29 
1871.] On several places in Sub-Division Banka. 
iron is smelted in an earthen oven of the form of a cylinder, 
coal being generally used as fuel. It is curious that the union 
of a man and a woman is always considered absolutely neces¬ 
sary for the operation, the general belief, both among the ini¬ 
tiated as well as the uninitiated being, that the iron ore would 
not melt unless the fire beneath be blown with a pair of bellows 
worked by a man with his younger brother’s wife passing her arms 
round his waist from behind. 
As far as I could judge, the metal was not completely extracted 
from the ore by the rude process employed. The ore is dug out 
from mines in the jungles. 
2 5th August .—I ascended one of the hills of Cozhi, which is 
named Phuki in consequence of a large cavity at the top which, 
according to some, is the passage by which the Giant Mayebee 
fled to the nether world after his overthrow by Baja Bali, and 
through which his blood subsequently flowed when killed, as 
related in the Ramayana. On ascending, I observed that it was a 
horizontal cavity probably hewn out of the solid rock by some recluse 
who had retired to it from the world, in order to pass his days 
in" contemplation and prayer. The people, of course, spoke of mys~ 
terious holes existing in it, which had communication with the ne¬ 
ther world. But the cavity emitted a horrible stench, and was too 
dark in some parts to allow of a minute examination. Having, 
however, seen the Buddhist caves of Khondgiri in the district of 
Puri, I could not resist the conviction that the cavity in the 
Phuki hill was an abortive attempt at imitating those wonderful 
vaulted halls amounting to some hundreds, each of which, and 
sometimes several, have been hewn, without fracture, out of a 
single piece of rock. 
26 th August .—Visited all the villages comprised within the 
circular range of hills which go under the name of Cozlii. 
Prom Calcutta to Purl and Sambalpur on one side, and Delhi, 
Riirki, and Hardwar, on the other, I have not seen a spot more 
romantically situated than Cozhi, surrounded as it is by a ring 
of hills which, in the rays of the sun, present the appearance 
of an annular eclipse, and bounded as it is on three sides 
by a stream gliding at the foot of the hills over a bed of sand. It 
