Page:A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts, Vol. 2.djvu/73

Canara Books. The manuscripts of this language are written on Kadetlums of which the following particular and accurate description is given by Col. Wilkes. Cudduttum, curruttum, or currut, a long slip of cotton cloth, from eight inches to a foot wide, and from twelve to eighteen feet long, skilfully covered on each side with a compost of paste and powdered charcoal. When perfectly dry, it is neatly folded up, with- out cutting, in leaves of equal dimensions ; to the two end folds are filed ornamented plates of wood, painted and varnished, resembling the sides of a book, and the whole is put into a case of silk or cot- ton, or tied with a tape or ribbon; those in use with the lower classes are destitute of these ornaments, and are tied up by a com- mon string: the book, of course, opens at either side, and if unfold- ed and drawn out, is still a long slip of the original length of the cloth. The writing is similar to that on a slate, and may be in like manner rubbed out and renewed. It is performed by a pencil of the balapum, or lapis ollaris; and this mode of writing was not only in ancient use for records and public documents, but is still universally employed in Mysoor by merchants and shopkeepers. I have even seen a bond, regularly witnessed, entered on the cudduttum of a mer- chant, produced and received in evidence. This is the word kirret, translated (of course conjectural!}) palm- leaves in Mr. Crisp's translation of Tippoo's regulations. The Sul- tauu prohibited its use in recording the public accounts : but altho* liable to be expunged, and affording facility to fraudulent entries, it is a much more durable material and record than the best writing on the best paper, or any other substance used in India, copper and stone alone excepted. It is probable that this i.i the linen or cotton cloth described by Arrian from Nearchus, on which the Indians wrote.— Vincent's Nearchus, p. 15. Ar. 717.