silk or muslin and returns them to the central ark or closet already described.
Sometimes in the wat library studious priests are found sitting on the floor, each with his book resting on a low reading-stool or desk before him, but they will probably feign not to notice us. Some high priests have fine private collections, including, of late years, English and French standard works.
Ordinary Siamese books are written on stiff paper prepared with black paste to receive impressions from a stone pencil. These are about a foot broad and several feet long, folded zigzag to form pages about three inches deep. When one side is filled the sheet is turned and the subject continued on the reverse side. Some of these books are fully illustrated with colored plates. The characters are written from right to left, and almost all Siamese composition, except letter-writing, is metrical. Outside of the sacred writings the literature is meagre, consisting mainly of chronicles of their own and neighboring countries, dialogues, low plays and inferior romances—usually war or love adventures borrowed from remote and largely fabulous chronicles of their early history: the favorite topic of all is the mythological exploits of the Hindoo god Rama.
But a Siamese wat is not merely a place of worship; most of all it is a monastery. You
