Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/345

PRODUCTS OF BENGAL 287 prettier is to be seen anywhere. Some of these cottons and silks are so fine that it is difficult to say whether a person so attired be clothed or nude. Many other kinds of work, such as furniture and vessels, are con- structed with extraordinary delicacy, which, if brought here, would be said to come from China. In this country is made a large quantity of small black and red pottery, like the finest and most delicate terre sigillee; in this they do a great trade, chiefly in gargoulettes (earthenware vessels) and drinking-ves- sels and other utensils. There is a great quantity, too, of huge reeds or canes, as big as a man's thigh, and six or seven fathoms high, hollow inside, and knotted like those here. They are harder to break than any wood in the world; of these, levers and rods are made to carry over the heaviest weights, and are used through- out India, even at Goa and elsewhere: so much so, that the Portuguese and the Indians use no other poles for their palanquins and litters: these are everywhere called Bambou (bamboo). When one of these is bent into any required curve and heated, it remains so al- ways, and will sooner break than lose its curve. Of these, too, are made their measures for measuring all their goods, such as rice, grain, oil, butter, and the like. Measures of all sizes are made of them. These reeds grow in quantity elsewhere in India; but this is their original home, and here they are found in greatest plenty. These canes will not bend double; and they are mottled black and white. There is another kind, of a different shape and thickness, the largest of this