418 A NATURALIST ON THE " CHALLEXG ER." 



edge has to be straightened out if the entire characters are 

 required to be seen. 



All the leaves in a Chinese book are double, and only one 

 side of the paper is printed on. The back surface of the paper 

 is blank and wasted. The idea of cutting the pages and print- 

 ing on both sides of the paper seems never to have been attained. 

 Sometimes Japanese picture books, drawing books, and song 

 books, have drawings or printed pictures on both sides of the 

 paper ; but even then, the pages are not cut, so that the two 

 sides of each leaf should follow one another consecutively. 



Such a book is merely a folded roll. After the folded pages 

 on one side have been looked at, the book must be reversed and 

 opened afresh at what before acted as the back, and thus the 

 opposite sides of the folds are brought into view. If the pages 

 only followed one another in the requisite order, there is no 

 reason why such a folded book should not be at once stitched 

 at the back, and have the leaves cut. The book would thus be 

 rendered far more handy ; but the idea seems never to have 

 struck the Japanese. 



The folded form of book described, seems to represent a first 

 stage in improvement from the more ancient roll. Japanese 

 paintings and manuscripts are extremely common, executed 

 upon long rolls which are terribly tedious to unroll and roll 

 up again. The folded picture books, such as described, may 

 be pulled out into long strips, on which the pages or drawings 

 follow in regular order, just as on an ordinary roll. Similarly, 

 if ordinary printed Japanese and Chinese books were un- 

 stitched, the double leaves might be unfolded, and, if pasted 

 on to a long strip, would follow one another consecutively on 

 the roll. 



It seems thus highly probable that the idea of the Chinese and 

 Japanese book arose as an improvement on the roll ; and that 

 this is the reason why the leaves are all double, and the paper 

 printed only on one side. The ordinary paper used in printing- 

 is possibly too thin to allow of both sides being printed on ; but 

 there is plenty of thicker paper available in both countries. 

 Even when very thick paper is used in the folding Japanese 

 books, often one side only of the paper is made use of. I have 



