CHAP. X.] 



PREPAEATIOX OF OLAS. 



513 



After undergoing a process (one stage of which consists 

 in steeping theni in hot water and sometimes in milk) to 

 preserve their flexibility, they are submitted to pressure 

 in order to render their surface uniformly smooth. They 

 are then cut into stripes of two or three inches in breadth, 

 and from one to three feet long. These are pierced with 

 two holes, one near each end, through which a cord is 

 passed, so as to secure them between two wooden covers, 

 lacquered and ornamented with coloured devices. The 

 leaves thus strung together and secured, form a book. 



On these palm-leaves the custom is to write with an 

 iron stile held nearly upright, and steadied by a nick 

 cut to receive it in the thumb-nail of the left hand. 

 The stile is sometimes richly ornamented, shaped 

 like an arrow, and inlaid 

 with gold, one blade of 

 the feather serving as a 

 knife to trim the leaf pre- 

 paratory to writing. The 

 case is sometimes made 

 of carved ivory bound 

 with hoops of filigreed 

 silver. 



The furrow made by the 

 pressure of the steel is ren- 

 dered visible by the appli- 

 cation of charcoal ground with a fragrant oil 1 , to the 

 odour of which the natives ascribe the remarkable state 

 of preservation in which their most sacred books are 

 found, its aromatic properties securing the leaves from 

 destruction by white ants and other insects. 2 



WRITING WITH A STILE. 



1 For this purpose a resin is used, 

 called dumula by the natives, who 

 dig it up from beneath the surface 

 of lands from which the forest has 

 disappeared. 



2 In Ceylon there are a few Budd- 

 hist books brought from Burmah, in 

 which the text is inscribed on plates 



VOL. I. L 



of silver. I have seen others on 

 leaves of ivory, and some belonging 

 i to the Dalada Wihara, at Kandy, 

 ! are engraved on gold. The earliest 

 grants of lands, called sannas, were 

 written on palm-leaves, but an in- 

 scription on a rock at Dambool, 

 which is of the date 1200 A.D., re- 

 L 



