
1865.] On some Siamese Inscriptions. 29 
literary sect, which, according to his accounts, then existed in the coun. 
try, “ Their books 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 
taking 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 
