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per head ; the usual advance ranges between Rs. 100 to 
Rs. 200. Whenever an exceptional need arises for the 
expenditure of a considerable sum—it may be a marriage 
in the family or the cost of death ceremonies, a further 
advance from the employer is relied upon to meet the 
emergency. The excess beyond a certain sum will be 
gradually liquidated thereafter, leaving a standing ad- 
vance at the debit of the workman which on both sides 
is not expected to be repaid unless the employee decides 
to quit the service of his master, a virtual impossibility 
in the case of such improvident people as these cutters 
are, unless he takes service with another employer who 
is willing to pay up the whole indebtedness and so take 
over the debt as well as the workman. 
Hitherto the Dacca and other shell cutters have 
employed no machine saws. They believe that no 
machinery is capable of cutting the shells without 
damage, basing their belief on the results of an experi- 
ment with some form of machine saw tried some years 
ago. The cutters allege that the impact of the saw 
upon the shell was to cause innumerable small fractures 
which rendered bracelets made from the sections thus 
cut fragile and liable to break much more readily than 
when the sections are cut by means of the hand-saw. 
It is probable that the effect named was produced by 
the machine used, but it does not follow that there 
are no machine saws on the market capable of cutting 
shells without ill effect on their substance. Possibly the 
machine used had a saw carrying teeth too coarse or too 
large in size. I noted asa striking and characteristic 
feature of the hand-saw employed, the extreme minute- 
ness of the teeth along the edge and further that their 
form is dentate not serrate, that is, that the axis of the 
point is vertical and not oblique. This characteristic 
enables the saw to cut equally well whether sawing 
from right to left or conversely. As already noted so 
small and weak are the teeth that to sharpen such a saw 
a series of tapsalong the edge of the blade with a chisel 
set hammerwise in a handle is sufficient for the purpose. 
The further stages in the manufacture of chank 
bangles vary within wide limits, dependent upon the 
market to be served. Some of the processes require no 
great skill and may be carried out by cheaply paid 
