BUKOREST. 273 
pebbles, stamping them, and washing the pow- 
der. The surface of the plains consists o( sand 
and pebbles, containing gold. Generally they 
sell the goldy thus found, in the form of dust : 
but some of them, who have been accustomed 
to work as blacksmhhs, have ingenuity enough 
to smelt the gold into small ingots ; using, for 
that purpose, little low furnaces, and blowing 
the fire by portable bellows, made of buck-skin. 
The construction of these bellows is as simple 
as it is antient : they are made by fixing an iron 
air-pipe into the skin of the neck of the animal, 
and by fastening two wooden handles to that 
part of it that covered the feet. Baron Born» 
describing the iron-ivorks of the IFalochian Gipsies, 
cites a mineralogical writer of the name of 
Fridwahkij'^y who, in proving their antiquity, 
tells of an inscription found near Os/ruiv, relating 
to a Collegium Fabrouum ; adding, that pro- 
bably "the denomination of the Porta Ferrea, 
given to a pass on the Turkish frontier, is hence 
derived." 
(2) See his Letters to Professor Ferber, as edited by uaspe, p. 132. 
Lond, 1777. 
VOL. VIII. 
