broad and high, was dug up at Orange, in southern France, right in the centre of the town.

It is a waif from a lengthy document.

But it chances to be intelligible.

It enumerates six plots of land--'merides' it calls them, from a Greek word meaning 'share' or 'division'-- which seem to have formed one parcel: each plot is numbered, and the length of its frontage on the public way (_in fronte_), the name of its lessee or _manceps_ and that of his surety (_fideiussor_) are added.

The frontages of four plots make up 200 ft.