April i, 1886,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



701 



their original country or caste. They believe that 

 they were Mussulmans before the Portuguese maJe 

 them Christians, and though by intermarriage with 

 other Christians thej have lost much of their special 

 appearance, it seems on the whole probable that 

 before they were Mussulmans they were Hindus 

 of the Khutri caste, and of Gujerati origin, .fudging 

 from their appearance, they have a larger strain of 

 European blood than any other Salsette Christians. 

 Thyy sjieak Portuguese at hnme and Marathi out 

 of doors. Their houses are neat, clean, and airy, 

 generally of two storeyes. The looms and the reeling 

 ami sorting gear fill part of the verandah and one 

 end of the front room on the grounil floor, the rest 

 of the room, which is of considerable size, is filled 

 with a round table, chairs, a cot, well-made wooden 

 boxes and cases, and displays a row of colored prints 

 round the wall, almost all religious, of Christ, tho 

 Blessed ^'ir6iu, and Pope. They eat animal food 

 daily, fish, poultry, and mutton, and are regular 

 though not excessive drinkers of palra juice and 

 Diowlia spirits. The men dress in fluropean fashion, 

 and the women in the Maratha robe and either the 

 Hindoo bodice or a European jacket. They are gener- 

 ally neat and clean in their dress, and on high days 

 wear rich ^ilk robes and much jewellery. Besides sort- 

 ing, reeling, and spinning silk, the women of the 

 weavers' families find time to sew their own, their 

 husbanils', and their children's olothe.s. 



The Thana silk weavers keep Sunday as a day of 

 rest. Besides Sundays, the chief holidays are Easter 

 Pay, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Their 

 usual working hours are from seven to eleven, and 

 from one to sunset. They never work by candle or 

 lamp light. They have no trade guild. Boys do not 

 in any way help their parents till they are fifteen 

 years old. They are refined, gentle, and kindly, 

 courteous and frank, seldom gnilty of crime, and 

 fairly frugal. They teach their girls as well as their 

 boys to read and write in the (.Government Anglo- 

 Portuguese School. Their girls remain at sehool till 

 they are thirteen or fourteen years old. Though 

 the competition of cheap machine-made European and 

 hand-woven Chinese silks has gradually driven thoir 

 silks out of the best markets, they have not sunk 

 into poverty, or even fallen to the level of unskilled 

 labourers. The earnings of those who cling to silk 

 weaving are small, but most of them have well-to- 

 do relations, and they are in no way a sutfering or 

 a depressed class. Their education and the nearness 

 of Bombay have helped many of them to better 

 themselves by taking employment as clerks. Several 

 families have settled in Bondjay and prospered, and 

 of those who have remained at Thana, from fifty 

 to a hundred go daily to Bombay by train. 



All the silk woven in Thana is bought raw in 

 Bombay. It is of four kinils— superior (Miinese, Basra 

 (Bussorah), inferior Chinese known as Ahniedabad, 

 because Aiimedabj.d is its best market, an-l Persian. 

 The supeiior Cliini-se is divided into three classes — 

 oval or first, worth about £l' (H20) the pound; 

 doem or second, worth about £1 ISs. (Klil) ; and 

 seom or third, worth XI Icis. (Kl«.) The Basra 

 which is also arranged into first, second, and third 

 quality, is worth from ISs. to £1 (K!) to KIO), 

 and the Ahun^dabad or inferior Chinese and Persian 

 from £1 L's. to £1 (is. (Rll to HIS) the pound. 

 Uhinei.e 'iv<(^ or dona are used tor the warp. Chinese 

 seoni and Basra are used for tho weft of check silks, 

 and Ahmedabad for weaving plain silk waist cloths 

 and robes. The weaver has .sel<lom any stock of 

 made goods. When the head of the family gets an 

 order he goes to Bombay, and in the l',hoivada 

 near Boleshwar, buys from four to twenty pounds 

 of raw silk from a Multau silk dealer. These deal- 

 ers have generally considerable stocks of silk of the 

 four leailint; varieties, some of it from China, and 

 a less quantity from Bengal and Bokhara. Bokhara 

 silk is more costly than Ba-sra or Abmedalia<l silk, 

 and is seldom u,se<l by the Thana weavers. The 

 Ahmed:ibad silk, which comes from (!hina, is gener- 

 ally coarse- and dirty, and is also obtained by the 

 Thaua weavers from the Multan dealers. 



The raw silk is handed to the women of tho weav- 

 er's family who sort, reel, and twist it. It is then dyed 

 by the weaver himself, and the part intended for 

 the warp sent to the Musalman warpers. AVhen 

 the warp is returned, the we:ivor arranges the loom 

 and weaves. When the work is finished he bauds 

 the cloth to the customer from whom the order 

 was received, or, when it was woven on his own 

 account he sells it to local customers who come 

 to his house to buy, or if there is no local demaud 

 he takes it to Bombay. 



Bohoras and Parsis use the checked silks for women's 

 garments. Some of the geometric patterns are much 

 admired by Europeans for dresses, and by T'arsis for 

 troust;rs, and have a small but fairly steady sahi. 

 E.tcept that the demand for Hindu waistcloths is 

 briskest during the marriage season (November-May), 

 the demand for Thana silks is fairly uninform all 

 the year round. 



The Thana silk weavers seldom employ hired labour 

 at their own houses. When they do pay the weaver 

 from 8s. to lOs. (R4 to .5) a piece of fifteen yards 

 long by eighteen inches broad. This represents about 

 twelve days' weaving, or a daily wage of from 7.\d. to 

 Is. (5 annas to 8 annans). The Musalman warper is 

 paid 2s. (Kl) for warping enough for a couple of 

 tanis or one piece or twin of from fifteen to twenty- 

 five yards. 



To sort and reel the silk, a skien is moistened 

 and thrown round the pitant, a rough circular bam- 

 boo cage .about four feet across and two feet deep. 

 In the centre of the cage is a rod aliout two and a 

 half feet long. About tliree inches from each end 

 of this rod, that is about two feet apart, are fastened 

 si.\ spoke-like pieces of narrow bamboo about a foot 

 and a half hmg. The ends of the two sets of spokes 

 are tied togethiT with cords, and tho skein of silk 

 is thrown over the cords. In reeling and sorting 

 the worker, who is generally a woman or a girl, sits 

 to the left by one side of the cage on a stool. (.)n 

 the ground by her right side lie one or two reels 

 with long handles and points. She sets the bottom 

 of the central rod of the oage in a porcelain cup 

 or in a smooth coconut shell, picks out tho end of 

 the hank, ties it to one of the reels and lays the 

 reel at her right side, the handle lying on the stool 

 and the point balanced between the great toe and 

 the second toe of her right foot. She spins the cage 

 bj' whirling the top of its central rod by her left 

 hand, and as the silk is set free, winds it on the reel 

 by giving the handle of the reel a slmrp rolling 

 motion with her right hand and lettini; the point 

 whirl between her toes. As the silk winds it passes 

 across her left leg just above the knee. A baud 

 of cloth is tied to the knee, and as the fibre 

 passes over the band, the sorter is said to 

 he able to tell by the feel when the quality of silk 

 changes. t)nc hank of silk generally contains two 

 or three qualities of silk. Each quality is wound ou a 

 separate reel. A\'hen the quality changes, tho sorter 

 breaks the fibre, and picking up a fresh reel or the 

 reels to which ttie m?w quality belongs, joins the 

 ends with her tongue, and goes on rei-ling till another 

 change in quality takes place. After it is sorted. 

 with the help of a small wheel or roda, the silk i:> 

 doubled by winding fibres from two reels on to a 

 bobbin or thah: of hollow reed about the size of a 

 cig.irrettf'. These bobbins are next arranged on the 

 frame of the rahat or throwing machine. The throwing 

 machine or rahal is in three parts. In the centre is the 

 bobbin-framo or mcka with a central and two side 

 uprights; about two feet behind the bobbin-trauie is 

 the great wheel or ipaii'l-ruda, about two and a half 

 feet in diameter and with a broad hollow rim ; 

 and about three feet in front of tho bobbin-fi.iuie 

 stands an upright conical reel or snkumha about twenty- 

 six inches high and eight inches in diameter. The 

 central or bobbii:-frame consists of a divided central 

 upright and two side uprights, whose outer edges are 

 cut into a row of eight notches. At right angles 

 with the central upright, that is, parallel with tho 

 ground, a set of eight hohbin-holders arc fastened 

 abont two inches apart. These bobbiu-holdera are 



