75 
as a manufacturing centre ; large numbers of bangles 
have been produced there of late years. So far, however, 
its trade is a low-grade one dealing chiefly with the poor 
quality sub-fossil shells shipped annually in great quan- 
tities from Jaffna in the north of Ceylon. These cheap 
shells are utilized in the production of the commonest 
grades of bangles. With a few exceptions the patterns 
followed are crude, the wor kmanship rough and without 
regard to finish, deficiencies matched by the bad taste 
and wretched execution characteri izing the lacquered 
colouration when present. 
Nadia is a third centre where chank shells are largely 
cut up both for conversion locally into bangles and for 
distribution to bangle-workers in other centres. Other 
bangle-factories are situated in the districts of Sylhet in 
Assam, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Pabna, Rungpur, 
Dinajpur, Murshedabad, Jessore, Kulna, Burdw an, Ban- 
kura and Balasore, showing a wide-spread distribution 
throughout Bengal. Many factory groups are however 
of small numerical importance, often consisting of no 
more than three or four families. 
My experience generally has been that the chank- 
worker's hamlets are situated as a rule in outlying villa- 
ges served by the worst possible of roads. Haragash i in 
the Rangpur district is a typical instance. This large 
village, a long straggling collection of hamlets covering 
a considerable ar ea, jies about eleven miles outside of the 
district town of Rangpur. The special hamlet inhabited 
by the bangle-workers is known in consequence as 
Shakhari Para ; out of a total of about 90 workpeople, 
some 70 are Vaisya Shakharis, the remainder being 
Muhammadans. There are four principal employers of 
labour ; of these three have intimate business relations 
with Dacca houses importing therefrom all the bangle- 
sections they require; the fourth employer obtains “his 
requirements from Murshedabad and Nadia where he is 
said to have factories for the sawing of the shells into 
working circlets. No sectioning of shells is done in 
Haragash, where work is confined to rubbing down the 
rough sawn sections to the required degree and to 
incising standard patterns with the aid of files and small 
handsaws. Distribution of the finished products is made 
