WEAVING OF CHATEE OR JUTE CLOTH. 247 
CHATEE, OR JUTE CLOTH FOR GUNNY BAGS, 
The kind of cloth called chatee is made from the same mate- 
rial, and is made of three different kinds, and always woven in 
pieces from three quarters to one cubit wide, of which two or 
three are sewn together into one piece before it is sold. The first 
kind, intended for bedding, is from four to five cubits long, and 
from two and a quarter to three cubits wide, and sells at about 
8 rupees per 100 pieces. Secondly, that intended for covering 
bales of cloth is of the same dimensions, but is thicker than 
the former kind. The 100 pieces cost from 6 to 10 rupees. 
Thirdly, that intended for making rice- and sugar-bags is four 
cubits long, and one and a half or one and a quarter cubit 
wide, and ten bags cost 4 or 5 rupees. These are sewed or 
doubled and made into bags. The value of the manufacture in the 
Dinajepore district amounted to 160,000 rupees. (Buchanan.) 
The principal places where Chatees are manufactured are 
Malda, Purnea, Natore, Rungpore, and Dacca; where the cul- 
tivation of Jute is extensive, and the price of labour and land 
very cheap. Ram Comul Sen says, “If the labour of spinning 
the Jute and weaving Chatee, are to be done according to the 
rules of labour at Calcutta, the price of gunny would be more 
than double that for which it is sold.” 
The greater part is cultivated by those who use or manu- 
facture it; for almost all the small Hindu farmers weave cloth 
of this material, and every farmer requires some for the use of 
his farm. 
On all the eastern frontier a great proportion of the 
women are clothed in the coarse cloth made of the Corchorus, 
which also gives them much employment. The value of the 
material consumed in those days was about 70,000 rupees. In 
the cold weather the poor cover themselves by night, and often 
by day with a sackcloth rug ; and the rich usually put one under 
their bedding. Some is required for the packing of tobacco and 
for some grains, but much even in those days was exported to 
Calcutta, Patna, and other places. In the north-west part of 
Bengal a great proportion of the people used to be clothed 
with Megili or Pata. Specimens of this Pat clothing were 
sent to the Exhibition of 1851. 
