120 NATUIIAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY 
more frequently employed for this purpose. Contracts and 
other legal instruments are often engraven upon tablets of 
copper, which have occasionally a border of silver. An 
allusion is made to the practice of writing upon tablets in 
Isaiah xxx. 8, and Habakkuk ii. 2. Palm-leaves generally 
undergo some preparation to fit them to receive the im- 
pression of the stylus. They are then called ollalis. The na^ 
fives write letters to one another upon ollahs, which are 
neatly rolled up, and sometimes sealed with a little gum-lac. 
During the operation of writing, the leaf is supported by 
the left hand, and the letters scratched upon the surface 
with the pointed piece of iron. Instead of moving the hand 
with which they write towards the right, they move the 
leaf in a contrary direction, by means of the thumb of the 
left hand. To render the characters more legible, the en- 
graved lines are frequently filled by besmearing the leaf 
with fresh cow-dung. This substance is then tinged black, 
which makes the writing very plain. Sometimes this object 
is obtained by rubbing the lines over with coco-nut oil, or 
a mixture of oil and charcoal-powder. The natives do not 
require tables to write upon ; they can write standing as 
well as walking„ 
Baskets for catching fish, shrimps, &c. are made of the 
ligneous ribs of the leaflet ; the same substance is employed 
by the natives for many of the purposes for which we use 
pins. A bundle of these ribs is in universal use, as a broom, 
to sweep the cottages ; and when an European asks for a 
tooth-pick, his servant brings him a portion of one of these 
fibres. Lately, I am informed, they have been recommended 
to be employed as a nucleus for bougies. 
In a domestic state, elephants are fed chiefly upon coco- 
nut leaves, and this animal evinces much sagacity in sepa- 
rating the elastic woody fibre from the thinner margin of 
the leaf 
