They mix with the kukrah an equal quantity of punhar, and form a paste of rasí (aqua fortis), and wild cowdung. They then pound the first composition, and mixing it with the paste, work it up into balls of two sérs weight, which they dry on a cloth.
Punhar is obtained as follows:—
They make a hole in the earth, and fill it with the ashes of Babúl-wood, at the rate of six fingers of ashes for every maund of lead. The lead itself is put at the bottom of the hole, which has been smoothed; then they cover it with charcoals, and melt the lead. After that, having removed the coals, they place over it two plates of clay, fixed by means of thorns, and close up the bellows hole, but not the vent. This they keep covered with bricks, till the ashes have thoroughly soaked up the lead. The bricks they frequently remove, to learn the state of the lead. For the abovementioned quantity of lead, there are 4 máshahs of silver mixed up with the ashes. These ashes they cool in water, when they are called punhar. Out of every man of lead two sérs are burnt; but the mass is increased by four sérs of ashes, so that the weight of the whole mass will be one man and two sérs.
Rasí is a kind of acid, made of ashkhár* and saltpetre.
Having thus explained what punhar and rasí are, I return to the description of the process of Kukrah. They make an oven-like vessel, narrow at both ends, and wide in the middle, one and a half yards in height, with a hole at the bottom. Then having filled the vessel with coals within four fingers of the top, they place it over a pit dug in the earth, and blow the fire with two bellows. After that, the aforementioned balls being broken into pieces, they throw them into the fire and melt them, when the gold, silver, copper and lead, fall through the hole in the bottom of the vessel into the pit below. Whatever remains in the vessel, is softened and washed, and the lead separated from it. They likewise collect the ashes, from whence also by a certain process profit may be derived. The metal is then taken out of the pit, and melted according to the punhar system. The lead will mix with the ashes, from which thirty sérs will be recovered, and ten sérs will be burnt. The gold, silver and copper, remain together in a mass, and this they call bugráwatí, or according to some, gubráwatí.