The wire-drawers were originally Pathans, intro duced from Upper India by the emperor Akbar, but DOW all castes work at the trade. The fabrics are of many different sorts, inany of them of great beauty. Kiinkhab (vulgarly kincob), which is of mixed silk and gold thread, is now little made in Burhanpur, the Ahmadabad and Benares articles, from being produced both cheaper and nearer the great markets for such stuffs, having driven it out of the field. The same may be said of mashroo, a fabric of silk warp with the woof of cotton thread, wrought with a pattern in kalabatun ; though made to a small extent, it is greatly inferior to the pro duce of Ahmadabad. The chief fabrics still made in the city aro Tali, a very light rich stuff, in which the flattened wire is interwoven with silk in the warp with a thread woof, chiefly made up into scarves and sarees worn by females on wedding and other high occasions. Selari is half sill: and half thread, with brilliant edging and borders of silk and gold thread, mostly in tlae form of &trees and do-pattas ; pitambar, all silk with the same edging, is a better sort of the same. Turbans, sashes, etc., are made in all these fabrics. The gold thread also is much woven up with silks into rich borders and edgings, exported to be attached to the cloth manufactures of other places. Silk for these cloths is all imported ; it is mostly from China, generally spun and dyed in fast colours at Poona. A little, however, is spun in the city from the material imported raw. The cotton thread used is extremely fine, and is both English and made on the spot. The former costs in Burhanpur
exactly one-fourth of the latter, but it is greatly inferior both in strength and cleanness. The closely-twisted native thread breaks vrith a sharp crack, while the English article, from its fluffy, open character, parts without any noise. The English thread, from its cheapness, has, however, sup planted the native for all but the finest stuffs. The city thread is spun by the families of the weavers and others, the. best being produced by the Balahi or Dher caste. A coarser thread is generally spun throughout the country by the women of ahnost every caste. It is woven into every description of common cloth by the Burhan pur weavers, even the best of them, when out of fine work, having to take to the commoner stuffs. The latter now greatly preponderate in quantity. The supersession by the rough-and-ready Mahrattas of the luxurious Mahomedan princes and nobles, was probably the first blow to the trade. The average earnings of the weavers range from about five to ten rupees a month, besides what their families earn by spinning, dyeing, and odd work connected with the trade.
Among the manifold and various manufactures of China, the gold and silver tinsel cloths of Pekin stand deservedly in high estimation ; their chief value arises from the peculiar property which they possess of never tarnishing or becoming dis coloured.—Dr. TVatson ; J. B. Waring, Master pieces of Industrial Art, Exhib. 011862; Williams' Middle Kingdom ; Boyle, :Arts of India.