148 Brigade-Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Products 



Papaver pavoninum, C. A. Mnj. Papavkhack.?;, and 

 KcEMERiA species. 



Owing to the brilliancy and similarity of their flowers are 

 called gul-i-dukhtar, and Idla-dukJitar. 



Papaver somniferum, Linn. Pap averages. 



The Opium Poppy. The plant, kokndr ; the capsule, goza, 

 khol-a-kokndr, post-a-kokndr ; the seed, tukhm-i-khash-khdsh ; 

 the milky juice, sMra ; the needles, set in wax for scratching 

 the capsules, sanesh ; the inspissated juice Opium, afiun, taridk; 

 the oil of the seed, roglian-i-kliash-khdsh. In Persia, where 

 there is a liberal supply of water for irrigation, and in the 

 close vicinity of the village, are to be seen the fields of the 

 opium poppy, more especially since the failure in the silk 

 crop, as wherever the villages have suffered from the disease 

 amongst the silkworms the inhabitants have taken to the 

 culture of opium, resulting in a complete demoralization of 

 the villagers, who almost as a whole — men, women, and children 

 — have adopted the pernicious practice of eating, besides many 

 of smoking, the drug. In Afghanistan there is little opium 

 grown, and the wholesale demoralization is absent. At 

 Bezd, and other villages in Persia children came to me 

 asking for some means of getting rid of the habit, and out of 

 every small crowd of children who used to surround my 

 tent, coming to see the stranger, one or two could be picked 

 out from amongst the number, from their haggard looks and 

 peculiar pasty complexion, as being addicted to smoking the 

 poison. The eaters looked upon the habit of smoking as an 

 enormity that they would never adopt. Large quantities of 

 opium are traded in between the villages and towns, but what 

 became of it after that I could never find out. The people 

 were very reticent in talking about the trade in opium, I 

 suppose owing to the heavy Government tax upon its cultiva- 

 tion and sale. The oil of the seeds is much used for burning, 

 as also for food, and the seeds are eaten in sweetmeats. 



Par — j-i — a wing, a feather^ a leaf, flying, one who 



flies. 

 Far — -Xj — rain, a bit, a piece. 

 Para — nj.^ — a piece, a portion. 



