THE RAINS 141 



What the objection was I never could ascertain. It 

 was not in the least a moral one, for the same people 

 who objected to planting the poppies had no objection 

 whatever to eat the opium manufactured from their 

 juice. Nor was the objection the result of any caste 

 prejudice, for in other parts of the country opium has 

 been cultivated from time immemorial, and by Hindoos 

 of the same castes. 



