CUMBLI, HIND., also written Kamli, Cumul, and Camal, and also called Cameline, is from the Sanskrit Karnal, a blanket, and is a coarse woollen blanket worn by the peasantry of all India, and sold at Rs. 1fr to 100. Curnblis are woven in almost every district of India of the wool of the country, which is spun by hand. The yarn is sized with the juice of the common ; the woof is beaten with a hand batten (in the way that sailors adopt in forming mats for protecting the rigging), no reed being used ; a finer description of cumbli, of which the sepoy cloaks were formerly made, is manufactured at Bellary or in its neighbourhood. Mysore cumblis of superior quality, in black and white colours, are sold at from Rs. 25 to 100 each ; ordinary sizes, Rs. 4 to 20 each. Bellary cumblis are welt made, but.are not of so high value as those of the Mysore district ; they are 6 cubits long by 3. The eumbli is usually made in pieces of two or three feet broad, and five or six or more long, and generally very coarse, of dark or black colour. Sometimes, however, they arc manu
factured larger and finer, and striped or spotted black and white. There may be some connection between tbe Sanskrit word Kamal and the Grecian Chlamus and the Latin Chlamys. It is barely possible, also, it inay not be unconnected with the Arabic Kamis, from which WC have the Italian Camicia, the Portuguese Camisa, and the French Chemise. The Chlamys was generally, like the Cumbli, made of wool, and in shape it was much the same, being half the breadth of its length. A similar connection may perhaps exist between the Persian and Hindi Suya, the Latin Sagum, and the modern Spanish Saya. Good cumblis are made in Ulwar, and in the neighbourhood of Meerapur in Meerut. The Sansla curnbli of Meerut sometimes sells as high as 25 rupees. It is made of the wool of lambkins, shorn about three days after their birth. —Elliot, Stepp. Gloss. ; Hindu Infanticide, p. 195.