In Bhavabhuti's drama, Malati and Madhava, the heroine's feet perspire so profusely from excess of longing, that the lacquer of her couch is melted; and one of the stage directions in the same drama is: "Perspiration appears on Madayantika, with other things indicating love.

" They moved about the front rooms, filled with trophies from the deep, a Nantucketer's treasuresbits of pottery from China, weavings from the Indies, lacquers from Japanover all, spicy reminders of far archipelagoes, and the clean fragrance of cedar.

The old lacquer-work is difficult to get, and, when obtained, is high in price; but comparison between the old and the new shows the gulf that lies between the loving and skilful labour of the artist and the stupid and generally "scamped" achievement of him who merely "knocks off" candlesticks and tobacco-boxes by the score, to sell to the English visitorpapier-maché being superseded by wood, and lacquer by paint.

The earliest specimen is a reading desk, presented by the Mikado, with a slope for a book much resembling an ordinary bookrest, but charmingly decorated with lacquer in landscape subjects on the flat surfaces, while the smaller parts are diapered with flowers and quatrefoils in relief of lac and gold.