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viii never ruled or folded, the veins of the leaf serving the purpose of ruling. A square space is usually left blank in the middle of the page, and in the centre of it a round hole is punched for a string to pass through, for the purpose of tying the codex in a bundle. Very long MSS. have two such spaces and holes. The Tantras enjoin that the holes should always be punched, never cut with a knife, or produced by burning. The reason for this rule is obvious, as cutting or burning produces a hole with jagged sides which are very apt to catch the string and cause a split in the leaf. A clean-punched hole allows the string to slide freely, and produces no injury. In Bengal some very old paper codices have the square blank space in the middle, but none has any hole bored in it. In the North Western Provinces the blank space does not occur, and both in Bengal and the North West the leaves are piled in a bundle between two boards, and then tied round in a piece of coarse cloth. Where the codices are small, with a view to economy, several of them are usually tied in one bundle, and this causes much trouble in finding out any particular work when needed. For boards the spatha of the betel-nut tree, which yields a thick, coreaceous, pliant substance, is often substituted in the eastern districts, and they are found to be very useful, as they are not liable to warp, crack, or be attacked by insects. Mode of preserving MSS.-15. In the houses of rich men a dry masonry room is generally assigned to MSS. where a sufficient number of shelves or chests are provided for the storage of the codices, But care is not always taken to open the bundles every now and then, and to expose them to the sun for a few hours. In pukka monasteries, the same mode of preservation is also adopted, and there being always some monk or other who can read, and who takes a delight in reading, the bundles are more frequently opened, aired and dried. The Jains are very particular in this respect, and in their monasteries great care is usually taken of their literary treasures. The case is, however, very different as regards the Toles of Bengal. The men who own them are, with rare exceptions, very. poor; they live in low, damp, thatched huts of the meanest description; they have no means of buying proper cabinets for their manuscripts; and their time is so occupied by their professorial duties, and frequent perigrinations to distant places for earning the means of their livelihood, that they cannot often look after their books. The receptacle they usually assign to their MSS. is a bamboo frame placed across the beams of their huts, exposed constantly to the damp emanating from the daily-washed