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Show 3 PAPERMAKIN IN SIA if the work is to proceed throughout the day a numbe of moulds are required. In the Niltongkum family mil there were about thirty usable moulds and Piung Niltongkum and her two daughters were able to complet approximately one hundred and seventy sheets of pape every cight hours. The removing of dry paper from th mould is shown in Photograph Many of the books of Siam are written in yellow in or paint upon paper that has been blackened. Calligraphy transcribed in yellow pigment upon a backgroun of black has long been considered most restful for reading, but it is not likely that the Siamese everattached an scientific importance to the employment of this unusua and striking combination. The paper s blackened at th mill where the sheets are made, and 1 was glad to hav the privilege of sceing this process during my stay wit the Niltongkum family. The charcoal used in makin the black pigment was made from the shells of the bete nut which were burnt in the open,as depicted in Photograph ro. The betel palm (Areca cathecu)is much prize in many parts of the Orient,as the nuts when mixed wit the ovate leaves of the betel (Piper bezle) and a little shel lime, form a masticatory that is used by fully two-third of the natives of Siam and Indo-China; the tecth of th habitual user assume a rich lustrous black whichis somewhat offensive to the Occidental idea of beauty,but whic Digitalimag © 2004 Marriott Library, Universiy of Utah. All ights reserved |