History of' Mechanical Inventions^ <^c. 343 



Another elephant was now brought, but the tiger made less resistance on 

 each successive attack. It was evident that the tosses he received must 

 soon occasion his death. 



All the elephants were furnished with tusks, and the mode of attack in 

 every instance, for several others were called forward, was that of rushing 

 upon the tiger, thrusting their tusks under him, raising him, and throw- 

 ing him to a distance. Of their trunks they evidently were very careful, 

 rolling them cautiously up under the chin. When the tiger was perfectly 

 dead, an elephant was brought up, who, instead of raising the tiger in 

 his tusks, seized him with his trunk, and in general cast him to the dis- 

 tance of thirty feet. — Mission to Siam and Hue, p. 321-323. 



Art. XIX.— history OF MECHANICAL INVENTIONS AND 



OF PROCESSES AND MATERIALS USED IN THE FINE AND 



USEFUL ARTS. 



1. Account oj the Makleua, a Siamese Black Dye. 



This is a berry growing on a large forest tree at Bankok, and used most 

 extensively by the Siamese as a vegetable black dye. It is merely bruised 

 in water when a fermentation takes place, and the article to be dyed is 

 steeped in the whole and then spread out in the sun to dry. This opera- 

 tion is repeated, and in two or three times the cotton or silk receives an 

 excellent and durable black colour. If the article to be dyed is previously 

 of a red or white colour, it receives the black dye much more easily. But 

 a piece of English green camlet was dyed black in four applications* Cap- 

 tain Burney could not procure any of the flower or seed of this plant, but 

 the Portuguese consul at Bankok has promised to send him some of the 

 seed at the proper season. Ten or twelve young plants were brought away 

 from Siam, only one survived to Penang, where it was left, as it looked 

 sickly. The Siamese said that the tree is not to be found in any part of 

 the Siamese territory lying to the southward of Bankok. All the crape 

 scarfs worn by the common people at Bankok are dyed black with this 

 makleua berry, which is remarkably cheap, being sold at the rate of twenty 

 or thirty large cups-full for a rupee. The berry when fresh is of a fine 

 green colour, but after being gathered for two or three days it becomes 

 quite black and shrivelled like pepper. It must be used fresh, and whilst 

 its mixture with water produces a fermentation. 



Calcutta, \st February 1827. W. Burney. 



2. Account oJ a new kind of Cloth fabricated by Insects. 



M. Habenstreet of Munich has obtained this curious fabric by direc- 

 ting the efforts of the larvae of a butterfly called Finea punctata or Finea 

 padilla. As these caterpillars construct over themselves a tent of extreme 

 fineness, and impervious to air, M. H. contrived to make the insects work on 

 a paper model suspended from the ceiling, to which he gave any form and 

 dimensions he pleased. He thus obtained square shawls an ell wide, and 

 some two ells long by one broad, an ait balloon four feet high, and a woman's 



