10 On the Native Method of making the Paper, [Jan. 



uniformity of the pulp spread shall continue after the frame is clear 

 of the water, and the paper is made. 



To dry it, the frame is set endwise, near a large fire; and so 

 soon as it is dry, the sheet is peeled off the bottom of the frame, and 

 folded up. When (which is seldom the case) it is deemed needful to 

 smooth and polish the surface of the paper, the dry sheets are laid on 

 wooden boards, and rubbed with the convex entire side of the conch- 

 shell ; or, in case of the sheets of paper being large, with the flat surface 

 of a larsje rubber of hard smooth-grained wood ; no sort of size is ever 

 needed or applied, to prevent the ink from running. It would proba- 

 bly surprise the paper-makers of England to hear, that the Kachar 

 Bhoteahs can make up this paper into fine smooth sheets of several 

 yards square. This paper may be purchased at Katmandu in almost 

 any quantity, at the price of 17 annas sicca per dharni of three seers : 

 and the bricks of dried pulp may be had* at the same place, for from 

 8 to 10 annas sicca per dharni. Though called Nipalese, the paper is 

 not in fact made in Nepal Proper. It is manufactured exclusively in 

 Cis-Himalayan Bhote, and by the race of Bhoteahs denominated (in 

 their own tongue) Rangbo, in contradistinction to the Trans-Himalayan 

 Bhoteahs, whose vernacular name is Sokhpof. The Rangbo or Cis- 

 Himalayan Bhoteahs are divided into several tribes, (such as Murmi, 

 Lapcha, &c. &c.) who do not generally intermarry, and who speak 

 dialects of the Bhote or Tibet language so diverse, that, ignorant as 

 they are, several of them cannot effectually communicate together. 

 They are all somewhat ruder, darker, and smaller, than the Sokhpos, 

 or Trans-Himalayan Bhoteahs, by whom they are all alike held in 

 slight esteem, though most evidently essentially one and the same with 

 themselves in race, and the language, as well as in religion. 



To return to our paper-making — most of the Cis-Himalayan 

 Bhoteahs, east of the Kali river, make the Nipalese paper ; but the 

 greatest part of it is manufactured in the tract above Nepal Proper, 

 and the best market for it is afforded by the Nipalese people, and 

 hence probably it derived its name ; a great quantity is annually made 



* The pulp is dried and made up into the shape of bricks or tiles, for the con- 

 venience of transport. In this form, it is admirably adapted for transmission to 

 England. See the P. ?, 



f The Newar language has terms precisely equivalent to these ; the Rangbo 

 being called, in Newary, Paloo S£n ; and the Sokhpo, Th4-S£n. The Sokhpo 

 here spoken of is not really a different word from Soghpur-nomade, the name or- 

 dinarily applied in Bhote to the Mongols. But this word has at least a different 

 sense in the mouths of the Tibetans towards this frontier, on both sides of the 

 snows. 



