OPIUK 51 



same time it is wholly optional with them, whether to enter on the 

 cultivation or not. 



The variety of poppy cultivated is the same as in Persia, namely, P. 

 somniferum, var. y cdbum. As in Asia Minor, a moist and fertile soil 

 is indispensable.* The plant is liable to injury by insects, excessive rain, 

 hail, or the growth on its roots of a species of Orobanche. 



In Behar the sowing takes place at the beginning of November, and 

 the capsules are sacrificed in February or March (March or April in 

 Malwa). This operation is performed with a peculiar instrument, called • 

 a nusfitur, having three or four two-pointed blades, bound together with 

 cotton thread.'^ In using the nushtur, only one set of points is brought 

 into use at a time, the capsule being scarified vertically from base to 

 summit. This scarification is repeated on different sides of the capsule 

 at intervals of a few days, from two to six times. In many districts of 

 Bengal, transverse cuts are made in the poppy-head as in Asia Minor. 



The milky juice is scraped off early on the following morning with 

 au iron scoop, which as it becomes filled is emptied into an earthen pot 

 carried by the collector's side. In Malwa a flat scraper is used which, 

 as well as the fingers of the gatherer, is wetted from time to time with 

 linseed oil to prevent the adhesion of the glutinous juice. All accounts 

 represent the juice to be in a very moist state by reason of dew, which 

 sometimes even washes it away; but so little is this moisture of the 

 juice thought detrimental that, as Butter states,^ the collectors in some 

 places actually wash their scrapers in water, and add the washings to 

 the collection of the morning! 



The juice when brought home is a wet granular mass of pinkish 

 colour; and in the bottom of the vessel in which it is contained, there 

 collects a dark fluid resembling infusion of cofiee, which is called 

 paseivd. The recent juice strongly reddens litmus, and blackens metallic 

 iron. It is placed in a shallow earthen vessel, which is tilted in such 

 a manner that the pasevjd may drain off as long as there is any of it to 

 be separated. This liquor is set aside in a covered vessel. The residual 

 mass is now exposed to the air, though never to the sun, and turned 

 over ever}'' few daj-s to promote its attaining the proper degree of 

 dryness, which according to the Benares regulations, allows of 30 per 

 cent, of moisture. This drying operation occupies three or four weeks. 

 The drug is then taken to the Government factory for sale ; previous 

 to being sold it is examined for adulteration by a native expert, and 

 its proportion of water is also carefully determined. Having been 

 received into stock, it undergoes but little treatment beyond a thorough 

 mixing, until it is required to be formed into globular cakes. This is 

 effected in a somewhat complicated manner, the opium being strictly of 

 standard consistence. First the quantity of opium is weighed out, and 

 having been formed into a ball is enveloped in a crust of dried poppy 

 petals, skilfully agglutinated one over the other by means of a liquid 

 called leiua. This consists partly of good opium, partly of paseiud, and 

 partly of opium of inferior quality, all being mixed with the washings 

 of the various pots and vessels which have contained opium, and then 



^ It issaid(1873)thatthegroun(idevote(i - For figures of the instrument, see 



to poppy-culture in Bengal is becoming im- Pharm. Journ. xL (1862) 207. 



poverished, and that the plant no longer ' Pharm Journ. xi. (1852) 209. 

 attains its usual dimensions. 



