46 PAPAYERACE^. 



being about an inch and a half in diameter is ready for incision. The 

 incision is made with a knife transversely, about half-way up the cap- 

 sule, and extends over about two-thirds the circumference, or is carried 

 spirally to beyond its starting point. Great nicety is required not to 

 cut too deep so as to penetrate the capsule, as in that case some of the 

 juice would flow inside and be lost. The incisions are generally made 

 in the afternoon and the next morning are found covered with exuded 

 juice. This is scraped off with a knife, the gatherer transferring it to 

 a poppy leaf which he holds in his left hand. At every alternate 

 scraping, the knife is wetted with saliva by drawing it through the 

 mouth, the object being to prevent the adhesion of the juice to the blade. 

 Each poppy-head is, as a rule, cut only once ; but as a plant produces 

 several heads all of which are not of proper age at the same time, the 

 operation of incising and gathering has to be gone over two or three 

 times on the same plot of ground. 



As soon as a sufficient quantity of the half-dried juice has been 

 collected to form a cake or lump, it is wrapped in poppy leaves and put 

 for a short time to dry in the shade. There is no given size for cakes of 

 opium, and they vary in weight from a few ounces to more than two 

 pounds. In some villages it is the practice to make the masses larger 

 than in others. Before the opium is ready for the market, a meeting of 

 buyers and sellers is held in each district, at which the price to be 

 asked is discussed and settled, — the peasants being most of them in 

 debt to the buyers or merchants. 



To the latter the opium is sold in a very soft but natural state. 

 These dealers sometimes manipulate the soft drug with a wooden pestle 

 into larger masses which they envelope in poppy leaves and pack in 

 cotton bags sealed at the mouth for transport to Smyrna. According 

 to another account, the opium as obtained from the grower is at once 

 packed in bags together with a quantity of the little chaffy fruits of a 

 dock (RuTnex sp.) to prevent the lumps from sticking together, and so 

 brought in baskets to Smyrna, or ports farther north. 



The opium remains in the baskets (placed in cool warehouses to 

 avoid loss of weight) till sold, and it is only on reaching the buyer's 

 warehouse that the seals are broken and the contents of the bags ex- 

 posed. This is done in the presence of the buyer, seller, and a public 

 examiner, the last of whom goes through the process of inspecting the 

 drug piece by piece, throwing aside any of suspicious quality. Heffler 

 of Smyrna asserts that the drug is divided into three qualities, viz. — 

 the prime, which is not so much a selected quality as the opium of 

 some esteemed districts, — the current, which is the mercantile quality 

 and constitutes the great bulk of the crop, — and lastly the inferior or 

 chiqinti} The opium of very bad quality or wholly spurious he 

 would place in a fourth category. JMaltass applies the name chiqinti 

 (or chicantee) to opium of every degree of badness. 



The examination of opium by the official expert is not conducted in 

 any scientific method. His opinion of the drug is based on colour, 

 odour, appearance and weight, and appears to be generally very correct. 

 Fayk Bey (1867) has recommended the Turkish government to adopt 

 the more certain method of assaying opium by chemical means. 



In Asia Minor the largest quantities of opium are now produced in 



^ Probably signifying refuse, — that which comeg out. 



