METHOD OF DISTILLING, &C. 3O9 



XV. 



OF THS 



METHOD of DISTILLING 



As PRACTISED BY THE NATIVES AT ChATRA 



in Ramgur, and in the other Provin- 

 ces, PERHAPS WITH BUT LITTLE VARIA- 

 TION. 



By ARCHIBALD KEIR, Esq. 



THE body of the ftill they ufe is a common, large,, 

 unglazed, earthern water jar, nearly globular, of 

 about twenty-five inches diameter at the wideft part of 

 it, and twenty-two inches deep to the neck, which neck 

 riles two inches more, and is eleven inches wide in the 

 opening. Such, at lealt, was the fize of the one I 

 meafured; which they filled about a half with fomented 

 MahzuahJlcnuerS) that fwam in the liquor to be diftilled. 



The jar they placed in a furnace, not the moft artifi- 

 cial, though feemingly not ill adapted to give a great 

 heat with but very little fuel. This they made by 

 digging a round hole in the ground, about twenty inches 

 wide, and full three feet deep; cutting an opening in 

 the front, fl oping down to the bottom, on the fides 

 perpendicular, of about nine inches wide, and fifteen 

 long, reckoning from the circle where the jar was to 

 come, to ferve to throw in the wood at, and for a pafTage 

 to the air. On the fide too they cut another final! open- 

 ing, of about four inches by three; the jar when placed, 

 forming one fide of it, to ferve as a chimney for the 

 fmoke to go out at. The bottom of the earth was 

 rounded up like a cup. Having then placed the jar in 

 this, as far as it would go down, they covered it above* 



all 



