to which the dried leaves of sundry jungle shrubs, believed to brighten the colour, have been added.
The same castes which do this dyeing also engage in the stamping of chintzes. Only two colours, red and dark blue, are used. The former is made with imported dyes and the latter sometimes from iron or from copper sulphate. The processes are again the same as elsewhere. The pattern desired is stamped with a pattern-block which is pressed on a pad soaked in a mixture of alum and gum. The fabric is afterwards immersed in boiling dye and then washed in clean water. The dye only takes where the alum mordant has affected the cloth, and washes out of the other parts. Sometimes the whole cloth is soaked in the mordant and then stamped with the dye itself. White spots on a coloured ground are produced as follows: The spots are stamped on the cloth with a pattern-block dipped in hot wax, and the whole cloth is then dipped into the dye-tub. The dye does not act where the cloth is protected by the wax spots, and the parts under these latter come out white. The wax is then removed by boiling the cloth.
Mats of grass are seldom made, the small demand being supplied from Madras and Bastar State. Plaited mats of palmyra, date and cocoanut leaves, and of split bamboo, are largely manufactured. Those of cocoanut leaves are chiefly made in the central delta, and the others everywhere in the plains. The date mats are generally used for packing, the cocoanut mats for tattis, and the palmyra mats for covering floors or, by the lower classes, for sleeping on. The first are made by Idigas and Yerukalas; the second by Málas; and the last by Mádigas and (more rarely) by Ídigas; split bamboo work is done by Médaras.
Some 25 Málas weave kas-kas tattis at Samalkot. These are made of a scented grass called vetti véru, found in some of the tank beds, and supply the local demand at Rajahmundry and Cocanada.
Metal vessels for household use are only manufactured on a very small scale. Kamsalas have a monopoly of the industry, which is stagnant, if not declining. Brass or bell-metal vessels are made by a few families in Cocanada, Gollamámidáda (in Cocanada taluk), Tuni, Rágampéta (in Peddápuram taluk), Pithápuram, Dowlaishweram, Rajahmundry and Peddápuram. At Marripúdi in the Peddápuram taluk ten or twelve men make bells of bell-metal. Copper is worked only by the Kamsalas of Cocanada. Vessels of lead and silver are made in that town and Amalápuram; and lead vessels by a few men in Rajahmundry and Peddápuram. Metal-work of
