENT OF ANCIENT DOCUMENTS ON WOOD AND
LEATHER
THE historical importance attaching to the records themselves was ever vividly before my mind, and in each fresh Kharoshthi document which this precious refuse-heap continued to yield up I had reason to welcome additional help towards the study of both script and contents. But from the first I recognised that the decipherment of this wealth of materials would require much time and patient labour. The many exacting tasks which have claimed my attention since my return have left me no leisure to supplement the cursory examination I was able to make at the time of discovery and in the rare moments of rest on my . subsequent travels. Fortunately, however, my friend Mr. E. J. Rapson, of the British Museum, to whose care I had for a time to entrust the whole of my antiquarian collections, readily agreed to charge himself with the
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