CflAP. XI.] 



KATITE Q UN-MAKERS. 



locks were taken from English muskets. Tlit! Gusti 

 assured me, however, that the Rajah had a man who uiade 

 locks and also lifled barrels. Tlie workslmp where thost) 

 gmxs arc made and the tools used wei-e next shown us, 

 and were very i-emsirkabla An open shed with a couple 

 of small mud forges were the chief objects visible. The 

 bellows consisted of two bamboo cylinders, with pistons 

 worked by hand They move very easily, liaviug a loose 

 stuffing of feathers thickly set round the piston so as to act 

 as a valve, imd produce a regular blast. Both cylinders 

 ccmniunicate with the same nozzle, one piston rising while 

 the other falls. An oblnng piece of iron on the ground 

 was the anvil, and a small vice was fixed on the projecting 

 root of a tree ^utaid& These, with a few files and hammere, 

 were literally the only tools with which an old man 

 makes these fine guns, finishing thcra himself from the 

 rough iron and wood. 



I was anxious to know how they bored these long 

 barrels, which seemed perii'jetly tme and are said to shoot 

 odmh-ably ; and, on asking the Gusti, received the enig- 

 matical answer : " We use a basket fail of stones." Being 

 utterly uuable to imagine what he could mean^ I asked if 

 I could st_^ how they did it, and one of the dozen little 

 boys around us wtis sent to fetch the basket. He s<Jon 

 returned with this most extraordinar}' Ixiring-machiue, the 

 mode of using which the Gusti then ex|>luined to me. It 

 was simply a strong bamboo basket, through the bottom of 

 wliich was stuck upright a pole about three feet long, kept 

 in its place by a few sticks tied across the tup with mttaus. 

 The bottom of the pole has an iron ring, and a hole in 

 \i'hi<:li four-cornered borers of hardened ii"ou can be fittetU 

 The barr<:l to be bored is buried upright in the ground, the 

 borer is inserted into it, the t<ip of the stick or vertical 

 shaft is held by a cross-piece of bamboo with a hole in it, 

 and the basket is filled with .stones to get the required 

 weight. Two boys turn the bamboo round. The barrels 

 aj-e made in pieces of about eighteen inches long, which ; 

 are first bored small, and then welded titgether upin a 

 straight iron rod. The whole harml is then worked w*itli 

 borera of gradually increasing size, and in three days the 

 boring is linishcd. The whole matter was exxjlained in 



