156 Voyage of the Novara. 



suitable for smoking, which is called chandu, the process 

 consisting in its being exposed to the action of heat in large 

 semicircular brass panSj strained through filters, and once more 

 exposed to a low heat, until it finally coagulates into a con- 

 sistency strongly resembling treacle or syrup. The whole 

 manipulation occupies from four to five days. A cattie or 

 ball of this thickened poppy-juice costs the manufacturer 

 about 20 dols. From ten such balls of the raw sap, or about 

 40 lbs, which is the usual weight of each '' chest," as imported 

 from Hindostan, 216 "tiles" or about 18 lbs of opium are 

 obtained upon an average. We saw the Chinese dealer place in 

 one of the scales a Spanish dollar, instead of a regular weight, 

 and measure off a corresponding weight of opium in the 

 other. A Chi, weighing about i^ oz., the ordinary quantity 

 consumed by an opium-smoker, costs 17J cents, or nine-pence. 

 The duty levied upon this manufacture gives the govern- 

 ment a revenue of £3000 a month, for the exclusive right 

 of preparing opium fit for smoking, chancUi, for consump- 

 tion on the island. 



As often as the apparatus is called into activity, the Chinese 

 employed in the preparation of the oj^ium, in pursuance of 

 what seems with them a regular custom at the commence- 

 ment of any spell of work, commit to the flames, after re- 

 peating a certain set of formulas of prayer, a number of 

 octavo-sized leaves (Tschni-tschni-soa) of paper printed upon 

 one side only, and occasionally jjrovided in very large quanti- 

 ties: on these fabrics of the roughest material are printed 



