170 Silkworms in India. [Vol, I, 



inferior quality is reared in Sibsagar on a high-lying patch of sum land. Even iu 

 Jorhat, the centre of the cultivation of the muga silkworm, one fourth of the breeding 

 cocoons, it is estimated, are imported from Kamrup. The price of cocoons thus pur. 

 chased varies from R2 to R4 the thousand, according to the supply. Sometimes the 

 worms themselves are sold at the rate of 100 to 150 per rupee. 



" The cocoons intended for breeding are placed on trays of woven bamboo, and 

 hung up safely within the house. The period of the chrysalis lasts about a fortnight 

 in the warm months, and three weeks or a few days longer in the cold season, when 

 the room in which the cocoons are kept has to be warmed by a fire, and they are some, 

 times suspended near the hearth. If the worms are kept in a covered basket, the moths 

 are allowed to move about inside it till the day following their emergence; but when 

 open trays are employed, the female moths, recognizable at once by their bulkier body, 

 are immediately tied by a thread passing round the thorax behind the wings to single 

 pieces of straw, which are hooked on a line stretched across the room ; or several 

 moths may be fastened in this way to a bunch of straws 18 inches long by 1 in 

 diameter. Straws black with smoke are usually selected from a notion that the colour 

 helps to reconcile the moth to captivity. The male moths are left free, and some of 

 them make their escape into the open air, but the majority remain attached to the fe- 

 males. Any deficiency in the number of males is supplied by placing the females out- 

 side the house in the evening, when unattached males will discover and consort with 

 them. A song chanted by the cultivator is supposed to attract the males on such occa- 

 sions. Each female produces about 250 eggs in three days, and the life of the moth 

 lasts one or two days longer, but eggs laid after the first three days are rejected as likely 

 to give birth to feeble worms. The pieces of straw with the eggs deposited on them 

 are carefully taken down and placed in a basket covered with a piece of cloth. The 

 room in which they are kept is heated by a fire iu winter, or the eggs may be laid in a 

 place warmed by the sun, but not directly exposed to his rays, the heat of which would 

 prove destructive. They ought to be kept in the dark as much as possible. The 

 period of hatching lasts from seven to ten days, according to the time of year. In the 

 summer months it is not necessary to keep the eggs indoors at all, and they can be 

 placed on the tree at once, with due precautions, however, against sun, rain, and dew ; 

 and even in the winter a small pi'oportion of the eggs may be placed out unhatched, 

 together with the young worms : generally, however, the worms are hatched indoors. 

 ' On being batched' (says Mr. Hugon) ' the worm is about a quarter of an inch long; 

 it appears composed of alternate black and yellow rings. As it increases in size, the 

 former are distinguished as six black moles, in regular lines, on each of the twelve rings 

 which form its body. The colours gradually alter as it progresses, that of the body be- 

 coming lighter, the moles sky-blue, then red with a bright gold-coloured ring round each.' 

 The worm passes though four moltings, known respectively as chaiura, duikdta, tinikd- 

 ta, and onaihi-cJial-hdta. The full-grown worm, when extended in the act of progres- 

 sion, measures about five inches long, and is nearly as thick as the forefinger. Its colour 

 is green, the under-side being of a darker shade, while the back is light green, with a 

 curious opaline or transparent tinge. Excluding the head and tail, the body is composed 

 often rings, each having four hairy red moles, with eight gold bases, symmetrically dis- 

 posed round its edge ; a brown and yellow stripe extends midway down each side from 

 the tail to within two rings of the head, and below it the breathing-holes are marked 

 by a series of seven black points ; the head and claws are light, enclosing a large black 

 spot. Two sizes of the full-grown worm are distinguished— the borbhogia is five 

 inches long, the horubliogia somewhat shorter; and a similar difference is observed 

 iu the size of the cocoons. It is not necessary that the worms should complete their 

 growth on a single tree. If the leaves be exhausted, they descend the trunk till 

 they are stopped by the coil of straw rope or by a band of plantain leaves, which serves 



