Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c22.8

c22.8

The methods‡ of the few remaining smelters are unchanged. Iron is still smelted at Hatarabāge, near Balangoda, by men of low caste (*yamannu*). The photographs reproduced on Pl. LIII., Figs. 1-3, show the workshop of an old man named Kiri Ukkuva, and his sons. The furnace is beneath the thatched roof of a shed open on all sides; it is quite close to the house occupied by the smelter and his family; for it is generally more convenient to collect and bring the ore to the furnace, than to establish the furnace near the ore. But smelters used also to erect the furnace near the ore, as in the case of those who used to visit Nuvara Eliya to work the iron ores there found. The ore is generally the nodular hematite or limonite which arises as a decomposition product of the country rocks, and is widely distributed in small quantities. Before smelting, the ore is broken into small pieces, and roasted to drive off water. In some districts it appears that the ore used has been magnetite. The analysis§ of a typical hematite is as follows: