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it in various directions. After this had been dried for some time in the sun, the wax was liquified by putting the form in a place sufficiently heated, and discharged through the hole, by which the melted metal is poured in to occupy its place. It is scarcely necessary to say, that when the metal is sufficiently cooled the form is broken, and the vessel found of the desired shape.

Colouring the ware with the standing black, for which they are celebrated, is the next, and in my opinion the most remarkable operation. It consists in taking equal parts of muriate of ammonia and saltpetre earth, such as is found at the bottom of old mud walls in old and populous villages in India, mixing them together with water, and rubbing the paste which is thus produced on the vessel, which has been previously scraped with a knife. The change of colour is almost instantaneous, and, what is surprising to me, lasting.

The saltpetre earth of this place has, when dry, a reddish colour, like the soil about Biddery. It is very likely that the carbonate, or oxide of iron, which it contains, is essentially necessary for the production of the black colour. The muriate and nitrate of lime, which is in considerable proportion in all earth from which saltpetre is manufactured in India, may be perhaps not an useless ingredient in this respect.

The hooka-bottoms of this ware happen sometimes to get tarnished, acquiring a brownish, or shillering colour, which is easily removed, and the black restored, by rubbing

the whole surface with a little oil or butter.

As nothing looks handsome in the eyes of an Indian, but what is glittering with gold or silver, it may be imagined that their hooka and betel dishes, which are chiefly used on festive occasions, are not left destitute of these ornaments; they are chiefly decorated with silver, in the form of festoons, fanciful flowers, and leaves. Sometimes I have seen a little gold interspersed.

The way of inlaying them is very simple; but of course as tedious as can well be imagined, and could be only practised where time is of little value. The parts of the projected figure are first cut out in silver leaf, which are placed in a piece of broken earthenware before the artist, who cuts with à pointed instrument the same figure on the vessel, applies the silver leaf, piece after piece, and gently hammers it into its place.

The greatest skill consists in tracing the pieces of the figure on the vessel exactly of the same size as they are in the silver leaf, and in this I have never seen them mistaken.

They do their work very expeditiously, and will make any figure on copper with the greatest nicety, according to the sample which is laid before them.

Note. Mr. Wilkins informed Dr. Heyne that the Biddery ware is likewise manufactured in Benares, and he thinks that zinc is used as an alloy in that part of India. I examined a piece of a metal statue, which Mr. Wilkins considered as Biddery ware: it was zinc alloyed with a very little copper.

USE

USE OF THE COCOA-NUT TREE.

(From the same.)

A cocoa-nut planted in the sandy shore of Ceylon, shews its first shoots above the ground after about three months, and at the end of six is fit for transplantation. No particular care is necessary to rear it; planted in a barren soil, and fanned by the bleak winds of the ocean, it seems to gain strength from neglect, and fecundity from exposure: notwithstanding these apparent disadvantages, its hardihood surmounts every obstacle, and at the end of six years it begins to bear fruit -and from that period becomes a valuable source of wealth to the While it continues possessor. young, the fruit, or interior of the nut, affords a palatable and nutritive food to the native. The watery liquid within, which we term milk, is a beverage equally pleasant and cooling, and is as agreeable to the palate as invigorating to the body. The juice of the cocoa-nut when mixed with chunam serves to strengthen it, and to increase its adhesive qualities. When older, the cocoa-nut, as it is well known, is used in making curry, and without it, the Cingalese would find himself at a loss for one of the principal ingredients of this his simple, but constant and only food. The nut grown older still, when pressed, yields that oil, which affords almost the only sort of light used in Ceylon; and the nut itself, after the juice is pressed out, is converted into flour, and forms the

chief food of the poultry and other domestic animals.

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When the tree has grown to a considerable height, one of the sprouts, which forms what is called the flour, is cut off nearly at its base, leaving, however, stump sufficiently long for a Chatty (or earthen vessel) to be attached to it, into which the juices of the tree drop and form the liquor called toddy, which is not only a pleasant beverage in its primary state, but is used in making jaggery (coarse sugar) vinegar and arrack, which, after cinnamon, is the chief article of merchandize in this island.

The inside or soft part of the tree is used for fuel, while the more solid external part is converted into rafters, and the natural net work which surrounds the base of the branches, forms sieves for straining medicinal oils, &c.-The boughs which support the fruit are used as brooms, as well as the husk of the shell, which is sometimes converted into brushes for whitewashing, &c.; the shell itself makes fuel, and the fibres of the husk which encloses it, form coir, another most valuable article of exportation.

The cabbage is fit for almost every culinary purpose, but particularly for pickling; the root is useful in medicine, and the natives occasionally mix it with betel for chewing. The branches of the tree the natives weave into hedges, and sometimes burn for fuel. The ola or leaf is put to a great variety of uses; there are few natives who dwell under any other covering than that which an ola hut affords,

and

and most of our Indian readers have witnessed the celerity with which a comfortable bungalo is constructed of the cocoa-nut leaf, even in the most remote districts, on the approach of an European traveller. A cocoa-nut tree planted on the sea-shore, or on low grounds, grows to the height of

from sixty to ninety feet, and lives about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty years, while those in a hilly country live about one hundred and fifty, and do not reach so great a height; these latter do not produce fruit so soon after their being planted as the former.

MISCELLANIES.

MISCELLANIES.

DEATH OF A PARSEE AT BOMBAY. perfect reliance on the wisdom

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(From the Asiatic Journal.) E have copied the following from the Bombay Courier. The deceased was, we learn, a man of the greatest opulence and influence among the native subjects of the British government at Bombay. On the 21st instant, at halfpast two o'clock in the morning, Pestonjee Bomanjee, the wellknown and very respectable Parsee merchant, paid the great debt of nature, after having just completed his fifty-eighth year.

He had, for some time, lingered under a very painful and depressing illness, which he bore with great fortitude, cheering his family and friends with the hopes of his recovery to the last. A few hours, however, before his dissolution, he became sensible of the near approach of death; and, in the full possession of his faculties, prepared his surrounding relatives for the awful separation that was about to take place, with a composure and resignation worthy of the most enlightened philosophy, exalted and refined by the most VOL. LIX.

and goodness of God.

He addressed them with great affection, and with all that strength, clearness, and precision of language, for which he was held in so much estimation through life. He told them that he felt his hour was come, and that as such was the will of the high Providence that watched over them, he submitted himself to his gracious dispensations. That death was the last tribute to be paid in this world

the universal lot of human nature -and that it must be paid sooner or later, when God determined the time, it is therefore the duty of man to submit without further. struggle, and to prepare himself for an event which he cannot delay. That as he felt all hopes of recovery were vain, he gave up, as far as man can be supposed to do, the very wish to live; and conjured his friends to imitate him in that resignation which was now his greatest comfort. He desired them to look back on the part he had so long played in life; that if they were satisfied he had conducted himself well, his memory would remain to them as a conso2 P

lation

lation after he was gone, and that instead of lamenting, they ought rather to give thanks to the Almighty for the prosperity with which he had been crowned, and for the powerful friends by whom he and they were supported both in India and in England. That the same line of conduct which first obtained those blessings, would preserve them; and that he had nothing left to wish for in this world, but a long continuance of that prosperity, which God had been pleased to shew his family, before he took him to himself.

Such was the piety, such the resignation, and such the dignified morality of this dying believer in the religion of Zoroaster. His loss has not been confined to his family and friends; it is felt by the natives of every description. His wealth and his knowledge gave him great power; and he was liberal of both without ostentation. From the earliest period of his life he was trained up in mercantile pursuits; and, of all the Asiatics we have ever known, he was eminently the best acquainted with our language, our customs, and our laws. This enabled him to adjust many disputes among the rich, which might have involved them in ruin; and to relieve many of the poor from that pride of oppression, which is so generally connected with the arístocracy of mere wealth. As the representative of successful industry, wealth indeed cannot be too much respected; but how many accomplishments and how many virtues are required, to refine it into that respectability, which can only result from a

proper use of the power which it bestows.

He was possessed of a very noble figure, an admirable address, and a copious flow of language. No man could possibly present himself in a more dignified or prepossessing manner; and the impression he made from such natural advantages, was uniformly supported by the resources of a sound judgment, and a great variety and extent of information.

From the time his fortune first enabled him to lay out money on building, even to his last illness, he continued to beautify the town and island of Bombay, with houses and gardens; and he inay be truly said to have created that taste for an ornamental disposure of their wealth, by which the natives of this country have contributed so much to the comforts of the European population. The gentlemen who have inhabited his numerous and stately houses, will bear ample testimony to the liberality with which he uniformly met their wishes, and adopted their suggestions of improvement, or even alteration; and the greater part of a very considerable fortune is actually vested in this manner.

The day before his death, we understand, he made and published his last will and testament, in which he displayed his usual good sense; and left his affairs in the most orderly arrangement. He adopted his eldest grandson, Dadabhoy, as his own son, according to the custom of his nation, but left his very handsome fortune to be enjoyed equally by both his grandsons, the children of a beloved daughter, whose early loss

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