206 
. I 
Learning and Arts of the Ceylonese 4 
particular subject, they string several together by a piece of 
twine passed through them, and attach them to a board in the 
same way as we file news-papers. 
Palm leaves are sometimes employed for the same purpose, 
but those of the talipot both from their breadth and thickness 
are preferred. Few of the natives, and those only of the 
higher order who have much connexion and long accounts to 
keep with the Europeans, employ any other materials in writ- 
ing than those which I have just described. There is also a 
sort of paper made of the bark of a tree sometimes used. 
I have seen several of those talipot books or files, called by 
the natives olioes, richly ornamented and bound in thin lacquered 
boards of ivory, or even silver and gold. They are particu- 
larly dexterous and accurate in their mode of writing. In those 
letters or dispatches which were sent by the King to the Dutch 
government, the monarch seemed particularly anxious to dis- 
play his magnificence in the richness and splendour with which 
they were executed. The writing was enclosed in leaves of 
beaten gold in the shape of a cocoa-tree leaf. This was rolled 
up in a cover richly ornamented, and almost hid in a profu- 
sion of pearls and other precious stones. The whole was en- 
closed in a box of silver or ivory, which was sealed with the 
Emperor’s great seal. The same splendour has been observed 
in the letters sent to our Governor since we have had posses- 
sion of the island. 
The progress of the Ceylonese in the other arts of life is 
proportionate to their literature. Their agriculture is still in ' 
the rudest state ; and perhaps there is no other part of India 
where the lands are cultivated with more negligence. The Cey* 
lonese are naturally, like other tribes^ who inhabit a mountain- 
