property, and Mr. Nunn suggested that his proceedings should be
supervised by license. Generally, the Sunar is suspected of making
an illicit profit by mixing alloy with the metal entrusted to him by
his customers, and some bitter sayings are current about him. One of
his customs is to filch a little gold from his mother and sister on
the last day of Shrawan (July) and make it into a luck-penny. [657]
This has given rise to the saying, 'The Sunar will not respect even
his mother's gold'; but the implication appears to be unjust. Another
saying is: _'Sona Sunar ka, abharan sansar ka,'_ or, 'The ornament
is the customer's, but the gold remains with the Sunar.' [658] Gold
is usually melted in the employer's presence, who, to guard against
fraud, keeps a small piece of the metal called _chasni_ or _maslo_,
that is a sample, and when the ornament is ready sends it with the
sample to an assayer or _Chokshi_ who, by rubbing them on a touchstone,
tells whether the gold in the sample and the ornament is of the same
quality. Further, the employer either himself sits near the Sunar while
the ornament is being made or sends one of his family to watch. In
spite of these precautions the Sunar seldom fails to filch some of the
gold while the spy's attention is distracted by the prattling of the
parrot, by the coquetting of a handsomely dressed young woman of the
family or by some organised mishap in the inner rooms among the women
of the house. [659] One of his favourite practices is to substitute
copper for gold in the interior, and this he has the best chance of
doing with the marriage ornaments, as many people consider it unlucky
to weigh or test the quality of these. [660] The account must, however,
be taken to apply only to the small artisans, and well-to-do reputable
Sunars would be above such practices.

The goldsmith's industry has hitherto not been affected to any serious
extent by the competition of imported goods, and except during periods
of agricultural depression the Sunar continues to prosper.

A Persian couplet said by a lover to his mistress is, 'Gold has no
scent and in the scent of flowers there is no gold; but thou both
art gold and hast scent.'

_Sundi, Sundhi, Sunri or Sondhi._ [661]--The liquor-distilling
caste of the Uriya country. The transfer of Sambalpur and the Uriya
States to Bihar and Orissa has reduced their strength in the Central
Provinces to about 5000, found in the Raipur District and the Bastar