Fib. 19, 1880] 



NATURE 



375 



:ylinder some eight or ten inches in diameter, the upper 

 »alf of which is covered with sheet brass. The stand 

 vhich supports this cylinder gives it a sloping direction 

 avay from the operator. The other assistant, generally a 

 woman, now steps forward holding a strip of the agave or 

 abe between her hand;, and with a rapid and dexterous 

 dnw of this the lac is spread at once into a sheet of 

 uniform thickness which covers the upper portion of the 

 cylinder. The operator now cuts off the upper edge with 

 a jair of scissors, and the sheet is then lifted up by the 

 assstant who waves it about for a moment or two in the 

 air till it becomes quite crisp. It is then held up to the 

 light, and any impurities, technically ' grit,' are simply 

 punched out of the brittle sheet by the finger. The sheets 

 are laid upon one another and the tale, at the end of the 

 day, is taken, and the chief operator paid accordingly, 

 — tie assistants receiving fixed wages. The sheets are 

 placed in packing-cases, and when subjected to pressure 

 break into numbers of fragments. In this fresh state the 

 finest quality is a very beautiful object having a rich 

 golden lustre. On seeing it thus, one cannot help feeling 

 regret that it is not nice to eat— the best Everton toffee 

 never looked more tempting. The above is the history of 

 shell-lac, from its birth in the jungle to its appearance in 

 the world as the commercial article. From the manu- 

 facturer it passes through the broker's hands to the 

 merchant, and from him again to the manufacturers of 

 varnishes, sealing-wax, and other commodities of which it 

 is an ingredient. 



" The dark red liquor resulting from the washing above 

 described, is strained, in order to remove all portions of 

 woody fibre and ether foreign materials. It is then 

 passed into large vats, where it is allowed to settle ; the 

 sediment is subjected to various washings, and at last 

 allowed to settle finally, the supernatant liquor being 

 drawn off. The sediment, when it is of the proper con- 

 sistency, is placed in presses, from which it is taken out 

 in the form of hard dark purple cakes, with the manu- 

 facturer's trade-mark impressed upon them. This 

 constitutes what is known as lac-dye. By the addition 

 •of mordants, this dark purple substance yields the most 

 brilliant scarlet dyes, which are not inferior, I believe, to 

 those produced by cochineal. The dve which is thus 

 separated from the lac by washing is sa'id to be the body 

 of the insect, not a separate secretion." 



One more extract we venture to make, which gives a 

 ■description of the uses made of the flowers of the Bassia 

 latifolia, Roxb. Not only are the fruits of this tree used 

 as an article of food, but ''the fleshy deciduous corollas are 

 likewise largely employed for the same purpose, and, in 

 point of fact, constitute a staple and sometimes almost the 

 only article of diet available to the poorer classes during 

 several months of each year. Towards the end of February 

 or the beginning of March, as the crop of mhowa flowers 

 approaches ripeness, the corollas, besoming fleshy and 

 turgid with secreted juices, gradually loosen their adhe- 

 sion to the calyx, and fall to the ground in a snowy shower. 

 1 he duty of collecting the fallen blossoms is chiefly per- 

 formed by women and children ; at dawn they may be 

 seen leaving their villages with baskets ani a supply of 

 water for the day's use. Before the crop has begun to 

 fall they take the precaution to burn away the grass and 

 leaves at the foot of the trees, so that none of the blossoms 

 may be hidden when they fall. The gleaners generally 

 remain under the trees all day, alternately sleeping and 

 collecting the crop, and the male members of the family- 

 visit the trees once or twice during the day, in order to 

 carry away what has been colle:ted. At' night bears, 

 deer, and other animals visit the trees to take their share 

 of the crop. In the early mornings, and late in the 

 evenings, the less frequented trees, on the borders of the 

 jungles, attract numbers of jungle and pea fowl. Cattle 

 also are very fond of the flowers, and cow's miik has in 

 consequence, at this season, a strong flavour of mhowa. 



" It often happens that the people who collect come from 

 a considerable distance, in which case they erect with the 

 branches of the sal a temporary encampment of huts, in 

 which they live until the crop is all gathered in. In front 

 of each of these huts a piece of ground is made quite 

 smooth and hard, for the purpose of spreading out the 

 flowers to dry in the sun. When perfectly dry they have 

 a reddish-brown colour, and in size they have lost three- 

 fourths of their original dimensions, and about half their 

 original weight. It is the custom with some of the natives, 

 before spreading them out to dry, to pull off the ring of 

 minute foliaceous lobes which crowns the fleshy corolla. It 

 is very difficult to obtain any trustworthy statements as 

 to the yield of the mhowa trees. A first-class tree, I have 

 been told, will continue to shed its blossoms for fifteen 

 days, at the rate of 120 pounds a day; but this estimate 

 is, I believe, at least double what it ought to be. The 

 rent of the trees varies with the abundance of them in the 

 district, the quality of the previous rice harvest, and 

 various other circumstances affecting the demand and 

 supply. Twopence to four shillings were the extremes of 

 prices which, in various places, had, I ascertained, been 

 actually paid for permission to collect. As does the rent 

 of the trees, so the saved crop varies much in price — the 

 limits being from 120 to 480 pounds for the rupee or two 

 shillings, but when, as is most frequently the case, the 

 exchange is in kind, the merchants only give a small 

 quantity of salt and six or eight pounds of rice for a 

 maund (So lbs.) of mhowa. During the famine in 

 Manbhum the price of mhowa averaged about 24 lbs. for 

 the rupee. 



" Two maunds of mhowa are stated by some to furnish a 

 month's food to a family consisting of a father, mother, 

 and three children. It is, however, seldom eaten alone, 

 being mixed with the seeds of the sal, or with the 

 leaves of jungle plants ; sometimes a small quantity of 

 rice is added. It is the custom to cook but once a day, 

 and each membsr of the family helps himself whenever he 

 feels hungry. 



" When fresh the mhowa has a sweet taste, with an odour 

 somewhat suggestive of mice ; when dried it presents 

 some resemblance to the inferior kinds of figs. Cooking 

 renders it vapid, and utterly devoid of flavour. On distil- 

 lation the newly dried flowers yield a highly intoxicating 

 spirit called darn ; this is generally diluted with from five 

 to ten times its bulk of water, and is then sold at about 

 the rale of a penny for a quart. 1 ts odour is most offensive 

 to Europeans, but British soldiers have been known to 

 secure for themselves the pleasures of intoxication by 

 drinking it withheld noses, as a child takes a nauseous 

 draught. By careful distillation it is possible to get rid of 

 the essential oil which causes the unpleasant flavour. From 

 the seeds a sort of oil is expressed, which is used for 

 cooking purposes and to adulterate ghi. Although the 

 natives protect such mhowa trees as exist I am not aware 

 that they do anything to increase the number. 



Some of the most interesting parts of the work are 

 those describing two trips made in 1869 and 1873 to the 

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These trips served the 

 purpose of bracing up our author for a renewed jungle 

 life. As an example of the excellent illustrations, we 

 give one showing a group of N icobarese at Nankowri 

 Island. The origin of these people "is still shrouded in 

 much obscurity. According to themselves they all came 

 from the Great Nicobar. They are said to possess two 

 traditions as to their primary origin : the first being that 

 they are sprung from ants, and the second that they are 

 descended from a man and a dog, the sole survivors of a 

 great inundation. This latter, however, may very pos- 

 sibly be a comparatively modern idea, derived from some 

 jumbled account of the Noachian deluge taught them by 

 the earliest missionaries. To what I have already said 

 as to the probable affinities of the Nicobarese with the 

 Malays and Burmese, I would here add that I have 



