I9I5] 



I. H. Evans: Malay Filigree Work. 



27 



roughly hammered out into a wire of considerable thickness 

 and an end is passed through one of the largest holes in the 

 iron plate mentioned above; the wire is then pulled through 

 with the aid of a pair of pincers. All the holes on one side of 

 the plate have their mouths enlarged into cup-shaped depres- 

 sions of various sizes. A little cocoanut oil is put into the 

 depression with a feather before the wire is drawn through the 

 hole, and as the wire is threaded in from the side on which the de- 

 pressions are, any gold which may be stripped off in the process 

 of drawing is left behind in the cup and adheres by reason of the 

 oil. The drawing process is repeated again and again, a smaller 

 hole being used each time. Occasionally the wire becomes too 

 hard to stand further fining down without breaking, and the 

 smith then hghts his paraffin flare, rolls the wire into a coil, 

 places it on a block of charcoal and softens it by means of the 

 flame and small brass blowpipe (penyup). Each time the wire 

 is put through a smaller sized hole the end of it has to be cut 

 or scraped with a sharp knife, until its circumference is 

 sufficiently small for enough of it to pass through to afford a 

 hold for the pincers. The drawing down process is continued, 

 — the refuse gold being occasionally scraped out from the 

 cups and deposited in a small cocoanut shell, plate or dish, — 

 until the wire is rather finer than an ordinary piece of 

 sewing cotton, when it is considered ready for the next 

 process. This consists in giving the prepared wire a twist, as 

 Marsden observes, "like that in the handle of a whalebone 

 punch ladle," and this is obtained by rolling the wire on a 

 block of wood under a flat stick. When the twisting is 

 finished, the wire is lightly tapped with a hammer until 

 it is slightly flattened. The smith is then ready to being 

 composing the filigree ( — karangan; i.e. composition). A 

 long piece of plain flattened wire is first taken and a 

 sufficient length cut from it to form a boundary round the 

 edge of the tapak. This is bent into shape and fastened 

 on edge in the required position with a kind of glue {getah 

 kenderi), which is made from a small red seed with a 

 black spot on it, said to be the fruit of a climbing plant 

 (akar) called Kenderi*. Borax powder ipejar), used as a 

 flux, and filings from a block of alloy of gold, silver and 

 brass, are spread evenly along the wire, which is fixed 

 down to the backing with tiny little clamps, made from 

 small strips of iron, bent double. Heat is next applied 

 by means of the flare and blowpipe, and the alloy, acting 

 as a solder, fuses with the wire and the metal of the backing. 

 The clamps are then taken off, an inner edging of twisted wire 

 arranged as before, and the clamps put back. When this has 

 also been soldered into position in the same manner, the 

 clamps are finally removed, and the smith begins the work 



* The composition ot this alloy is 4 parts Rold, to i part silver and i part 

 brass. A small square block of the alloy is fixed into the side of a stick of 

 wood, which acts as a holder for it when it is being filed. 



Probably A brus precatorius 



