1 840. ] Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. 1 1 89 



what had fallen for years, but lasted only four days. In the two preceding 

 years a drought destroyed thousands of cattle. 



The lye^ or tamarisk, is the most abundant production of the wilds, and 

 almost as useful to the Sindee as the bamboo to the native of India. The 

 flowers {sakoor) are dried, pulverized, and infused in water, and form a red 

 fluid in which cottons are steeped to prepare them for dye. A considerable 

 quantity of flowers are exported to Persia and the Punjab. The wood sup- 

 plies the inhabitants almost exclusively with fuel, and they employ it in 

 the construction of houses, boats, and agricultural implements. The 

 boughs are used for fences and cattle sheds, to line wells, and to thatch 

 houses, and are plaited into baskets, and mats for boats, for which their 

 strength and toughness admirably fit them. The young shoots form a 

 nutritious diet for goats and cattle. 



Next to the tamarisk in point of usefulness is the Moonj, a species of 

 grass which rises twenty or thirty feet high. The peel is twisted into 

 rope for masts and track lines, the texture depending a good deal on the 

 length of time the grass is beaten. The ropes last a twelve month if kept 

 constantly w^et, but hot and dry w^eather destroys thorn in a third of the 

 time. The string made from the plant is used to lace the common country 

 bedsteads, and the thick part of the stem for screens (sJmtees) for the 

 ceiling and walls of houses. The upper stem bears a long feathering 

 flower, and is made into screens and baskets to hold grain and chaff for 

 cattle. 



The Kas is another description of wdld grass, sometimes used to thatch 

 huts, and cattle browse on the shoots. The Pees reed grows on the hills, and 

 is much used for rope, and more pliable than Moonj, but wet destroys it ; and 

 there is a long flag called putar found on the banks of streams and lakes, 

 made into soft pliable ropes, which boatmen pass round their loins in 

 tracking. 



Nitre is found in great abundance eflflloresced on the surface of the soil, 

 and the people manufacture salt more than enough to supply their wants. 

 Coarse salt sells in Roree at four and five muns the rupee, and a fine kind 

 at ten seers. 



Coarse cotton cloth (Khasa) is manufactured in the principal towns and 

 villages, chiefly for home consumption, and a little is exported to Afghan- 

 istan and Persia. Common loongees are fabricated at the villages of 

 Raneepoor, Gumbut, Khoora, and Duraz, situated together to the south of 

 the capital. They are chiefly cotton with silk borders, and a few of silk 

 and cotton mixed, and very inferior to the fabrics of Thalfa and Buhawul- 

 poor. Silk cloths are woven at Roree, Khyrpoor, and Shikarpoor, but the 

 weavers are ignorant how to flower and variegate them. Sind caps are 



7n 



