SOME NATIVE INDUSTRIES

An industry in which the Sart particularly excels
is that of making, and ornamenting with the chisel,
copper and brass drinking-vessels, basins, plates and
lamps, and gourd-pipes. Everybazaar has its street of
coppersmiths, where you can see them at their work
and hear the deafening noise of their hammers all
going at once. The usual shape of a Sart drinking-
vessel resembles that of an elegant coffee-pot, so tall
and slender that it must be difficult to keep it clean.
Some of the brass ones are overlaid with a thin coat-
ing of silver. As I have said elsewhere, the best
work is put into those destined for sale in Moscow,
so that it is no longer easy to pick them up on the
spot, as of old, and the man in the booth has very
few of his wares on show, perhaps only the particu-
lar vessel upon which he is at work. Wishing to
purchase a kungan, or brass water-pot, in Kokand,
where the best work is done, I stopped one day in
front of a booth to which I had been directed, and
asked the worker if he could not show me a larger
assortment than those he had with him. Great was
my surprise when he replied-
"My wife and children have several on hand, but
they are doing their work at home."
"May I come and see them at it ?" I asked.
"They will be very pleased to receive a visit from
you," was his gracious reply.
The next day I went to the house indicated, and
found the women and children sitting in a row on the