J 841.] Roree in Khypoor. 405 



Common soap is compounded of mustard oil with lime and khar 

 (alkali), pulverized and imbued with water in the following proportions : — 

 Lime 48 

 Alkali 12 

 Oil 27 



Water 12 



Four seers of lime are mixed with one seer of alkali, and three 

 quarters of a seer of oil ; the stuff is strained four or give times through 

 coarse cotton rag into earthen vessels, one and a half seer of oil is 

 added to lignify it, and it is exposed to the sun in an earthen vessel for 

 two days, and stirred with a ladle until it combines ; the paste is not 

 run into moulds, but set on stones in the shade to cool and harden, and 

 is cut into small square cakes with a knife. Soap is not made in 

 Roree, but there are four or five manufacturers in Khyrpoor, three of 

 whom came from Bauwulpoor, and the rest from Mooltan, and I believe 

 the Scindians are not acquainted with the art. The price of soap in 

 Roree in 1839, was 4 seers the rupee, and 5 and 5| seers in the preced- 

 ing year. 



The process of tanning and curing leather is generally inferior to 

 the mode adopted in India; the leather workers of Larkhanu are how- 

 ever famous, and produce the best shoes, sword-belts, and w r ater-skins in 

 Sind. Good water-skins (chhagul) are made also at Shikarpoor and 

 Kurachee, of bull's and buffaloe's hide, capable of holding about six 

 quarts, and a traveller always provides himself with one, or a tanned goat's 

 or sheep's skin, before he starts on a journey. The native soldiers of the 

 Bengal army felt severely the want of water, when the army crossed 

 the desert between Shikarpoor and Bolan Pass in March 1839, and feel- 

 ings of caste w T ould not allow many of them to drink from leather. The 

 Bombay Sipahis furnished themselves with water bags, and suffered com- 

 paratively little annoyance from thirst. 



The form is graceful, and it is usually about eighteen inches long and 

 fourteen inches wide, and sewn neatly at the edges with thongs ; it keeps 

 water very cool and costs about 2 rupees. The leather braces at the sides 

 are to suspend the chhagul to a bush, or tent pole on a journey, (v. Fig. 2.) 



A sack of sheep or goat's skin is used to carry water across the sandy 

 deserts of Sind as the country does not possess the tanks, wells, and reser- 

 viors which pious men have constructed in India, in uninhabited spots, 

 and are a blessing to the way-farer and his beast. When the traveller 

 arrives on the bank of a river, he empties the skin, blows it up, and binds 

 , it on his belly and floats buoyantly over the liquid element. On touching 



3 E 



