72 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



cotttons. The printing- forms are carved of Teak wood, the 

 big'g-est of them being- little more than one foot long' and half 

 a foot wide, but I often saw smaller ones according to the pattern. 

 The man printed in my presence some red and black cottons. 

 The stuff was first of all strongly saturated with alum and 

 kaveksy (Myrohalawis citrinusj, so that it had a greenish ^^ellow 

 colour. This stuff the workman spread out over a wooden bench, 

 which was 1^ feet wide, four feet long, and one foot high. There 

 was some of the coarse wollen material used here, spread over 

 this bench in several layers. The colours had already been 

 prepared in little flat boxes ; these boxes were 1^ feet long' and 

 one foot wide and had a border about as high as ones' hand. There 

 were some little rods lying inside, which were tied on two sij^s, 

 the rods coming from the sides were a little longer than afoot and 

 across them were tied some other rods somewhat shorter than a 

 foot; they stood about half an inch apart, each rod was ^ of an 

 inch wide and hardly 2 lines thick. They consisted of bamboo or 

 thin split rotan. These rods were not fastened to the box, but 

 were tied together and could be lifted out of it independently. 

 Over these rods were some layers of woollen cloth folded several 

 times and being a little longer than the rods. On and between 

 this cloth the colour was really placed, and the rods were only 

 meant for the purpose of dividing the colour more equally ; there 

 was so much colour in these boxes that it was almost equal to 

 the cloth. 



The red colour consisted of sappan-wood boiled with alum, 

 and mixed with the g'um of the Mimosa nilotica, so that it was 

 altog'ether as thick as honey, without any further addition. 

 The black colour consisted of old iron on which was poured 

 Toddy from the palms, added to this a little Myroholanus citrinus, 

 in order to render it very black, then it was mixed with the above 

 mentioned ingredients to bring it to its proper thickness. When 

 the printer begins printing the stuff, he takes the wood pattern, 

 and putting the same on the cloth in the box, presses itdown a little, 

 and then places it on the prepared linen, knocking it first with 

 his first and then with a club of about one foot in length, which 

 at the thicker end is of the size of a fist. One knock with this 

 club is sufficient to print the pattern on the linen, and in this 

 way he continues, filling the patterns and colours very accurately, 

 and all this is done very quickly indeed 



