1893.] 
A. F. R. Hoernle — The Weber Manuscripts. 
3 
rule, perfect at the top and bottom. The following is a list of leaves of 
the several parts composing the manuscripts : — 
Part I, consisting of 9 leaves. 
33 
II 
33 
33 
7 
33 
33 
III 
33 
33 
6 
33 
33 
IV 
33 
33 
1 
33 
33 
V 
33 
33 
GO 
33 
33 
VI 
33 
33 
5 
33 
33 
VII 
33 
33 
7 
33 
33 
VIII 
33 
33 
CO 
33 
33 
IX 
33 
33 
25 
33 
Nine Parts consisting of 76 leaves. 
All the nine manuscripts are written on paper. Their paper is of 
differing qualities. In the main there are two kinds : one kind is thick, 
soft, flexible and white ; it is so soft indeed, that its surface is apt to 
fret, and thus to injure the writing. The other kind is thin, hard and 
stiff, and of a more or less brownish colour. No. IX (Central Asian) 
has the softest and whitest texture. Also soft, but less white is the 
paper of Nos. 1 and 2 (Indian) and Nos. 6 and 7 (Central Asian). 
Harder and darker is the paper of Nos. 3 and 4 (Indian) and No. 5 
(Central Asian). Distinctly hard and brown is the paper of No. VIII 
(Central Asian). The' manuscripts, written in Central Asian characters, 
therefore, are inscribed on paper of the greatest variety, from the 
whitest and softest to the stiffest and darkest. 
The paper, by appearance and touch, appears to me to be of the 
kind, commonly known as Nepalese, which is manufactured from several 
varieties of the Daphne plant. Dr. George King, the Director of the 
Botanical Gardens, has been good enough to examine the paper, and 
agrees with me that probably it is paper “ made of the fibres of Daphne 
papyracea, or of Edgeworthia Gardneri, which are still used as raw 
material for paper-making in the Himalayas.” The better description 
of paper is made of fibres of Edgeworthia Gardneri. A very full account 
of this so-called Nepalese jjaper, its material and manufacture, will be 
found in Dr. Watt’s Dictionary of Economic Products of India, Vol. Ill, 
p. 19, w'here also references to other sources of information are given. 
For the purpose of being inscribed this paper appears to have been 
specially prepared with some kind of sizing, probably made of white 
arsenic. On the leaves of some of the manuscripts this size forms a 
thick glazed coat on which the letters are traced. Occasionally this 
glazed coat has peeled off, in which case the letters which it bore have 
disappeared with it. This is particularly the case with Part V, and may 
