GUIDE TO THE COLOMBO MUSEUM. 191 



are also used when it is desired to have both sides of tbe leaves 

 polished at the same time. Tlie leaves are finally dried in the sun 

 and cut to pieces of required lengths. Tliese pieces, called pat-iru 

 (lit. "leaves sections"), are each provided with two equidistant 

 round holes, one towards each end, and after pressing them together 

 by means of two side boards provided with corresponding holes and 

 passing an iron nail or a piece of stick through each set of holes, 

 they are trimmed to bring them to equal size, and their sides are 

 then slightly singed with a red hot iron to remove fibres and coarse- 

 ness, and besmeared with a dye to remove the charred appearance. 

 This block of leaves, called puhu-potgediya (lit. " blank book block ") , 

 is kept in a dry place, and leaves are taken from it by the copyist 

 as he requires them. 



The leaves are written upon with an iron style* (16 mches long), 

 called ulkatuva {lit. " pointed instrument "), or panhinda {lit. 

 "leaf needle "), the writing pomt being made of good steel. The 

 student of Sinhalese, who is taught to write almost at the com- 

 mencement of his studies, writes first on a sand board, then on 

 palmyra leaves, then on dried ripe talipot leaves called karakola, 

 and lastly on prepared talipot leaves {puskola). Li copying a book 

 a set of sixteen leaves, cshYLedpat-kattuva {lit. " collection of leaves "), 

 which is the number of leaves a clever copyist is able to write in a 

 day, is held by the left hand of the copyist, the leaves being loosely 

 strung by the two sets of holes, and letters are cut or scratched upon 

 the surface of the leaf with the style held with the thumb, fore finger, 

 middle finger , and ring finger of the right hand (somewhat in the 

 fashion of holdmg a pen), and supported by a nick cut at the tip of 

 the left hand thumb nail to keep the style in position. The set of 

 leaves is moved to the left by means of the thumb of the left hand 

 as the writer proceeds. An English writer has remarked : " Singha- 

 lese writing is very neat and small, and it is wonderful to see what 

 straight lines are produced by writers who have no support for the 

 strip except their own left hand." Copyists are paid at the rate of 

 about fifteen cents a leaf, twenty inches long, with seven or eight 

 lines to a page. 



The MTiting is blackened with a pigment composed of resin oil 

 and powdered charcoal oi gedumba wood {Trema orientalis) , or burnt 

 rags, the pages bemg afterwards well cleaned with rice braii and 

 a piece of cloth. The book is then protected on the two sides by 

 painted boards, of the size of the pages, provided with holes corre- 

 sponding with those of the pages^ and a long thread, generally of 

 different colours, is passed through the set of holes on the left hand 

 side of the leaves and the board and tightly wound round, the end of 

 the thread on the side of the beginning of the book being attached 

 to a button (called hasiya), generally made of metal. It is then 

 wrapped in one or two large handkerchiefs or pieces of good cloth 

 and kept in a box or almirah. 



The consecutive order, as well as the number of each leaf, is 

 indicated by a consonant written on the left hand margin of the first 

 page of the leaf. When aU the consonants combined with vowels 

 have been used in their consecutive order, they are repeated with a 

 Sinhalese figure affixed to them, indicating the number of times the 

 same consonant has been used. 



* Styles are made of other metals also, and some are highly ornamental 

 and set with gems. (See Plate XLI.) 



