36 
NOTE ON A TOtrR IN MYSORE. 
glass bangles are also made. The processes of steel-wire 
and glass making are well described by Buchanan in his 
admirable ' Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar/ 
I saw a few gold and silversmiths engaged in making vari- 
ous small articles of jewellery. For three annas I pur- 
chased a large and representative collection of articles of 
pottery made out of black and brown clay. Thess articles, 
of which many were for sale here and also at Shimoga and 
Mercara, are very light in weight owing partly to the char- 
acter of the clay and partly to skilful throwing on the wheel. 
They are said to be made at a village seven miles from 
Channapatna and, also, in the Bangalore petta, and con- 
sist of rudely ornamented miniature lamps of various pat- 
terns, models of native kitchen-ranges, pots, tobacco-pipes 
which are smoked by the inhabitants, dishes, &c. 
But Channapatna is best known for its manufacture of 
wooden toys and its silk industry. The toys are made of 
wood which is lacquered and very brightly coloured and 
consist of elephants, tigers, spinning tops, bedsteads, birds, 
fruits, &c., cocoanuts scooped out and painted, figures of 
Bala Krishna, and masks marked witii the trisula on the 
forehead and mounted as shields, which, though their object 
is different, recall to mind the devil-masks of Ceylon, whose 
reputed virtue in curing or warding off epilepsy, small-pox 
and other diseases is very great. These shields are, I 
imagine, those which are referred to by Mr. T. N. Mukharji ^ 
as representing the face of a giant, and being carried by 
pilgrims to Tirupati. 
As regards the silk industry of Channapatna, the silk is 
obtained from coccoons of the mulberry silk-moth [Bombj/x 
mori or ineridionalis) . The method of unwinding the silk 
from the cocoons, as carried out at the bilatures of Piedmont, 
is thus described by Mr, T. Wardle.'- " A number of coccoons 
are immersed in an iron pan, in water nearly boiling, with a 
little alkali to soften them, a semi-rotating brush is placed 
over them, which quickly catches the exterior fibres of each 
coccoon, and the more readily enables the reeler tofiud the 
windable thread. They are then taken out and transferred 
to the reeler, who sits leaning over an iron pan, in whicli she 
has a few coccoons in hot water, the found ends of several 
being in one hand. Four or six coccoons, as the case may be. 
^ Art manufactures of India, ISSS. 
- The ivild silks of Itidi-a. 
