Show LETTERS rn in external appearance and i construction of expressions a hindmo letter is worthy of notice it is written on a palm leaf with an iron iron stile four to six inches long sharp pointed at the end in writing neither chair nor table is needed the leaf being supported on the middle finger of the left hand and kept steady with the thumb and forefinger fore fingar the right hand does not as with us move along the surface but after finishing a few words the writer fixes the point of the iron in the last letter and pushes the leaf from tight right to left so that he may finish his line this becomes so easy from long practice that one often sees a hindmo writing as he walks the street As this species of penmanship is but a kind of faint engraving the strokes of which are indistinct they make the character legible by be smearing the leaf with an ink like fluid A letter is generally finished on a single leaf which is then enveloped in a second whereon where onis is written the address in communicating the disease of a relative the custom is to single the point of the leaf upon which the afflicting news is is written when a superior writes to an interior inferior fie ne puts kufs his own name before that of a person to whom i he be writes and the reverse when he writes to a superior |