1899.] 
Section II.—Block Prints. 
53 
it is plain that there was no need of numbering them, seeing that, the 
contents being merely a repetition of a set formula, one might use the 
leaves in any order. As a matter of fact, none of these books have 
their |leaves or pages numbered. The want of pagination is to be 
regretted, as the numbers might have served 
Want of Pagination. aa a cllie 
to distinguishing top and bottom of 
the page, and thus of determining the beginning and end of the formula 
imprinted on it. The large number of the block-prints and the multiplicity 
of the scripts contained in them open up another problem as to their object. 
It would seem that there existed somewhere in the Takla Makan a kind 
of library, or store of books, the locality of which seems to have been 
discovered by native treasure seekers, being perhaps an ancient monas¬ 
tery. Moreover the existence, among the block-prints, of collective 
books (such as comprised in the Sixth Set), which contain impressions 
of texts in several scripts, seems to show that in that place there must 
have been a collection of all the different kinds of blocks; and that the 
place, in fact, was a sort of printing establishment, for the production 
and distribution of books of (religious) formulas among communities 
or in localities, using different scripts, and perhaps speaking different 
languages or dialects. 
Prima facie , there are not less than nine different scripts employed 
in the block-prints. Accordingly I have dis- 
"^^^ScriHts^nd^^ tliem into nine sets. It is not im- 
Formulas. probable that hereafter it may be shown that 
some of the scripts are allied to, if not 
identical with, one another; I mean in this way that one may be the 
kaligraphic counterpart of a current script. This may be the case, 
perhaps, with the two scripts shown on Plate V, for they agree in their 
number of lines. I believe also to have noticed, here and there, the same 
symbol, in slightly modified forms, in different scripts. In order to 
arrive at any definite and satisfactory conclusion on this head, a more 
detailed and minute examination is necessary, for which the time 
allowed me at present does not suffice, but for which I hope to have 
leisure after my retirement from India. With my present informa¬ 
tion, it appears to me likely that the scripts of the First and Second 
Sets, those of the Third and Fifth Sets, and those of the Fourth and 
Seventh Sets are pairs the members of which have some more intimate 
connection with each other. Further, it seems to me possible that the 
juxtaposition of several formulas in the collective books of the 
Sixth Set and elsewhere may lead to the recognition of some kind of 
identity obtaining among them with reference to their purport. As to 
the language, or perhaps the number of languages, hid in these scripts 
