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bundles they hang them up in their houses with great care. 

 When the thunder comes the moths burst from the cocoous, 

 the male moth being red and the female yellow. The 

 female moths, in numbers from two to 20, are placed in 

 baskets lined with tar {Borassus flabelliformis) and teak 

 {Tectona grandis) leaves, and plastered on the outside 

 with cow-dung. 



After nine or 10 days each moth deposits from 50 to 200 

 eggs, resembling grains of Jowaree slightly flattened, and 

 then dies. During the breeding season the experts 

 (JSfykavarram and Rosawaram) in charge of the worms fast ! 

 The eggs are kept in the baskets from eight to 10 days, 

 when the young caterpillars appear. 



These are carried into the jungle and placed on Muddi 

 {Ayeen) and {Chung ay) (?) trees, the trunks of which are 

 surrounded with ashes to keep off ants. People are also 

 kept in the neighbourhood to frighten away kites, crows, 

 and other animals of prey. 



When the caterpillars have devoured all the leaves, 

 baskets are made of rousa grass {Andropogon calamus 

 aromaticus) lined with Muddi {Ayeen) and {Ghungay) (?) 

 leaves, and the caterpillars are placed in them and hung 

 up among the branches of the trees. There they are left 

 for two months, after which the worms begin to weave their 

 cocoons. In preparing the Tusseh silk the cocoons are 

 first steamed with water, to which various ingredients have 

 been added to promote the solution of the substance which 

 holds together the fibres of the cocoons. 



The cocoons are then dried and then again placed in pure 

 water, when, one of their fibres being drawn out, they are 

 reeled off on an instrument made for the purpose similar to 

 an ordinary spinning wheel. 



Seyd Mohdeen states that from 300 to 800 cocoons are 

 sold for a rupee, while Tusseh silk fetches from 10 to 12 

 rupees a seer and a half undyed. 



If dyed i t costs a rupee per every 5 to 8 tolas. He gives 

 receipts for all the dyes, and adds that three crops of cocoon 

 can be obtained in a year, although he has only followed 

 out the history of the hot-season crop. 



There can be no doubt now that this industry would 

 prove very remunerative throughout the Deccan, especially 

 as we should here dispense with the costly experts employed 

 during the breeding of the moths by the Nizam's people, 

 probably for purely superstitious reasons. Their fasting- 

 looks, however, as if the industry were attended with some 

 risks, something to be prayed against. 



