THE sAl forests. 381 



factured into dye in considerable quantities at a factory 

 in Jubbulpiir, whose agents penetrate tlic remotest 

 corners of these jungles in search of the raw material. 



The cocoons of the wild tusser silk-moth are also 

 collected in great numbers for sale to the caste of silk- 

 spinners who live by this business in the villages of the 

 plains. Experience has shown that these moths will 

 not breed a feecond generation of healthy silk-producing 

 insects in captivity, and a fresh supply is therefore 

 procured annually from their native hills. They live 

 chiefly on the leaves of the saj tree, whose foliage, bci no- 

 deciduous, would not afford safety to the insect in its 

 chrysalis stage, if the cocoon were attached, as other 

 species are, to the leaf alone. The instinct of the little 

 creature teaches it therefore to anchor its cocoon by a 

 strong silken rope to the leaf-stalk, where it sways 

 about in safety after every leaf has dropped from tlie 

 tree. The cocoons brought from the jungles by the 

 breeders are attached to pollarded saj trees, grown near 

 their villages, till the moths have hatched and paired, 

 when the females are captured and made to lay their 

 eggs in close vessels, where they are incubated by heat. 

 The worms reared from the eggs are again placed on the 

 saj trees, where they form their cocoons, which are then 

 spun into the rough silk known as " tusser." The 

 business is a very precarious one, much depending for 

 success on favourable weather. Superstition of course 

 seizes this uncertainty for her own, and the purchased 

 blessings of the Byga priest must accomi)any tlic 

 cocoons from their native hills, if the breeder of the 

 plains is to expect success. 



Besides such scanty exportation of the minor pro- 

 duce of these wilds as I have described, almost tlair 

 only economic use has hitherto been the splendid grazing 



