1865.] On some Siamese Inscriptions. 29 



literary sect, which, according to his accounts, then existed in the conn, 

 try, "Their hooks and public records are written on buck-skin dyed 

 black, and cut into the required dimensions. They work down a paste, 

 resembling the China white lime. Of this they form little sticks, and 

 talcing one into the hand, like a pencil, form characters, which can 

 never be effaced." He must mean the black books, still in use, amongst 

 the Birmese, Siamese and Cambodians, on which they write with a 

 soft chalk-stone. In the convents they employ wooden tablets, cover- 

 ed with a black varnish, on which the writing of the boys, who trace 

 the letters for exercise, can be easily blotted out, and the same material 

 is used afresh. For documents and memorials, these black books are 

 at present made of vegetable substances like the white paper books, 

 and afterwards covered over with a black varnish. The writing is, 

 however, far from being indelible, and can be effaced without difficulty. 

 If the book is written full and not required to be kept, the leaves 

 (folded up in zigzag,) are rubbed over with a preparation of burnt peas 

 and charcoal, and then used again, as if new. In especially valuable 

 books, the letters, for appearance' sake, are traced with a yellow dye, 

 a preparation from gamboge, on a smoothly varnished surface, but 

 gradually crumble off and become illegible, because the fluid does not 

 enter into chemical composition with the material of the substratum. 

 The white books are written on with Chinese ink. On the leaves of 

 the Talipoin-palm the letters are traced with an iron style. The 

 change from parchment to paper took place very likely in the rigorous 

 times of Buddhism, when the pious priests would not allow the killing 

 of animals to carry on its fabrication. 



The inscription, translated here, is written in an ancient kind of 

 character, differing from the present one. The vowels are still written 

 in one line with the consonants, and the diacritical points of the mo- 

 dern alphabet are mostly dispensed with. The complicated system of 

 accentuation in the Siamese of to-day, has developed itself only gra- 

 dually, and can be traced back in old books to that simplicity, which 

 still reigns in the ruder dialects of the Laos, and makes them unintel- 

 ligible to the polished ear of the low-landers. I was enabled by the 

 help of some learned friends in Bangkok to extract the antiquated 

 alphabet of the inscription, but have not brought it yet to the state of 

 perfection, which would be desirable for publication. The first lines 



