1865.] On the Balsas of Bijnrm.r. 105 



the worst villages, again, they affirmed that during the two years of 

 the late famine they had no vegetable food whatever, except the githi. 

 Still, with the usual tendency of mankind to make the best of a bad 

 bargain in such a case, they attribute various virtues to this kind of 

 food. Thus, they state that it does not cause thirst or flatulence, 

 and that their freedom from spleen is attributable partly to eating it. 

 Their estimate of it, as tending but little to strengthen the body, is 

 much nearer the truth, as like the other yams, it is mostly composed 

 of starchy non-nitrogenous matter, and long-continued subsistence on 

 any such diet will tend to debility of body. This must be kept in 

 mind when we come to consider the general questions as to the 

 health of these people. 



The Boksas are fond of tobacco, which, when they have no hookah 

 by them, they smoke in a twisted-up leaf (patwiri) ; and they took 

 kindly to Cavendish, which, however, they found very strong after the 

 light unfermented tobacco they use. 



All the men except those who follow Nanak, indulge in spirit 

 drinking. Some of them denied that their women drink, or said 

 that they never do so until past the child-bearing age ; and one 

 man indignantly asked " What need have they for spirits, since they do 

 not have to go out into the jungle, or sit for a whole night up in a tund 

 (= machdn) among the musquitoes, crying, hoo-hoo (to frighten wild 

 animals from the crops ?)" But it seems certain that many of the women 

 also drink. Boys begin to consume spirits at the age of ten or eleven, 

 and the adults confess that they all drink whenever they can get liquor. 

 Yet, it would appear, they very seldom carry it to intoxication or so far 

 as to unfit them for work, but are generally contented with two or 

 three glasses. The liquor, here as elsewhere in the district, is manu- 

 factured from shira, and as it is sold at one anna and two annas a 

 seer, this does not imply a very large consumption of alcohol. In one 

 village, the abkdr informed me that his customers comprized about 

 fifty adult males, and his sales per month were equal to 80 seers of 

 two anna spirits, which indicates a not very considerable average con- 

 sumption of the liquor such as it is. 



The best of their purohits often lectures them on their drinking 

 habits, declaring that when they get a few annas they invariably run 

 off to the bhatti to invest them, but he confessed with some sadness 



