78 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
eleven hundred and seventy-two laminae of the finest 
description. This book contains the whole moral and 
religious code of the Buddhists, and is so scarce, that 
it was for some time believed there was no complete 
copy extant. Sir A. Johnstone, when President of his 
Majesty’s Council in Ceylon, being, from the various 
benefits which he had conferred upon the priests of 
Buddhoo, much in their confidence, was allowed by 
them to have copies taken of all the different parts 
which were dispersed among the most celebrated tem- 
ples in the island, and of them formed a complete 
book. 
The other is a very fine specimen of a Burmese 
volume on the Buddhoo religion, written upon laminae 
of the talipat leaf, lacquered over and beautifully gilt, 
which was sent to the President by the King of Ava, 
with some other books, as the finest specimen he could 
give him of the manner in which the books in the 
royal library at Ava were written. The talipat leaf is 
used in the maritime provinces of Ceylon as a mark 
of distinction, each person being allowed to have a 
number of these leaves, folded up as a fan, carried 
with him by his servant. It is also used in the Can- 
dian country in the shape of a round flat umbrella 
upon a stick. It is further used to make tents, and 
by the common people to shelter them from the rain, 
one leaf affording sufficient shelter for seven or eight 
persons. When about eighty years old, which is 
when it has attained its full growth, the flower- 
spike bursts from its envelope with a loud report : 
it is then as white as ivory. In the course of fifteen 
or twenty months it showers down its abundance of 
