PART VIII. 



MANUFACTURE. 



BOILING. 



THE boiling apparatus called the bain is prepared in the shade 

 of a tree and commonly surrounded by a fence of date palm leaves. 

 It generally consists of a hole of about 3 ft. in diameter sunk 

 about 2 ft. in the ground over which are supported by mud arches, 1 

 four thin earthen pans of a semi-globular shape (see plate VII) 

 and 18" in diameter. One bain may contain however as many 

 as 16 pans or as few as 2. The hole itself is the furnace and 

 has two apertures on opposite sides for feeding in the fuel and 

 for the escape of the smoke. The juice is poured into the pans 

 and the fire is lit and the boiling continued for 3 4 hours until 

 the liquid is of the right density. Small amounts of scum are 

 removed from time to time, but the amount of this is much less 

 than in. cane juice, being almost negligible. Dried date leaves are 

 laid over the surface of the pan to allay the frothing. The bubbles 

 which appear in the pans mark the different stages of boiling, they 

 being styled as spider (makarsha) bubbles, mustard flower (sarsafuli) 

 bubbles, tiger (baghai) bubbles and treacle (guria) bubbles, which 

 last indicate that the process is nearly complete. The liquid is 

 finally of a lovely golden colour and is ladled out into earthen pots 

 or jars varying from 5 20 seers in content and allowed to cool to 

 form gur. Before being poured into these pots, however, a handful 

 of gur, called the bichh is added to the contents of each pan and the 

 whole well stirred. The crystals added promote crystallisation 

 in the liquid. This bichh is prepared daily and great attention 



i The size of the furnace and number of pans depend on the size of the garden of course. 

 The writer has seen as many as 13 pans on one furnace. 



