264 



THE PALMYRA PALM. 



art, &c., are transcribed on them, but in a language elevated above 

 the common idiom. The leaves of both these palm trees lie in folds 

 like a fan, and the slips stand in need of no other preparation than 

 merely to be separated, and cut smooth and even with a knife, after 

 having been slowly dried in the shade and rubbed with oil. Their 

 mode of writing upon them consists in carving the letters with a fine 

 pointed style, and in order that the characters may be the better seen 

 and ;read, they rub them over with an ink made of lampblack, or some 

 other substance, and a solution of gum, so that the letters have 

 altogether the appearance of being engraved. 



The iron point made use of on these occasions is set either in a brass 

 handle, which the Moormen and others carry about them in a wooden 

 case, and which is sometimes six inches in length, or else it is formed 

 entirely of iron, and together with the blade of a knife, designed for 

 the purpose of cutting the leaves and making them even, set in a 

 knife handle, common to them both, into which handle it shuts up, 

 so that it may be carried by the owner about with him, and be always 

 ready at hand. 



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 figui*es delineated upon them by way of 

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

 strung upon an elegantly t\sdsted silken cord, and covered with two 

 thin wooden boards. By means of the cord the leaves ai'e held even 

 together, and by being di-awn 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 fastened 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 genfert,! 

 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 2 feet in length and 2 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 sieves, 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 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. 



