STERCULIA 



FCETIDA 



STEATITE OR TALC 



Bajputana. 

 Agra Carving. 



Burma. 



Uses. 



Paper-weights. 

 Idols. 



White Ink. 



Chunam. 



Pencils. 



Gas-burners. 

 Crucibles. 

 Preservation of 

 Sandstone. 



them." " The business is carried on for eight months of the year, of which half 

 the period is given to extracting and dressing the stone for work and the other half 

 is spent in making cups in the ' jantar.' " The outturn in 1900 was 82 tons. 



Rajputuna and Central India. The stone occurs in the Jaipur State of Raj- 

 putana, at the villages of Mora, Raiwala and Gisgarh. The mineral at Mora is 

 pale green and finely crystalline, and is largely used at Agra for manufacturing 

 elaborately carved ornamental articles. The mineral also occurs in the Bandel- 

 khand States of the Central India Agency, as, for example, at Orcha and Bijawar. 

 The outturn in Central India in 1900 is said to have been 68 tons. 



Burma. There are mines in the Prome, Pakokku, Katha, Bhamo, Kyaukpyu 

 and Minbu districts. The Minbu quarries and those in Kyaukpyu district are all 

 in a group on the borders of Arakan and Upper Burma. In 1896 those of Minbu 

 were reported on by Hayden, according to whom there are two chief localities 

 where steatite is worked ( 1 ) some 30 miles west of the village of Hpaaing, and 

 (2) near the village of Senlan in Ngap6 township. The total number of mines in 

 the first locality amounts to about 26, but only 4 were being worked at the time 

 of Hayden's visit in 1896. In the second locality, according to the same writer, 

 there are 9 pits in all, but only a few yielded sufficient steatite to be worth working. 

 In 1900 the outturn of steatite in Burma is reported to have been 51 tons, valued 

 at Rs. 10,131. [Cf. Rept. Dist. Prod, in Burma, Rev. Dept., Sept. 1888, No. 

 154-27 M ; Rec. Geol. Surv. 2nd., 1897, xxx., pt. 1., 6 ; Scott, Gaz. Upper Burma 

 and Shan States, 1901, ii., pt. 1, 305.] 



Uses. There is a large demand for steatite in India, chiefly for the 

 manufacture of bowls, plates, cups, fancy boxes, etc. Many ornamental 

 articles, such as paper-weights, pen-holders, etc., are also made of it. It 

 is largely used in the manufacture of idols, and a special form found at 

 Mysore has, owing to its suitability for this purpose, received the name of 

 pratima Jcaller, or image stone. Many temples and palaces also contain 

 ornamentations of sculptured steatite. Ground to powder it is commonly 

 employed as a white ink, or is added to plaster (e.g. the chunam or lime- 

 plaster of Hyderabad) to make it shine (see p. 714). In Burma, pencils 

 are made of it and used for writing on black-paper slates. In Madras Pre- 

 sidency, Cuddapah soapstone is largely used for polishing chunam walls. 

 Out of India it has come into prominence through the property it possesses 

 as a pigment of protecting steel against corrosion. Mixed with a quick- 

 drying varnish, it produced a paint of great covering capacity and firm- 

 ness. Owing to its refractory nature, it is largely employed in the manu- 

 facture of gas-burners and crucibles. It is reputed to be almost unaffected 

 by atmospheric agencies, and in China is commonly used to preserve 

 structures built of sandstone or other substance liable to disintegrate. 



[Cf. Milburn, Or. Comm., 1833, ii., 276 ; Keene, Stone Indust. of Agra, 1873, 

 17 ; Mukharji, Art Manuf. of Ind., 1888, 50, 262-3 ; Watt, Rev. Min. Prod. Ind., 

 1893, 97 ; Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir, 1895, 65 ; Rept. Dept. Land Rec. and 

 Agri. Mad., 1897-8, 3-4; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. Chem., 1900, iii., 600-1 ; Journ. 

 Soc. Chem. Indust., 1898, xvii., 64 ; 1900, xix., 1026; 1901, xx., 133 ; Imp. Inst. 

 Tech. Repts., 1903, 45-7 ; Watt, Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903, 70-2, etc.] 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iii., 

 360-6. 



Oil. 

 Medicine. 



STERCULIA, Linn. ; Fl Br.Ind., i., 354-62 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. 

 Timbs., 93-7 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 79-85 ; STERCULIACE^. A 

 genus containing about 21 species, extensively met with in Eastern Bengal 

 and Assam. 



S. foetida, Linn. A large tree known as the jangli-badam, pun, pindri, gurapu- 

 badam, letkop, etc. It occurs on the west coast of India, in Martaban and Upper 

 Tenasserim in Burma ; often cultivated. Is remarkable for the disagreeable odour 

 of its flowers, which appear in March. It exudes a gum resembling tragacanth, 

 and an OIL is extracted from the seeds by boiling in water. Flowers and leaves 

 are used MEDICINALLY, and in times of scarcity the seeds are roasted and eaten. 

 [Cf. Andes, Veg. Fats and Oils, 1897, 169, 218 ; Woodrow, Gard. in Ind., 1903, 

 188 ; Cunningham, Plagues and Pleasures of Life in Beng., 1907, 335.] 



1050 



