| caption: |
making of brass arm-band at smithy |
| text: |
On the way back from his house I past the Ang-ban smithy and I saw how the brass armbands with the tooth edges are made. On a flat stone board the smith first of all shapes a circular mound of moist clay, the outer edge of which forms the inner circumference of the ring about to be poured. Around this mound which could be described as a spheric calotte on a very low cylinder he then puts on little cubes of clay which are supposed to form the approximately thirty six teeth at small intervals through which the brass will flow. He fills in each of these intervals with small lumps of clay so that the teeth do not get too long. (43) The brass is melted down in small earthenware crucibles and then is poured into this mould. The smith had made the mould only for my benefit but was not ready to pour the form and had no fire burning, so we agreed that I should go off to eat and then return in the afternoon. |
