Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great Exhibition of 1851. 165 
mor, both for man and horse, helmets and shields, spears, battle- 
axes, bows and arrows, with daggers in every variety. Some 0 
these display in a remarkable manner their skill as cutlers ; as, for 
instance, the sword formed of two blades, and another in which 
pearls are let into the centre of its blade; and still more in the 
daggers contained one within another, all of hard steel, with the 
line of junction so beautifully welded as to be hardly perceptible 
even with a magnifier,—so also in the dagger, which on striking 
Separates into five blades, as these are most nicely brought into 
juxtaposition. ‘The twisting of gun-barrels and the damasks of 
their blades of steel have been imitated in all countries. ‘These 
beautiful specimens have been sent chiefly by the native princes 
of the northwest of India from Putteala to Scinde, as well as from 
the central government of Hyderabad. ; 
The other metal: which it seems necessary t® mention is tin, 
because connected with so many metallurgical compounds, an 
because by many it has been supposed that this country was the 
only source from which that metal was obtained in ancient times. 
But it exists in large quantities in the Malayan Peninsula, as well 
as in Banca, Borneo, and many other islands. in, we know, 
was employed by the Egyptians, because it forms an ingredient 
in some of their metallic compounds; but its use has long been 
familiar to the Hindoos for forming various metallurgical com- 
pounds, as well as for tinning copper. As it occurs as an oxyd, 
Alloys.—The natives of India are acquainted with a var iety 
of alloys for making utensils and even ornaments, as with copper 
Bidery,—A metallurgical com imi of considerable interest is 
that which has sset aaeeadlc Bidery, from Bider, a city situated 
about sixty miles to the north-west of Hyderabad, and of which 
