962 Mechanical Instruments of the Nepalese. [Nov. 



No. 10. — Kite, (NewariJ A clumsy wooden shovel, used for 

 spreading grain to the sun and collecting it in heaps after its removal 

 from the straw. The Newars do not use the flail in threshing their 

 corn ; there are two modes in use ; in separating the malsi rice from 

 its straw, nothing is required beyond the shaking of the sheaf, and a 

 few knocks on the ground, in consequence of the preparatory treat* 

 ment undergone by this crop (or a great part of it). After being cut 

 down it is stacked on the field and left to become heated, and to 

 ferment for 6 or 8 days, after which the stacks are pulled to pieces, 

 and the grain separated from the straw, winnowed by being shaken 

 to the wind from a shallow platter made of mat and bambu and dried 

 in the sun. The grain thus treated is called hukiva, and is much 

 liked. The other mode, and the one employed at the wheat, vetch, and 

 gayha rice harvest, is simply beating out the grain with a long stick, 

 as it lies on the ground. All the grain in the valley is separated from 

 the straw on the field, and carried home after being winnowed, in bags 

 and baskets, carried banghywise or suspended from a stick, borne 

 on the shoulders. The crops are reaped with the sickle, which instru- 

 ment is similar to the European scythe sickle but smaller. The Par- 

 buttiahs, in common with the Newars, use this instrument and rarely 

 pull up the crops by the root, as is the practice of the Plains. 



No. 11. — Lusi-doh, (Newari.) The large wooden pestle and mortar, 

 universally used in India, for husking grain. A block of hard wood 

 three feet long and 15 or 18 inches in diameter, shaped rudely like 

 an hour-glass, and hollowed from one end down to the middle, is all 

 that is required to form the mortar. The pestle is about four feet 

 long, rounded for about a foot in the middle, and squared on three 

 sides at both ends ; it is used by one or two persons, the centre por- 

 tion held in the hand, and either end employed for beating the con- 

 tents of the mortar. This machine is employed principally in Nepal 

 for making chura, or the bruised rice, so muchr eaten in all rice coun- 

 tries of India, when the people are travelling, or from other causes 

 unable to procure time or fuel for regular cooking. The cMra is 

 made thus : the rice in husk (dhan) being steeped in water for a day 

 and night is toasted for a short time on a stone or large tile heated 

 for the purpose; when thus parboiled, and while still soft, it is thrown 

 into the wooden mortar and bruised into thin flat flakes, in which 

 state, having previously been separated from the husks and dried, it 

 is sold in the shops, and eaten by the people. A native of Nepal, or 

 of Bengal and Behar, will be satisfied to live on this substance alone 

 for many days together : a small quantity of sukur (unpurified parti- 



