1 52 COMMEfiCE AND MANUFACTURES
2 necessary to tell the European reader, who has
3 examined shawls from Kashmir, that the em-
4 broidered border is a separate piece of work
5 attached to the middle by sewing. The value of
6 the shawls when completed varies with the pat-
7 tern. Moorcroft, one of the earliest English
8 travellers in the Punjaub, computed a pair (for
9 they invariably sell in pairs) of the most costly
10 shawls at no less than 700Z. Von Hugel esti-
11 mates the expense of a tolerably fine pair at
12 200/. This of course refers only to the cost of
13 production, and bears no proportion to the sums
14 paid in England or India for the best offspring of
15 the Kashmir loom.
16 As the arms made by Kashmirian workmen at
17 Lahore are superior to the handicraft of the Pun-
18 jaub, it may easily be conceived that those manu-
19 factured in the valley of Kashmir itself are of a
20 still superior order to the products of Lahore.
21 It 'is more particularly in the casting, boring,
22 polishing, and staining gun and pistol barrels,
23 that the Kashmirian artisans excel; but their
24 sword blades are likewise of a good quality.
25 Nor is it to these works alone that Kashmirian
26 ingenuity is confined. Their lackered ware and
27 jewellery, their leather, their polished paper, and
28 aromatic oils, all claim attention for their pecu-
29 liar beauty and superior quality. Nevertheless
30 the commerce is insignificant in extent, for Sikh