1837.] 



from Punak to Kit tor. 



385 



fact in magnetism, that two magnets having a free motion will attract 

 when different poles are directed towards each other, and repel when 

 the adjacent poles are of the same name, seems to explain the pheno- 

 mena. 



The cultivation of pan* . — The agricultural productions which are 

 in general use among the people of the country having been already 

 incidentally mentioned, 1 here pass over to others less frequently culti- 

 vated ; and will now give some account of the cultivation of pan. 



This leaf which is in very general use among all classes of Hindus, 

 and is chewed by them with supari, is the produce of a creeping plant, 

 which has been denominated a vine. It has a light-green colour and 

 sub-astringent taste, having a degree of pungency which at first excites 

 an increased flow of saliva, but which diminishes, by repetition, the se- 

 cretions of the mouth, and parches the tongue and fauces. 



In using it, a few bruised pieces of the areca-nut, with two or three 

 grains of ilachi.f and a small proportion of carbonate of lime, are 

 wrapped up in one or more leaves of the plant. The whole is then 

 chewed by the natives of India, from the same bad influence of exam- 

 ple which has given tobacco a similar station among the inhabitants of 

 Europe. 



In the cultivation of pan, both wind and sun are carefully excluded, 

 and a cool shade is studiously preserved for the rising plant. With 

 this view an acre or more of ground is inclosed by a double hedge of 

 thuhar,| or closely-bound twigs ; and the natural black soil of the place 

 has its capacity for retaining moisture increased, by the addition of a 

 considerable quantity of red argillaceous earth. This fact is practi- 

 cally well known to the pan cultivator, who is generally of a Hindu cast 

 named Tirghul, and is supposed to have originally emigrated to this 

 part of the Dekkan from the Carnatic. 



The ground being now ploughed, and manured with horse-dung, 

 if procurable, is smoothed by the harrow ; and is then considered to 

 have undergone sufficient preparation for receiving seeds of the 

 sheoga,§ hutga,|| and neemb*[ trees, which grow up as the future sup- 

 porters to the plant, and intended to serve after the manner of hop- 

 sticks in England. These seeds are usually sown, at the end of the 

 monsoon, in parallel rows of two feet wide ; but sometimes a greater 

 distance is left when the garden ground has not been divided into beds, 



* Piper-betel. 



$ Euphorbia neriifolia. 



[| Coroailla grandiflora. 



+ Cardamomum minus. 

 \ Hypcranthera moringa. 

 MeUaazadirachta, 



