24 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan. 



a vagrant gipsey tirbe, who live in boats throughout the year. They dis- 

 pose of the shells, which are used for domestic purposes by the Hindoos, 

 and sell the pearls at the annual fairs which are held in Vikramapura, 

 Sonargong, and Bhowal. The pearls found in the present day are 

 small, of a reddish colour, and generally of little worth, but occasional- 

 ly, a pair of the value of 100 Rs. is met with ; the Buddeahs sell the 

 ordinary kind by weight to dealers in precious stones, who frequent 

 the fairs for the purpose of purchasing them. The quantity sold by 

 them, at the Cartick Barnee, or fair held in Vikramapura in 1841, was 

 estimated at three thousand rupees in value ; one pair was dis- 

 posed of at one hundred rupees. The pearls suited for ornaments 

 are retailed by the merchants at a price ranging from four annas to 

 four rupees per ten pairs, and the rest are disposed of to native physi- 

 cians for medicinal purposes. 



The Gangetic muslins described in the text as the finest fabrics of the 

 sort, are the fine muslins of Sonargong, and of the other places of ma- 

 nufacture in the district of Dacca. It may be inferred from one of the 

 Institutes of Menu,* that the cotton manufacture was a branch of in- 

 dustry of considerable importance in his time, and that, therefore, the 

 art of weaving the finest cloths was practised even in that early age. 

 It is probable that these fabrics were exported from Sonargong from a 

 very early period, and that they constituted the delicate vestures so fre- 

 quently alluded to by Latin authors, under the names of vestes tenues 

 vel pellucidce, ventus textilis, nebula. The extreme tenuity of texture, 

 which these terms imply, is a quality that belongs, rather to a cotton, than 

 to a silken fabric, and leads us to conclude that the cloths so designa- 

 ted were the very fine transparent muslins of Dacca. The term Kapirdaos 

 — derived from the Sanscrit Karpassa or Hindee Kapas signifying 

 " cotton," was also used to designate fine muslins. It is employed by the 

 author of the Periplus in two senses, viz. first, to denote the raw mate- 

 rial of cotton, as when he states that the region of Membarii is fertile 

 in Karpasos from which the Indian cloths are manufactured ; and se- 

 condly, as the name of fine muslins, in which acceptation it would seem 

 to refer to the Gangetic muslins of the text. The two Mahomedan 



* Let a weaver who has received ten palas of cotton thread, give them back in- 

 creased to eleven, by the rice-water and the like used in weaving ; he who does 

 otherwise shall pay a fine of ten panas. (Inst. No. 397.) 



