taste. The best of the Amritsar carpets are made of pashm, the fine underwool of the Tibetan sheep, and pashmina is also used as a material for choghas (dressing-gowns), etc. Coarse woollen cloth or pattu is woven in the Kangra hills for local use. At Multan useful rugs are made whose fabric is a mixture of cotton and wool. More artistic are the Biluch rugs made by the Biluch women with geometrical patterns. These are excellent in colouring. They are rather difficult to procure as they are not made for sale. The weaving of China silk is a common industry in Amritsar, Bahawalpur, Multan, and other places. The phulkdri or silk embroidery of the village maidens of Hissar and other districts of the Eastern Panjab, and the more elaborate gold and silver wire embroideries of the Delhi bazars, are excellent. The most artistic product of the plains is the ivory carving of Delhi. As a wood-carver the Panjabi is not to be compared with the Kashmiri. His work is best fitted for doorways and the bow windows or bokhdrchas commonly seen in the streets of old towns. The best carvers are at Bhera, Chiniot, Amritsar, and Batala. The European demand has produced at Simla and other places an abundant supply of cheap articles of little merit. The inlaid work of Chiniot and Hoshyarpur is good, as is the lacquer-work of Pakpattan. The papier mache work of Kashmir has much artistic merit (Fig. 55), and some of the repousse silver work of Kashmir is excellent.
The craft of the thathera or brass worker is naturally most prominent in the Eastern Panjab, because Hindus prefer brass vessels for cooking purposes. Delhi is the great centre, but the trade is actively carried on at other places, and especially at Jagadhri.
Unglazed pottery is made practically in every village. The blue enamelled pottery of Multan and the glazed
