Shisha-Gar
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
NOTE 1: Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a very old book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot scanning errors are requested to report the correct spelling to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.
Shisha-Gar
The Shisha-gar is a glass blower, not a manufacturer of glass. He buys old broken tumblers and lamp shades, and in a very simple and expeditious manner fashions lamp-shades, phials, pipe stands and mouthpieces, and bottles (Qarura) indispensable in the practice of Hakims.
The articles manufactured are very brittle and full of air bubbles. With copper a green tint is given to glass; but the Shisha-gar is ignorant how to impart any other, and he cannot mould vessels.
The workman makes the various articles by fixing a mass of molten glass on the point of an iron tube, and by alternate blowing and rolling fashions it as he wishes. The size of the vessel is regulated by a pair of iron pincers held in the right hand, while the iron tube is being twirled in the left.
During the Durga-pujah the Shisha-gar is very busy, but at other seasons he depends on orders. Even the rude articles he makes are in great demand, and his small phials filled with perfumes, as well as lamp-shades, are to be seen in every respectable house. It is a matter of regret that men, so expert with clumsy tools, and so anxious to learn, should not be instructed in the modern art of glass blowing.
