THE ECONOMIC PRODUCTS OF THE PALMYRA PALM. 283 



On such slips all the letters and edicts of the Dutch Government 

 used to be written, and sent round open and unsealed. When a single 

 slip was not sufficient, several were bound together by means of a hole 

 made at one end, and a thread on which they were strung. If a book 

 had to be made for the use of the Wihares or any other purpose, they 

 sought for broad and handsome slips of talapat leaves, upon which 

 they engraved the characters very elegantly and accurately, with the 

 addition of various figures delineated upon them by way of ornament. 

 All the slips had then two holes made in them, and were strung 

 upon an elegantly twisted silken cord, and covered with two thin 

 wooden boards. By means of the cord, the leaves are held even 

 together, and by being drawn out when required for use, they are 

 separated from each other at pleasure. 



In the finer binding of these kind of books, the boards are 

 lacquered, the edges of the leaves cut smooth and gilded, and the title 

 is written on the upper board ; the two cords are by a knot or jewel, 

 secured at a little distance from_ the boards, so as to prevent the 

 book from falling to pieces, 'but sufficiently distant to admit of the 

 upper leaves being turned back while the lower ones are read. The 

 more elegant books are in general wrapped up in silk cloth, and bound 

 round by a riband in which the Burmese have the art to weave the 

 title of the book. The palmyra books are never much beyond two feet 

 in length and two inches in breadth, as the parchment-like ribs between 

 the little ribs will not admit of their increase in size. 



Narrow strips of the leaf are braided into winnows, hats, and caps, 

 baskets, mats, and bags ; the baskets are used for drawing water as well 

 as other purposes, and the bags not only for carrying rice, salt, &c, in 

 small quantities, but for storing grain, being made very large and 

 strong, while the mats are necessary for the natives, not only to sit, eat, 

 and sleep on, but for drying various kinds of fruit, treading out this 

 grain and many other purposes. On the stem of the leaf is a very hard 

 and strong covering like that on the bamboo or rattan, which slit off is 

 formed into coarse strong ropes. 



Each tree has from twenty-five to forty fresh green leaves upon it at 

 a time, and of these the natives frequently cut off twelve or fifteen annu- 

 ally, or a greater number once in two years, to be devoted to various pur- 

 poses, as well as with the view to enable the fruit to ripen and increase 

 in size. When the leaves are intended for thatch, or for making fences, 

 they are placed fiat on the ground in layers over each other, and often 

 with weights upon them to assist in the process of flattening them. The 

 thatch formed of these does not last longer than two years, nor is it so 

 handsome as that made from the plaited cocoa-nut leaves. The leaves 

 make very close and elegant fences. 



Toddy. — At the season when the inflorescence begins to appear, 

 when the spathes have had time to burst, the "toddy-drawer" is at 

 work in the palmyra groves. His practised eye soon fixes on those trees 



