258 



THE WILD DATE PALM OF INDIA. 



larger in quantity than that of subsequent nights, the second and 

 third night's juice is called doliat (second cut) and telmt (third cut). 



Juice collected in the fourth night is called jJiurrah^ and the day 

 juice is called ola. The colder the night, the more the yield of the 

 tree. Foggy and cloudy nights, which serve to decrease the cold of 

 the weather, tend to diminish the sap. High winds dry up the 

 moisture of the surface, and rain washes it off and lessens the sweet- 

 ness of the sap. I have not been able to ascertain if the influence of 

 the moon has anything to do with its increase or decrease. 



Various artifices are resorted to in order to prevent thefts of the 

 sap from juice pots, usually committed by boys at the commence- 

 ment of the date season. The cutter puts slices of Tcacliari, a species 

 of poisonous Arum, jpurmida, a nauseating leaf, and other pungent 

 vegetables into the juice pots, in order to punish such night marauders 

 who drink off the juice stealthily, and in the morning the cutter's 

 clamorously abusive language towards the female relations of the 

 young delinquents scares away the whole neighbourhood. 



Early every morning the cutter (gachi) and his mate (jklieri) go 

 round from tree to tree, take down the pots, and collect the juice in 

 order to be boiled down into goor (molasses). Boiling goes on in 

 the date grove itself, or in some open space close by. A large stove 

 called hain, with two to sixteen eyes, over which the boiling pans are 

 placed, is fed by a strong fire. As the boiling goes on in earthen 

 pans, the scum is taken off with a ladle formed out of a date branch, 

 and green date leaves are put into the boiler in order to prevent 

 overflowing. The bubbles which appear in the boiler mark the diffe- 

 rent stages of boiling, they are styled respectively spider (makarslia) 

 bubbles, mustard flower (sarsa fidi) bubbles, tiger (haghai) bubbles, 

 and treacle (guria) bubbles, which last indicate that the process is 

 nearly complete. The boiled juice is then tested by pouring down 

 a stream from the ladle. If it drops slow and thick, the pan is taken 

 off the fire, and a small quantity of the boiled juice is triturated into 

 powder on the margin of the pan and mixed up with its contents, 

 when they all granulate and coagulate into goor. This process is 

 known as hijmara. 



There are three sorts of goor made from the date juice. 



(1) The patali^ or hard cake, which is used for local consumption, 

 and sold at Ks. 2-8 to Es. 3 per maund. 



(2) Khan goor is the goor of commerce, called also nagree, locally 

 consumed, but principally used in manufacturing sugar, sold at 

 Es. 1-12 and Es. 2-2 per maund. 



(3) Ola goor, prepared from the date juice — syrupy and devoid of 

 granules ; chiefly used in sweetening tobacco, and sold at ten or 

 twelve annas per maund. It is sometimes mixed up with khan goor 

 as an adulteration. 



Let us now see what is the actual produce of each tree, and the 

 average income of the ryot from his date garden ; although on this 

 point no two accounts agree. 



The tapping season generally extends from 5th Aghran (20th 

 November) to 13th Falgun (22nd February), over one hundi-ed and 

 ten days. From this we have to deduct foggy and cloudy nights. 



