Put a quantity of the fresh and finest leaves of the peepul into a pan, containing two or three quarts of water. Leave the pan in some distant part of the garden until the water wastes away, and the green of the leaves is corrupt. In ten days’ time take up a leaf, and if the green comes off, leaving the fibres perfect, it is time to remove the leaves; but if any of the green still adhere, replace the leaf, and let the whole remain in the dirty water for another ten days; after which take them out, wash them with pure water, and with a soft toothbrush gently brush off any part of the green that may still adhere to the fibres. Leave them in clean water for some days, and brush them daily, very gently, separately, and carefully, until the skeleton is quite perfect. If not of a good colour bleach them by exposure to the sun, and pour water over them now and then during the exposure.
No. XX.—To copy drawings with talk—i.e. talc.—[Vol. i. p. 219.]
First make your lampblack in this manner: Put a cotton wick into an earthen saucer, such as are put under flower-pots, put common oil into the saucer, light the wick, and place over it another earthen saucer, so that the flame may blacken it; in a few hours a quantity of lampblack will collect on the upper saucer, which is of the very best sort. Mix a little of this lampblack with fine linseed oil, dip your pen into it, and trace on the talk with it, having first put your talk over the drawing you wish to copy. When you take off the talk, if you put white paper beneath it, you will see if any part require to be darkened: touch the distances lightly, and the foregrounds strongly. Be careful not to put too much oil with the lampblack, or it will run, and spoil the drawing. Having finished your tracing, damp a piece of China paper with a sponge, put it on the talk while it is very damp, take care not to stir it, put another piece of paper over it, and pass your hand steadily over all, when the impression will come off good and clear. Patterns for work may be copied in this manner: of course every thing is reversed. Ivory black will not answer.
No. XXI.—To take off the impression from leaves and flowers.—[Vol. i. p. 219.]
Make your lampblack as above directed. Make two balls, about the size of your fist, with wool and wash-leather; put a bit of stick into the centre of each, to serve as a handle, and tie the leather tight upon it; flatten it to the shape of a printer’s ball; the top of a white leather long glove will do, or chamois leather. With a spatula mix some lampblack with a little linseed oil, put it on the balls, rub both balls together until it is all smooth and even, put a freshly-gathered leaf between the balls, pat the leaf on both sides, put it between two sheets of paper, rub your finger carefully over the leaf; take up the paper, and you will have two beautiful impressions. Stalks and flowers may be done in the same way, and corrected with a pen and some of the oil and lampblack. The Chinese books sold in the burā bazār, Calcutta, are excellent for this purpose.
No. XXII.—To arrange a turban.—[Vol. i. p. 234.]
The turban should be of fine India muslin, twenty-one yards in length, by fourteen inches and a half in breadth. Take one end, put it over your head, allowing a quarter of a yard to hang down your back; twist the muslin in front of your forehead, so that it may form a sort of skull cap on the top of your head; after which, begin to bind the turban round your head, and go on, until, in fanciful bands, you have used up the whole. Take the little end hanging down your back, turn it up, and stick it under one of the folds. This turban, when properly put on, is not at all large. Should it not set out enough, you must first bind a smaller and coarser turban around your head, and put the fine one over it. A Benares gold turban, or a Bengal muslin, spotted in gold, should be worn over a turban of this sort; they are too flimsy to set properly of their own accord. A long fine Cashmere shawl forms into a beautiful turban.
Another method.—Turbans are more generally put on in this manner than in the preceding: Take the middle of the cloth, put it over the front of the head, and pass the two ends behind. Take one end, and pass it round and round your head until it is all used up; after which take the other end, and pass it round in some different fashion; when you have used it all up it ought to set properly.
Almost all turbans are thus put on, with the exception of stiff turbans, which are made over a bamboo frame; they are formal, and want the graceful and fanciful ease of a turban formed of a strip of muslin hastily thrown around the head.
Some are formed on a light wicker frame; others, made up by regular turban makers in the bazār, are formed on blocks, and the muslin is plaited and put on in a very exact and regular style. Some turbans appear as if formed of coloured rope, so tightly do they twist the muslin into a cord ere it is wound round the head.