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vi Ordinary ink.-10.. The ink used for writing puthis is of two kinds; one fit for paper and the other for palm-leaves. The former is made by mixing a coffee-coloured infusion of roasted rice with lampblack, and then adding to it a little sugar, and sometimes the juice of a plant called kesurte (Verbesina scandens). The labour of making this ink is great, for it requires several days' continued trituration in a mortar before the lampblack can be thoroughly mixed with the rice infusion, and want of sufficient trituration causes the lampblack to settle down in a paste, leaving the infusion on top unfit for writing with. Occasionally acacia gum is added to give a gloss to the ink, but this practice is not common, sugar being held sufficient for the purpose. Of late an infusion of the emblick myrobolan prepared in an iron pot has occasionally been added to the ink, but the tannate and gallate of iron formed in the course of preparing this infusion are injurious to the texture of paper, and Persian MSS., sometimes written with such ink, suffer much from the . chemical action of the metallic salts. The ink for palm-leaf consists of the juice of the kesurte mixed with a decoction of alta. It is highly esteemed, as it sinks into the substance of the leaf, and cannot be washed off. Both the inks are very lasting, and, being perfectly free from mineral substances and strong acids, do not in any way injure the substance of the paper or leaf on which it is applied. They never fade, and retain their gloss for centuries. in Coloured ink.-11. To mark the ends of chapters and for writing rubrics, colophons and important words on paper, an ink made of cinnabar, or alta, is sometimes used, and in correcting errors the usual practice is to apply on the wrong letters a colour made of yellow or red orpiment ground gum-water, and when it is dry to write over it. Omissions of entire words and sentences of course cannot be rectified in this way, and they have therefore to be supplied by writing on the margin. Interlineation is generally avoided, but in old MSS. which have been read and revised by several generations, they are not altogether wanting. In commentaries, the quotations from texts are generally smeared over with a little red ochre, which produce the same effect which red letters in European MSS. were intended to subserve, and whence the term rubric got into currency. These peculiarities, however, are more prominent in the MSS. of the North Western Provinces than in those of Bengal, and in palm-leaf codices they are generally wanting, except in Burmah where some sacred Pali works are written with a thick black varnish on palm-