26 Remarks on the Silks of Assam. [Jan. 



different tree (the Koh) : the thread is dried in the sun, and is ready for 

 use. Nearly the same process is gone through for the blue : instead 

 of the common indigo, they sometimes use the Room, which plant is, 

 I believe, Ruellia callosa — also the leaves of a very large tree found 

 in the forests, called by them Ooriam. The thread is wove as cotton. 

 The different prices of the cloths and their use will be found in an 

 annexed table ; their clothes are mostly used for house consumption, a 

 few are bartered with the Bhotias and other hill tribes. Large quan- 

 tities were formerly exported to Lassa by merchants, known in De- 

 rung as the " Kampa Bhotias," — the quantity they used to take away, 

 was very considerable, but in the latter years of the Assam raja's rule, 

 from the disorganized state of the country, the number of merchants 

 gradually decreased ; three years ago only two came after a long in- 

 terval, one of them died, and I believe the trade has not again been 

 revived : those two merchants complained that they could no more 

 procure the cloths suited to their markets. No exports of it are men- 

 tioned in the returns of the Hydra- chowkey. The quantity the country 

 is capable of exporting under an improved management would be very 

 large, for it forms at present the dress of the poorer classes at ail 

 seasons, and is used by the highest for winter wear. 



I have been unable yet to ascertain the quantity of this silk obtain- 

 able from one acre of land, no man can tell me the extent of his plan- 

 tation, or even the quantity of Eria thread he got in a year beyond 

 this, that he had enough for the use of his family ; every ryut has a 

 few plants round his house or farming hedges — which would at most 

 amount to the twentieth part of an acre ; so that for this to afford 

 clothing for a family the produce must be very large indeed. 



Mooga Silk. — Although the mooga moth can be reared in houses, it 

 is fed and thrives best in the open air and on the trees. The trees 

 which afford it food are known in Assam by the following names : — 



1. Addakoory. 



2. Champa, (Michelia.) 



3. Soom. 



4. Kontooloa. 



5. Digluttee, (Tetranthera diglottica, Ham.) 



6. Pattee shoonda, {Laurus obtusifolia, " Roxb.") 



7. Sonhalloo, (Tetranthera macrophylla, " Roxb.") 



Silk from No. 1. Addakoory. — The Addakoory, the worms fed on 

 which produce the Mazankoory mooga, is a middle-sized tree, used for 

 rearing worms only when under four years. It sprouts up where 

 forests have been cleared up for the cultivation of rice or cotton. The 

 worms that are put on the tree -on the first year of their appearance 



