112 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
In 1859 a communication was made to the Agri-Horticultural 
Society of India, and published in their journal, concerning two 
roots, one called Koot and the other Thooth. They were from the 
hills of that part of the Kangra district which borders on Chumba. | 
The Koot was identified as the Costus, the subject of the com- 
munication, and the other was believed by Dr. Thomson to be the 
root of Salvia lancata, which was said to be common also in 
Kashmir, where it is used to adulterate ‘‘ Kut.’ Subsequently 
Mr. Cope, of Umritsur, contributed some remarks to the same 
Society on the adulterations of this drug. He says :—“ This adulte- 
ration is carried to such a pitch, with the assistance not only of 
the Thooth (which so closely resembles the genuine article in every 
respect but its qualities, that it is difficult to distinguish the one 
from the other after admixture, which imparts to the false the 
odour of the true drug) but with other foreign substances, of 
which cow-dung is one, that I have ascertained as a fact that the 
more unscrupulous dealers use some 20 seers of Koot to flavour 
100 seers of trash. When Thooth was first found useful as an 
admixture it was sold at Rs. 1-8 per maund; being now the main 
ingredient of the Putchuk of commerce, it has risen to Rs. 4-8. 
I am told that two other substances resembling the genuine article 
in exterior appearance have been ascertained to serve as ingredients 
in the mixture sent to Calcutta and Bombay for exportation to 
China under the name of Putchuk. They are a root called Chog 
brought from the hills, which is generally reported to be a dele- 
terious drug, and Nirbisi, the root of a species of Aconitum, 
probably a virulent poison” *. 
Costus is universally employed by the shawl-merchants in 
Kashmir as a protector of Kashmir fabrics from the attacks of 
moth and insects. The dried root is an agreeable fumigatory and 
yields excellent pastilles which burn fairly. It is exported in 
enormous quantities to China, where it is used as an incense. 
Baden Powell in his ‘ Punjab Products’ says :—‘ Lines of camels 
may often be met passing down to Multan, the ‘ Kut’ perfuming 
the air for a considerable distance. No mandarin will give an 
audience until the ‘ pachak ’ mcense smokes before him ; in every 
joss-house it smoulders before the Tri-Budh Deity; in every 
floating junk on the Chinese rivers (the only house of countiess 
hordes), Budh’s image is found, and the smoke of the ‘ pachak’ 
* Journ, Agri-Hort, Soc. India, xi. part i. p. 76, and xi. part ili. p. 3. 
