The use of the bellows in the East is confined now, as it was in ancient times, to the workers in metals, ordinary fires being regulated by fans. The ancient bellows consisted of a leathern bag in a wooden frame, with a long mouthpiece of reed tipped with metal to preserve it from the action of the fire. The operator stood with a bellows under each foot. In each hand, attached to the instrument under foot, was a string, by which he lifted the bag of skin when it became exhausted of air by the pressure of the foot.