140 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
that the greatest nicety is required in regulating the 
weight and the time of the blow, so that the metal 
may be wrought to an exact equality of breadth 
and thickness. This done, it is handed over to be 
plated, upon silk, by another set of workmen, whose 
sleight of hand must be still more perfect than that of 
the former. The silk thread being chosen exactly to 
accord with the breadth of the metal, is passed over 
a small pulley, attached to the ceiling of the room ; 
it is then fastened to a spindle with a long crank, 
which is kept in rapid motion by an occasional kick 
from the workman, who, having the metal coiled up 
on the floor behind him, affixes it to the silk, and 
guides it with such consummate skill, as precisely to 
cover the thread without flaw or inequality. Not 
the least wonderful part of this juggling craft appears 
to be, that for the purpose of obtaining a gold thread 
it is only necessary to gild the lump of silver, as a 
first process, before it is drawn into wire, after which 
it will retain its gilding, as though it were a solid 
lump of gold, through all the beatings and drawings 
and windings which are bestowed upon it, until the 
thread is perfected. 
The proprietors of these gold-thread manufactories 
are, for the most part, a peculiar sect of Mohumme- 
dans known by the name of Bohra, but styling 
themselves by the prouder title of Ishmaela. They 
occupy about five hundred of the best houses in 
the city, and are in every sense respectable, being 
