Major Burney on the Lacquered-Ware of Ava. 445 
the bottom, where it is fixed to the form while weaving, was filled up with 
a little of the “ saw-dust tha-yo.” The whole, inside and outside, was then 
covered over with a paste made of theet-tsee, bone-ashes, and saw-dust, three 
parts of bone-ashes to one of saw-dust. The workmen called this the tha-yo- 
gyan, or coarse tha-yo, declaring that for this first coat of priming this 
mixture of the two was best, as adhering most closely to the bamboo 
basket-work. It was applied with the fingers. 
At the end of three or four more days, the rim of the cup was cut still 
more even, and the cup was fastened to a lathe called ¢set-khown,® and the 
inside was ground perfectly smooth and even, in the manner that will shortly 
be described. A coat of ayo-tha-yo, “ bone-ashes tha-yo,”’ or tha-yo-akhyau, 
“« fine tha-yo,” was then put on with the hand in the inside, and laid smooth 
with the finger which was occasionally dipped in water. At the lathe, the 
left hand is employed on the cup, whilst the machine is turned to and from 
the workman with the right hand, by means of a long stick tied to a leathern 
string that has two turns around the lathe. Forms or chucks of the size 
required are fixed to the spindle of the lathe, with little pieces of bamboo ; 
and when the outside of the cup is to be turned, the cup is fitted to these 
chucks, which enter about an inch and a-half within it. But when the 
inside of the cup is to be turned, a cylinder of coarse basket-work open at 
both ends, called fsee, is fixed to the chuck, and within this cylinder the 
whole of the cup is lodged, and fastened, if necessary, with little slips of 
bamboo at the sides. To make the coat of coarse tha-yo perfectly smooth 
and even, the cup is smeared over with alittle water and a kind of red earth, 
and then turned against a piece of pumice stone, and occasionally moistened 
with more water. The cup was placed in the sun to become perfectly dry 
before the fine ¢ha-yo was put on. The large boxes (16 and 17) with high 
tops are fastened to a different kind of lathe; the upper end is either 
inserted into one side of the lathe, or fitted on a pin there, and to the bot- 
tom is fixed a piece of wood, which revolves around another piece fastened 
to the other side of the lathe: the two sides of the lathe may be made to 
approach or recede, as required to hold the ware between them: the string 
is put round the box, and the left hand usually moves the stick, whilst the 
right holds the pumice-stone, &c. Usually one coat only of ¢ha-yo is put on 
the wood-work of these boxes, but they are rubbed smooth, and even ¢hree 
times, with the different kinds of stone: once after the tha-yo, once after 
the first coat of varnish, and the last time after a second coat of the varnish. 
3M2 
