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xvi
INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[CHAPTER I
to have been in more or less good order, each manuscript being tied up, in the ordinary fashion of an Indian pôthi, between two wooden boards (see No. 1, also No. vii). The condition, in which probably they were found, may be seen from the photographs (Figs. 6 and 7, pp. xvii and xviii) of a manuscript, which was found by Dr. A. von Le Coq in a grotto of the Ming-oi of Qizil. As a matter of fact, among the Macartney Manuscripts both boards of a manuscript. were still preserved, though the manuscript itself was defective. Also the bundle of Weber manuscripts contained two single boards of different sizes, belonging to two different manuscripts, which manuscripts themselves were defective both in the size and number of their leaves. 41 It is probable that at the time these two manuscripts were found, they as well as their boards were in good order, and that they got into their present defective condition during their sojourn in the house of the Qârf. Similarly the Bower manuscript was found enclosed between two wooden boards (see Chapter II). Again, according to the native tradition reported to M. Pelliot (No. x), the dimension of the manuscripts was about 114 by 4 inches (0'30 sur 010 metre). As a matter of fact, the Weber and Macartney Manuscripts, in their original condition, measured roughly from 51 to 104 inches in length, and from 24 to 44 inches in breadth. This is as near to the traditional statement as, in the circumstances of the case, we can reasonably expect it to be.
1 Soe the description in the Journal, Asiatic Society of Beng. Vol. LXII (1893), Part 2, pp. 2, 5, 9, 32, and Vol. LXX (1901), Extra Number, Pp 8, 16
Soe ibidem Vol. LXII, pp. 9ff., Nos, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9; also Vol. LXX, p. 18, No. 7.
