206 KHASI HILLS. 



After beiug formed, and worked-iip hot, all these codalies are 

 thoroughly cold-hammered and finished on a smoothly-polished stone 

 anvil. This portion of the work is done by the three men who are not 

 engaged at the fire in the forges during the short intervals of labour 

 while the mass of iron is being heated, or when their services are not 

 required in the forging of the heated mass. And after finally being 

 finished, as far as the forging is concerned, the codalies receive a rough 

 kind of semi-polishing, or brightening, which is accomplished in a most 

 ingenious way. They are carried in numbers by the women or young 

 girls to the bank of some adjoining stream. A common handle is pro- 

 cured, into which each codalie is successively inserted, and then it is for 

 a few minutes rapidly driven into the moist sharp sand of the river. 

 This acts precisely as a grindstone, the sharp-cutting edges of the small 

 quartz grains in the sand soon giving a clean and smooth surface to the 

 spade. 



A large number of these codalies are annually sent from the Hills 

 into Assam, in addition to the quantity required for the supply of the 

 Khasis themselves. But I was informed that even in the immediate 

 vicinity of the Hills, English manufactured spades could be purchased 

 at as low a price as these Hill-made tools, and were of a superior 

 quality, being more durable. 



The quality of this Khasi iron is excellent for all such purposes 

 as Swedish iron is now used for. The impurity of the blooms, however, 

 as they are sent to market, is a great objection to its use, and the waste 

 consequent thereon renders it expensive. It would also form steel or 

 wootz of excellent quality. I have no doubt that the manufacture could 

 be greatly improved, and possibly extended. The great defects in the 

 present system are, the want in the first instance of a means of sustain- 

 ing a sufficiently high and equable temperature in the hearth, so as to 

 keep the whole of the mass or bloom of metal in a molten state at the 

 same time, and thus more completely separating the slag fi'om the 



