ther bleed people, nor draw their teeth, these remedies being seldom resorted to in Bengal. The finger and toe nails are cut with an instrument like an engraver's tool; with another instrument wounds are probed, and the barber has his razor, tweezers, comb, a small mirror, a whet-stone, a strap, &c. Many of the barbers peruse books in the colloquial dialects, and a few have even gained a smattering of English and Persian. Some pursue other callings, and are corn-merchants, shop-keepers, servants to native merchants, &c. 8th Class. From a kshǎtriyǎ and a female shoodru sprung the Modŭkus, or confectioners. They make and sell near a hundred different sweetmeats, principally composed of sugar, molasses, flower, and spices. Except the cocoa-nut, they never use fruit in sweetmeats. The Bengalees, if their circumstances admit of such an indulgence, eat large quantities of sweetmeats every day, and give them to their children to the injury of their health. At weddings, shraddhus, and at almost every religious ceremony, sweetmeats are eaten in large quantities: the master of a feast is praised, in proportion to the quantity of sweetmeats offered to the image. If a marketplace contain a hundred shops, twelve or fifteen of them will belong to confectioners. These sweet things, however, are not very delicate, if compared with those made in Europe. Some persons of this cast are farmers, merchants, servants, &c. A degree of wealth is acquired by a few, and many are able to read the popular tales and poems in Bengalee. 9th Class. From a shoodrů and a female kshatriyă arose the Koombhukarus, or potters, who make a considerable variety of earthen ware, plaister houses with clay, also make bricks, tiles, spouts, balustrades, and those images, which, after having been worshipped certain days, are thrown into the rivers or pools; as well as a number of playthings, as birds, horses, gods, coaches, and elephants, which are painted or gilt. Bricks, which are also made by other casts, are sold at one roopee twelve anas, or two roopees, the thousand; but they are not so good as those made in England. The brick-kilns assume a pyramidical form; a moderate kiln contains about two hundred thousand bricks. The potters also dig wells, and make the round pots with which they are cased, the edges of which lap over each other, and form a solid wall of pots, far more compact than any brick work, and descending, in some instances, one hundred and fifty cubits below the surface of the earth. Each pot is about two inches thick, and a foot deep. Many articles made by the Hindoo potters resemble the coarse earthen ware used by the poor in England. They do not glaze their common pots; nor have they any thing like porcelain, or the white jugs or basons of England; all their wares being made of brown clay, to which they give a lighter or darker colour in baking. The potter sells his wares in the market, scarcely ever at his own house. A few of the potters are men of some property; and many can read the popular stories in Bengalee. 10th Class. From a shoodrŭ and a female kshůtriyŭ arose the Tatees, or weavers, the six divisions of whom have no intercourse so as to visit or intermarry with each other. These shoodrus are numerous in Bengal, yet, except in their own business, they are said to be very ignorant. Their loom is in substance the same as the English, though much more simple and imperfect. They lay the frame almost on the ground, and sitting with their feet hanging down in a hole cut in the earth, they carry on their work. Women of all casts prepare the cotton-thread for the weaver, spinning the thread on a piece of wire, or a very thin rod of polished iron, with a ball of clay at one end; this they turn round with the left hand, and supply the cotton with the right. The thread is then wound upon a stick, or pole, and sold to the merchants or weavers. For the coarser thread, the women make use of a wheel very similar to that of the English spinster, though upon a smaller construction. The mother of a family, in some instances, will procure as much as from seven to ten shillings a month by spinning cotton. • The Bengalees have no pumps, and consequently procure their drinking water almost wholly from pools or rivers; few wells produce good water. The coarse cloths worn by the natives are made in almost every village; the better sorts, in the neighbourhood of Shantee-poorů, Goorůpů, Huree-palŭ, Vŭrahŭnŭgürü, Chündrů-kona, Dhaka, Rajbŭl-hatŭ, Krishnü-dévů-poorů, Kshēërůpaee, Radha-nügürů, Bélükoochee, and Hérélů. The Hon. Company have factories at Shantee-poorů, Pérooa, Dwarǎhata, Ksheerůpaee, Radha-nugărů, Ghatalü, Dhaka, Maldů, Jungee-poorů, Rajŭmůhŭl, Hérélů, Bélu-koochee, Nadeeya, Ramu-poorů, Boyaliya, Sonar-ga, Chundru-kona, and Veerbloomee, where advances are made to the weavers, who, in a given time, produce cloths according to order. At the Dhaka factory, some years ago, cloths to the va▪ lue of eighty lacks of roopees were bought by the Company in one year.* At Shanteepooră, I am informed, the purchases, in some years, amount to twelve or fifteen lacks; at Maldă to nearly the same sum, and at other places to six or twelve lacks. I give these amounts from bare report. Bengalee merchants have numerous cloth factories in different parts of the country; and some employ annually 20,000, others 50,000, others a lack, and others two or three lacks, of roopees, in the purchase of cloths. At Shantee-poorŭ and Dhaka, muslins are made which sell at a hundred roopees a piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of manufacture is wonderful. Persons with whom I have conversed on this subject say, that at two places in Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vikrum-poorů, muslins are made by a few families so exceeding ly fine, that four months are required to weave one piece, which sells at four or five hundred roopees. When this muslin is laid on the grass, and the dew has fallen upon it, it is no longer discernible. At Baloochůru, near Moorshůdubad, Bankoora, and other places, silks are made, and sold to the Company and to private merchants. The silk-weavers are, in a great measure, a distinct body from the cloth-weavers. * This fact was mentioned to me by a gentleman in the service, but the exact year I do not remember. Blankets are made in Bengal, and sold at a roopee each; but they are very coarse and thin. Indeed, the wool, or rather hair, which grows on the Bengal sheep, is so short and coarse, that a warm garment can scarcely be manufactured from it. A thick cloth, called tusură, is made from the web of the gootee insect in the district of Verbhoomee, &c. The cloths worn by the natives are called sharee, (women's dresses) yori, dhootee, oorhanee, pagăree, (turban), t'hétee, &c. This last sort is worn by widows alone. It is perfectly white, whereas the cloth worn by married women has always attached to it a border of blue, red, or some other colour. The cloths exported are, three sorts of mulmul, four sorts of niyunŭsookhŭ, tărůmdană, khasa, sŭrvătee, gără, patnaee, bhagŭlpooree, dhakaee, jamdană, dwooriya, charkhana, roomălů, vandipota, palŭngposhi, kshŭrůvětee, long cloth, doosoutee, téhata, boolboolchisma, chit, ghadéya, banarůsee, bootidară, soophŭrphénee, tarătorů, kalagila, ksheerŭshukrů, karadharee, kootnee, shooshee, dimity, bafta, &c. Cotton piece goods, says the author of Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal, are the staple manufacture of India. The various sorts, fabricated in different provinces, from the north of Hindoost'hand to the southern extremity of the peninsula, are too numerous for an ample description of them in this place. A rapid sketch must here suffice. It will serve to convey some notion of the various manufactures distributed through the districts of Bengal and the adjacent provinces: Plain muslins, distinguished by various names according to the fineness and to the closeness of their texture, as well as flowered, striped, or chequered muslins, denominated from their patterns, are fabricated chiefly in the province of Dhaka. The manufacture of the finest sorts of thin muslin is almost confined to that province: other kinds, wove more closely, are fabricated on the western side of the Delta of the Ganges; and a different sort, distinguished by a more rigid texture, does not seem to be limited to particular districts. Coarse muslins, in the shape of turbans, handkerchiefs, &c. are made in almost every province; and the northern parts of Benares afford both plain and flowered muslins, which are not ill adapted to common uses, though incapable of sustaining any competition with the beautiful and inimitable fabrics of Dhaka. Under the general appellation of calicoes, are included various sorts of cloth, to which no English names have been affixed. They are for the most part known in Europe by their Indian denominations. Khasas are fabricated in that part of Bengal which is situated north of the Ganges, between the Muhanŭnda and Ichamitee rivers. Cloths, nearly similar in quality, and bearing the same name, are made near Tanda, in the vizir's dominions. Baftas are manufactured in the southwest corner of Bengal, near Lukshmee-poorů; and again, on the western frontier of Benares, in the neighbourhood of Allahabad; and also in the province of Véhar and in some other districts. Sanas are the chief fabric of Orissa; some are made in the districts of Médinee-pooră; more are imported from the contiguous dominions of the Marhattas. A similar cloth, under the same denomination, is wrought in the eastern parts of the province of Benares. Garhas are the manufacture of Veerbhoomee; still coarser cloths, denominated gezis and gezinas, are wove in almost every district, but especially in the Dooab. Other sorts of cloth, the names of which would be less familiar to an English reader, are found in various districts. It would be superfluous to complete the enumeration. Packthread is wove into sackcloth in many places; and, especially, on the northern frontier of Bengal proper; it is there employed as cloathing, by the mountaineers. A sort of canvas is made from cotton in the neighbourhood of Patna and of Chatiga; and flannel well wove but ill fulled, is wrought at Patna and some other places. Blankets are made every where for common use. A coarse cotton cloth, dyed red with cheap materials, is very generally used: it is chiefly manufactured in the middle of the Dooab. Other sorts, dyed of various colours, but especially blue, are prepared for inland commerce, and for exportation by sea. Both fine and coarse calicoes receive a topical dying, with permanent and with fugitive colours, for common use, as well as for exportation. The province of Benares, the city of Patna, and the neighbourhood of Calcutta, are the principal seats of this manufacture; concerning which we cannot omit to remark, that the making of chintz appears to be an original art in India, long since invented, and brought to so great a pitch of excellency, that the ingenuity of artists in Europe has hitherto added little improvement, but in the supe |