Untitled

HOW THE JAPANESE MAKE CHINESE INK. 91
making," said the man, drawing aside a paper door.
follow me."
"
Please
The party entered a large, barn-like apartment, on the floor
of which a score of men, women, boys and girls were seated,
stirring black-looking paste in large copper bowls set in hot
water-baths.
"Jemmy! " cried Fitz.
:? What a peculiar odor."
"That comes from the ox-skin glue," said Maru-naka.
" We make our ink from the very best sesamum-oil lampblack.
This we mix with liquid glue in these hot water-baths
and stir the mass until a stick will stand upright in it. We
perfume the very expensive
kinds with musk and Chinese
scents, and sometimes add carthamine (safflower dye) to it.
You will observe that as soon as the mass is thick enough, it is
scraped out of the bowls, placed
in tubs and sent into the next
department."
"My goodness! how black everybody is!" ejaculated
Sallie.
: