206 
PAPER MULBERRY. 
which is intended for the finer sort of paper they 
enclose in a linen cloth, in which it is washed like 
the other, but rather more softened by a further 
operation. The matter being sufficiently washed is 
deposited on a thick, well polished table, where it is 
well beat with hard wooden rollers, until it becomes 
a pulp like a paste made of flour and water. 
After the beating is concluded, they put the 
pulp into a straight tub, and pour upon it a quantity 
of an infusion of rice, or else a mucous infusion 
of the root orem. This melange is carefully stirred 
with a thin reed, until the liquor becomes of a pro- 
per consistence, when it is drawn off into a more 
capacious tub : from this vessel the substance is 
finally raised leaf after leaf, in the form of paper ; 
and it should be noticed that the prototype is not 
made of copper wire, but of rush. 
The leaves of paper thus prepared are laid in a 
heap on a table : between the edges of each leaf 
they place a thin piece of rush, forming a little 
eminence, by means of which the leaves are distin- 
guished from each other, and can be at any time, 
if necessary, removed separately. Every heap is 
covered by a little board adapted to the form and 
size of the leaves, on which is placed a light weight, 
that the leaves, which are very moist at first, may 
not be pressed into one mass. The weight, how- 
ever, is afterwards increased till all the moisture is 
insensibly pressed from them. 
In about two days they remove the weights, and 
those leaves which are yet moist are dried in the sun. 
