Q 



39 



harvest of the field is perished. Plow do the beasts groan! the 

 herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, 

 the flocks of sheep are made desolate!" 



I am no judge of this distinction in the caterpillar tribe; 

 neither can I discriminate the different companies in a host 

 of locusts: all are destructive, and equally dreaded by the 

 peasants. In the forest scenery on this excursion, we saw many 

 beautiful varieties in the mantis, cicada, and papilio tribes; 

 especially among those curious, but ravenous insects, called the 

 creeping-leaf. The tough sugar-canes, luxuriant juarree, and 

 strongest oil-plants, had fallen a sacrifice to the host of locusts, in 

 the Brodera purgunna: even the large mowah trees did not escape 

 their lavage. The madhuca, or mowah tree, abounds in this 

 part of Guzerat, and a great quantity of mowah-arrack is distilled 

 in the Brodera villages. This pernicious distillery is encouraged 

 by the Indian princes on account of the revenue; although, like 

 a similar mischief in a more civilized country, the deleterious 

 effects of this intoxicating spirit are too visible among the lower 

 classes of society. In Brodera they also distil a strong spirit from 

 the sugar cane, and the molasses, or jaggaree, it produces. 



Sugar, and spirits distilled from sugar, have been known in 

 India from time immemorial. Sir William Jones proves the Insti- 

 tutes of Menu to have been promulgated at least twelve hundred 

 years before the Christian eera. Those laws particularly prohibit 

 spirits to the Brahmins; whether extracted from the dregs of sugar. 

 from rice, or from the flowers of the madhuca. 



In most of the Guzerat villages, and in every part of India 

 where I travelled, are usually one or more potters, who manufacture 



