84 GANGES VALLEY. Chap. III. 



conducted. Each workman sits on a stool, with a double 

 stage and a tray before him. On the top stage is a tin basin, 

 containing opium sufficient for three balls ; in the lower 

 another basin, holding water : in the tray stands a brass 

 hemispherical cup, in which the ball is worked. To the 

 man's right hand is another tray, with two compartments, 

 one containing thin pancakes of poppy petals pressed toge- 

 ther, the other a cupful of sticky opium-water, made from 

 refuse opium. The man takes the brass cup, and places a 

 pancake at the bottom, smears it with opium -water, and with 

 many plies of the pancakes makes a coat for the opium. Of 

 this he takes about one-third of the mass before him, puts it 

 inside the petals, and agglutinates many other coats over it : 

 the balls are then again weighed, and reduced or increased 

 to a certain weight if necessary. At the day's end, each 

 man takes his work to a rack with numbered compart- 

 ments, and deposits it in that which answers to his own 

 number, thence the balls (each being put in a clay cup) are 

 carried to an enormous drying-room, where they are exposed 

 in tiers, and constantly examined and turned, to prevent 

 their being attacked by weevils, which are very prevalent 

 during moist winds, little boys creeping along the racks 

 all day long for this purpose. When dry, the balls are 

 packed in two layers of six each in chests, with the stalks, 

 dried leaves, and capsules of the plant, and sent down to 

 Calcutta. A little opium is prepared of very fine quality 

 for the Government Hospitals, and some for general sale 

 in India ; but the proportion is trifling, and such is 

 made up into square cakes. A good workman will pre- 

 pare from thirty to fifty balls a day, the total produce 

 being 10,000 to 12,000 a clay; during one working 

 season 1,353,000 balls are manufactured for the Chinese 

 market alone. 



