56 
Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. I r 
turns the book, and similarly reads the remaining (formerly right-hand, 
but now also left-hand) columns III and IV. Such an orderly arrange¬ 
ment can hardly be explained on any other supposition than that of 
being made with a view to intelligent reading. Occasionally also 
anomalies are met with, the only satisfactory explanation of which seems 
to point to a similar conclusion. One such anomaly will be found 
discussed in the detailed description of book No. VI of the Fourth 
Set. It is on considerations such as these, that I have provisionally 
determined, and shown in the illustrative Plates, the top and bottom 
of the texts of most of the nine sets of block-prints, as well as the 
direction of the script of some of them, such as those of the Fourth and 
Seventh Sets. I do not claim for these determinations more than a 
provisional character. Very possibly a more minute and thorough 
examination of the block-prints, than the limited time at present at my 
command admits, may hereafter lead to more definite results. 
The case, above discussed, of book No. II of the Seventh Set, is 
instructive on another point, namely, whether 
Orientation of the these block-print books are to be read from the 
Books. left the right, beginning with the first page, 
or from the right to the left, beginning with the last page or at the back 
of the book, to speak from the European point of view. From the 
diagram it will be seen that the reader first reads the pages (i. e., 
columns I and II) from the left to the right (and so on, throughout the 
book), and then, turning the book right round, from the right to the 
left (t.e., columns III and IV, and so on, throughout the book). It 
would, therefore, appear that there is really no right or left, beginning 
or end of the book, in the sense of the modern European practice. This 
conclusion seems to be confirmed by the books Nos. I and II of the Third 
Set, of which, to judge by the arrangement of the text (see the detailed 
description) No. I must be read from the left to the right, while No. II 
must be read from the right to the left. See also book No. V of the 
Second Set. 
The question on which side of the page the process of printing com¬ 
menced, whether on the right or left side, the 
Orientation of the Qr 0 £ i s fairly easy to determine 
Printing. many cases. When there is a broad, blank 
margin on one side of the page, while the print runs up to its very edge 
on the other side; or when a column of print begins with a complete 
impression of the formula on one side, and ends with a part-impression 
on the other side, it is fairly certain that the printer commenced his 
work on the former of the two sides. Books Nos. VI and VII of the 
Fourth Set afford a good illustration of this conclusion. The point is of 
