130 BOTANY OF INDIA. 



modes are adopted : — 1. Branches of the saul-tree, marked 

 with the names of all the females in the village, whether 

 married or unmarried, who have attained the age of twelve 

 years, are planted in the water in the morning for the space 

 of four hours and a half; and the withering of any of these 

 branches isj)roof of witchcraft against the person whose 

 name is annexed to it. 2. Small portions of rice enveloped 

 in cloths, marked as above, are placed in a nest of white 

 ants ; the consumption of the rice in any of the bags es- 

 tablishes sorcery against the woman whose name it bears. 

 3. Lamps are lighted at night ; water is placed in cups 

 made of leaves, and mustard-seed-oil is poured drop by drop 

 into the water, while the name of each woman in the village 

 is pronounced. The appearance of the shadow of any 

 woman on the water during the ceremony proves her a 

 witch."* Grains of rice are frequently resorted to by the 

 deluded natives in other superstitious rites. When desirous 

 of obtaining an answer to their prayers from any of their 

 deities, they apply several grains of moistened rice to each 

 side of the idol's body ; then, after relating all the particu- 

 lars of their case, they entreat him to signify his gracious 

 pleasure by allowing some of the grains to fall on one side 

 or the other. If the grains fall from the wrong side, the 

 image is unfavourably disposed, and the petitioner begins 

 the ceremony anew. The grains are again wetted and 

 applied ; and as they are just as likely to fall from one side 

 as the other, he never eventually fails of success. 



To DipterocarpecB belong some of the most splendid trees 

 of India. The genus Dipterocarpus itself, the type of the 

 family, is famous for affording the carjan, or wood-oil of 

 the English ; that obtained from one species in particular 

 is, according to information kindly communicated by Dr. 

 Wallich, equal to linse^d-oil as a drying oil for painting, 

 and superior to it in conservative properties. Six Diplero- 

 carpi are enumerated by Dr. Wallich, and several are rep- 

 resented in Blume's Flora Jaca, of which D. trinervis and 

 retusus are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet 

 in height ; D. spanoghei, one hundred feet in height and 

 above ten feet in diameter ; D. gracilis, equally thick, and 

 one hundred and fifty feet in height. These trees must 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. 



