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I 
150 A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER three other openings (f f ) are for the workmen to take out the 
glass, which is put in a flat earthen crucible (e e) like a soup-plate. 
June 9. When the glass is melted, two workmen sit down at each of the 
three openings, six men in all to each furnace, with an assistant to 
keep up the fire. One man of each pair introduces the point of an 
iron rod, and turns it round among the melted glass, till a sufficient 
quantity adheres. He then takes out the rod, and with one hand 
gives it a quick rotatory motion on a stone, that is placed before, 
him. With the other hand he applies a knife, and forms the glass 
into a ring round the point of the rod. He then pushes the ring 
into the furnace, and there gives it a quick rotatory motion, so 
that the liquid glass by the centrifugal force assumes an elliptic 
form. The rod is then withdrawn, and the ring is dilated by in- 
serting the point of the knife between it and the rod. It is then 
pushed on the point of a cone managed by the other workman, who 
also gives his cone a rotatoi'y motion, and pushes up the ring, till 
it becomes of a proper size. He then polishes it, while it is cooling, 
by applying his knife to the surface, all the while continuing the 
rotatory motion. The work is carried on with considerable dex- 
Rings on the 
arms worn as 
ornaments by 
the Hindu 
women. 
Soda, or foS' 
site alkali. 
terity, and the two men make about ten rings in a minute. 
These rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan , as 
an ornament on the wrists; and their applying closely to the arm 
is considered as a mark of delicacy and beauty; for they must of 
course, be passed over the hand. In doing this, a girl seldom 
escapes without drawing blood, and rubbing part of the skin from 
her hand : and as every well-dressed girl has a number of rings on 
each arm, and as these are frequently breaking, the poor creatures 
suffer much from their love of admiration: but in the female breast, 
this is a more powerful motive than the dread of any common pain. 
The soda, or fossile alkali, is found in the soil near Madura, and 
at Gut alu, a town east from Mimdium. In the hot season the glass- 
makers go to these places, and prepare as much as they want. They 
collect the Soulu Munnu, or saline earth, into heaps; and near these 
j 
