1841.] Roree in Khypoor. 487 



In 1839, coarse cotton thread fetched in the Roree market from four to 

 sixteen anas a seer, and fine thread four rupees a seer. A weaver works 

 a piece of cloth 12 yards long and § a yard wide in a day, \ seer of thread 

 is sufficient for a piece this size which sells for l~ rupee. A piece of 

 coarser texture which consumes a seer of thread sells at f rupee. A 

 weaver in Roree earns 2 anas (3 pence) a day, which is a half-penny more 

 than is paid in the hest cotton factories at Houlac (Cairo). The master's 

 labour is calculated to be worth double, and he prepares the most difficult 

 part of the work. 



The shop I visited held two looms and a female spinner. It measured 

 15 feet long and 9 feet wide and cost 5 rupees, thrc e of which went for 

 labour; two sides of it were fenced with tamarisk twigs unplastered and 

 kept together with sticks laid across them ; the third side was open, and 

 the fourth joined a mud wall of another house : the shop had a low wooden 

 door and a broken roof of mats and reeds propped on posts, and this 

 is a fair description of by far the greatest number of shops belonging to 

 mechanics and artizans in Roree. 



Cotton cloths w r ere among the few articles which became cheaper at 

 Roree after the arrival of the British. This was owing to the large quan- 

 tity imported by merchants from the Punjab and Bhawulpoor : they 

 took advautage of the diminution of duties and increased facilities of 

 navigating the Indus. 



The process of printing and dyeing calico is usually conducted by one 

 person, and the proprietor of the shop I am to describe, had no assistants, 

 and performed the whole work himself. Working dyers receive 2 anas a 

 day, and food morning and evening, consisting each time of half a seer of 

 wheat flour. The dyer had a walled court ten yards long and six yards 

 wide which enclosed two sheds. The one he occupied himself measured 

 twelve feet in length and ten in width, and he let the other to a cotton 

 spinner. 



To prepare cloth for the print and dye, it is immersed four hours in an 

 earthen pan of alum and water mixed in the proportion of 1 to 16, and 

 care must be taken if it be intended to give the* piece a uniform tinge from 

 the dye, that this substance, technically called mordant, is universally 

 applied over the whole — otherwise it is applied only in parts ; it is then 

 withdrawn from the alum mordant, drained, and washed. A piece of cloth, 

 24 cubits long and 1 cubit wide, requires an ana's* weight of alum and five 

 seers water. The dyer afterwards grinds some tamarisk flowers (safe oor) 



* An ana is a Siud weight equal to 6 Shorabee rupees. 



