Chamra-farosh
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Chamra-farosh
A leatherdealer, usually a Kuti Mahome¬dan.
The trade in hides is one of the most flourishing of the present day, the traders belonging to the strictest sect of Muhammadanism, and generally to the Kuti subdivision, which is either Farazi or Wahabbi in religion. When work is slack the hide dealer is found working as a mason, or water-carrier.
It is alleged that no Hindu capitalist will advance money for such an unhallowed trade, but the Chamra-farosh finds no difficulty in obtaining money from the Saha banker, with whom he generally arranges to divide the profit in equal proportions, The term interest (sud) is an abomination to the Farazi; but he dearly loves it when called "Manafi'," or profit. Confidence in each other's probity is a surprising trait in the character of the natives of Eastern Bengal, who, without any security, and merely on the promissory note of the borrower, lend money, and very rarely indeed are they defrauded.
Having received his advance, the hide merchant sends agents into the country to buy old and diseased cattle for slaughter, as well as the hides of animals skinned and dried by the village Rishi.
The Chamra-farosh soaks hides in water, scrubbing them with "Jhama," or burnt brick, and rubbing in a little impure alkali (Khari-namak), when they are ready for the market. The skin of a slaughtered animal (halali) is more valuable than that of one which has died of disease (murdari), the former fetching about forty-four anas in the villages, and from forty-eight to fifty-two anas in Dacca, while the latter is bought for forty to forty-two anas in the country, and for forty-eight in the town. The "halali" is recognised by its having no bare patches on the back. The carcasses of animals dying in villages are always dragged to the outskirts: hence it happens that the "murdari" bears along the spine patches where the hair is rubbed off, and which lessen the value of the skin.
Last century Dacca was a celebrated mart for the sale of otter skins, agents being met with in most villages along the foot of the hills which bound the north-eastern frontier of Bengal; but at present the trade is extinct, although otters are still numerous in all the rivers that issue from the hills. The demand for these furs in China and Tibet has ceased, owing probably to the introduction of cotton and woollen goods, or to some change of fashion in these countries.
1 An account of tbe Biddery ware in India, in "Annals of Philosophy " for October, 1813, vol. ii, 260. 2 Vol. iii, 320, 321.
