218 Brigade- Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on ProdvMs 



Vicia Faba, Linn. Leguminos^e. 



The Field-bean, lahhla, lakhli, hagll, hogll. Cultivated 

 over the whole country as a field crop, usually as a margin 

 to other crops, especially cotton. Beans are eaten cooked 

 with meat ; the flour is not used as bread. Animals are fed 

 on the flour made from beans. 



Vine — A^itis vinifera. 

 Vinegar — ishhl, sirka, sirkd. 

 Viper — 



In the Hari-rud Valley and Badghis the huge Vipera 

 OBTUSA is very common, Eciiis arenicola is more common 

 in the dryer and hotter desert country ; both are called dusha. 



Vitis vinifera, Lmn. Ampelidb^. 



The vine, tdk ; the fruit grapes, angur ; raisins, kisJimish ; 

 currants or corinths, zirislik-shlrm ; wine, sharab ; spirits 

 made from raisins, araJc ; vinegar, sirka ; syrup of grape-juice, 

 shira ; sugar made from grape-juice, kand-i-shira-ghi. The 

 vine is cultivated wherever there is a garden. At Herat and 

 Meshad large gardens contain ground laid out in vines alone ; 

 usually these are all trained as climbers, but at Bezd I saw 

 some gardens in which were cultivated standard vines. The 

 fruit is very variable in quality. The grapes of Herat are con- 

 sidered to be the finest. In Herat and its vicinity the largest 

 amount of raisins are preserved, and much of both wine and 

 spirits prepared. Throughout the country generally a syrup 

 or very thin treacle is made from the juice of the grape ; this 

 is much eaten by the people along with their food, and is a 

 great improvement when added to their usual coarse bread. 

 Grapes and raisins, more particularly the latter, form a 

 great export trade to India. The grapes collected when on 

 the point of ripening are packed between layers of cotton- 

 wool, in round flat boxes, much resembling the drums in 

 which figs used to be imported into England some years ago ; 

 each box contains three layers of individual grapes closely 

 packed together, each layer of grapes lying on a layer of 

 cotton-wool, and thus they are exported to India, arriving 

 there about Christmas time. These form a great addition to 

 the table at that season, and are eagerly bought by both 

 Europeans and natives. The grapes contained in these boxes 



