264 LOMBOCK. [chap. xi. 



locks and also rifled barrels. The workshop where these 

 guns are made and the tools used were next shown us, 

 and were very remarkable. An open shed with a couple 

 of small mud forges were the chief objects visible. The 

 bellows consisted of two bamboo cylinders, with pistons 

 worked by hand. They move very easily, having a loose 

 stuffing of feathers thickly set round the piston so as to act 

 as a valve, and produce a regular blast. Both cylinders 

 communicate with the same nozzle, one piston rising while 

 the other falls. An oblong piece of iron on the ground 

 was the anvil, and a small vice was fixed on the projecting 

 root of a tree outside. These, with a few files and hammers, 

 were literally the only tools with which an old man 

 makes these fine guns, finishing them himself from the 

 rough iron and wood. 



I was anxious to know how they bored these long 

 barrels, which seemed perfectly true and are said to shoot 

 admirably ; and, on asking the Gusti, received the enig- 

 matical answer : "We use a basket full ofstones." Being 

 utterly unable to imagine what he could mean, I asked if 

 I could see how they did it, and one of the dozen little 

 boys around us was sent to fetch the basket. He soon 

 returned with this most extraordinary boring-machine, the 

 mode of using which the Gusti then explained to me. It 

 was simply a strong bamboo basket, through the bottom of 

 which was stuck upright a pole about three feet long, kept 



