1 TATTA. 267
2 ruin, to which they are prone, being constructed for the most part
3 of a timber frame-work,! on the outside of which are nailed Jaths, ' Pott. 353.
4 which are plastered over with mud of a grey colour, so as when
5 new to have the appearance of a solid wall of masonry. These
6 structures are sometimes three or four stories high, and covered
7 with flat roofs of earth. From the fragility of the materials they
8 can last but a short time, and this work of ruin is continually in
9 progress in the town. All the houses are surmounted by bad-
10 geers,? * a sort of ventilator, built somewhat in the shape of a 214.354; Wood,
11 windsail, and conveying, even in the most sultry weather, a cur- 4P?-%Carless, 30.
12 rent of cool and refreshing air. The appearance of the town is
13 mournful. The streets are deserted, the bazaars in ruins, and
14 every thing indicates depression and poverty ; the inhabitants are
15 dirty, squalid, and of unhealthy appearance.? The only building 3 wood, oxus, 18 ;
16 worth notice is the brick-built mosque of Shah Jehan, itself Out eet ae
17 crumbling into ruins. Of the decayed manufactures of Tatta, nedy, 1. 8).
18 the principal is that of loongees, a thick, rich, and variegated
19 fabric, having a warp of silk and a woof of cotton,‘ with (in the ¢ Burnes, Rep. on
20 more costly kinds). much gold thread interwoven. The silk is anigeee
21 imported from Persia, Kabool, and Turkestan ; the cotton from
22 Eastern India. The number of persons employed in this manu-
23 facture at present is not more than one hundred. Coarse cotton
24 fabrics, both plain and coloured, were formerly manufactured in
25 considerable quantity, but have lately been superseded by those
26 of England. British woollens are greatly prized, but the poverty
27 of the peaple prevents an extensive sale of them. ‘The total
28 value of the silk and cotton manufactures in 1837 was 41,4001/.,
29 of British goods imported 3,0007. The number of tradesmen and
30 artificers in the same year was ascertained by Wood to be 982.
31 It is said that in 1742,5 when Nadir Shah entered this city at the * Pott. sso.
32 head of his army, there were 40,000 weavers, 20,000 other
33 artisans, and 60,000 dealers in various departments. Alexander
34 Hamilton, who visited Tatta in 1699, calls it a very large and
35 Yich city, about three miles long, and one and a half broad, and
36 States that 80,000 persons had, within a short time previously,
37 died of the plague, and that one-half of the city was uninhabited.
38 This would lead us to the conclusion, that previously to that
39 * “ Wind-taker,’”’ from ob bad, ** wind,’ and rs gir, ‘‘seizer,”” or
40 “* taker.” 5
41 t+ New Account of the East Indies. Edin. 1727, 8vo, London, 1744, 8vo.