The traditional occupation of the caste is to wash gold from the
sandy beds of streams, while they formerly also washed for diamonds at
Hirakud on the Mahanadi near Sambalpur and at Wairagarh in Chanda. The
industry is decaying, and in 1901 only a quarter of the total number
of Sonjharas were still employed In it. Some have become cultivators
and fishermen, while others earn their livelihood by sweeping up
the refuse dirt of the workshops of goldsmiths and brass-workers;
they wash out the particles of metal from this and sell it back to
the Sunars. The Mahanadi and Jonk rivers in Sambalpur, the Banjar In
Mandla, the Son and other rivers in Balaghat, and the Wainganga and
the eastern streams of Chanda contain minute particles of gold. The
washers earn a miserable and uncertain livelihood, and indeed appear
not to desire anything beyond a bare subsistence. In Bhandara [635] it
is said that they avoid any spot where they have previously been lucky,
while in Chanda they have a superstition that a person making a good
find of gold will be childless, and hence many dread the search. [636]
When they set out to look for gold they wash three small trayfuls at
three places about five cubits apart. If they find no appreciable
quantity of gold they go on for one or two hundred yards and wash
three more trayfuls, and proceed thus until they find a profitable
place where they will halt for two or three days. A spot [637]
in the dry river-bed is usually selected at the outside of a bend,
where the finer sediment is likely to be found; after removing the
stones and pebbles from above, the sand below is washed several times
in circular wooden cradles, shaped like the top of an umbrella, of
diminishing sizes, until all the clay is removed and fine particles of
sand mixed with gold are visible. A large wooden spoon is used to stir
up the sediment, which is washed and rubbed by hand to separate the
gold more completely from the sand, and a blackish residue is left,
containing particles of gold and mercury coloured black with oxide
of iron. Mercury is used to pick up the gold with which it forms
an amalgam. This is evaporated in a clay cupel called a _ghariya_
by which the mercury is got rid of and the gold left behind.