Note 113 — XIV.

A very abstruse treatise upon the preparation of the Chinese ink is contained in the important labours of the Russian Embassy at Pekin, relating to China, published in German by Dr. Abel and Mecklenburg, Berlin, F. Heinike, 1858, vol. ii. p. 481. The information is borrowed from a small treatise which was written in 1398 by a certain Scheu-zsi-Sun, who had been for thirty years engaged in the fabrication of the India ink. The author therein mentions how, after he had tried every known method, and every substance usually employed, without attaining any result, he at last put them all on one side, mingling only pin-soot with glue together, and diluting this mixture with but hot water, again kneaded it thoroughly, and thus succeeded in getting an ink "black and lustrous as a child's eyes." According to another method, India ink is prepared, besides pin-soot and lime, of a sort of tincture, consisting of the following various pigments,—pomegranate-rind, sandal-wood, sulphate of iron and copper, gamboge, cinnobar, dragon's-blood, gold-leaf, musk, and glair. This tint is said to be remarkable for preventing the glue from getting spoiled by age, or the colour changing, and may be thus kept for any length of time. 1⁄2 lb. of glue and 1⁄4 lb. of this colouring matter are the proportions for one pound of pin-soot. However, only a very small portion of the different materials used seems to possess the power ascribed to them, and many are used out of mere prejudice, and not at all to the advantage of the ink prepared.