The Cereals. 75 



taken with curdled milk {doyi), with milk and tamarinds, or with 

 sweetmeats. 



(2.) Alochira is made by steeping the rough dhan for a night 

 in cold water; it is then parched and afterwards flattened by 

 beating. 



(3.) Khoyi is made by parching rice which has been exposed 

 to the dew. It is eaten with molasses, constituting mitrki, or 

 with milk. 



(4.) Muri or Mturhi is prepared by first heating chaol with 

 salt for about half-an-hour in a shallow earthen vessel kept 

 agitated, and finally parching it. It is eaten by the poor, generally 

 by itself but sometimes with oil. 



(5.) Chaol-ka-atta is rice-meal made by slow grinding in 

 heavy hand-mills. It is kneaded with water into balls or cakes 

 [bhaka), which are boiled like a pudding, or used as bread. 



Dietetics of Rice. 



New rice is cheaper than old, not merely because the latter is 

 more easily husked, nor because it is drier and therefore contains 

 more nutriment in a given weight, but because it is more whole- 

 some. New rice is almost generally considered unwholesome ; 

 it is said to cause swellings of the mouth and throat, dyspepsia, 

 diarrhoea, and fever. 



Prisoners obliged to live almost wholly on rice become 

 anaemic, symptoms of land-scurvy supervening. Health rapidly 

 deteriorates under its exclusive use, unless it be eaten in 

 excessive quantity ; to this course there are obvious objec- 

 tions. Then, too, there are some varieties of rice the "chits" 

 or embryos of which are so hard that they cannot be digested 

 by the strongest stomach ; prolonged boiling in water only 

 partially softens them. As a rule, the rice which is sown on 

 swampy ground, which is not transplanted, and which comes to 

 maturity during or just at the close of the rainy season, is of 

 the nature just described. The grains of this rice being large, 

 cheap, and abundant, are much used by the very poor ; their 



