41 



7. Although the precise date at which paper was 



The Indians early first manufactured in India does not 



acquainted with i -, - . 



weaving. appear to be known, yet according to 



Mr. Yates' Textrinum Antiquorum it seems that 

 when the inhabitants of Europe and Western Asia 

 were clothed in skins and furs, the Chinese wore silk, 

 and the Indians garments made from a downy sub- 

 stance obtained from trees. At a still earlier period 

 the natives of India were acquainted with the art of 

 spinning and weaving, as we learn from their Vedas ; 

 while in the Institutes of Menu, written 800 years B.O O 

 we read that the sacrificial thread of a Brahmin must 

 be of cotton, that of a Kshatriya of sana thread 

 only, and that of a Yaisya of woollen thread. It is 

 evident, therefore, that even at those remote periods 

 the natives of India utilized their indigenous fibres, 

 and it is not improbable that the manufacture of 

 paper soon followed the art of weaving, and that the 

 people of India did not long remain content with 

 palm leaves, bark, stones, &c., to write on. However 

 this may be, there is abundant proof of the prolific 

 yield of fibrous material in India. This is now 

 largely used for paper-making throughout the Em- 

 pire, and I have myself seen paper being made in the 

 most remote parts of Burma Proper from wild-grow- 

 ing fibres common to the district. The process is 

 described in the " Narrative of my Journey in search 

 of the Ficus elastica." * 



* " The Ficus Elastica in Burma Proper ; or, a Narrative of my Jour- 

 ney in Search of it, &c., &c." By G. W. Strettell, Government Press, 

 Rangoon, 1876. 



