Pwa-Ne yet. riz 
Calcutta to Mr. F. Smith of the British Museum, for identi- 
fication, and which he pronounced to be 77vigona leviceps 
(as Dr. Mason, to whom you refer, states in his book on the 
natural productions of the Tenasserim provinces) ; and as, 
therefore, I know both the substance and the insect well, 
I have great pleasure in giving you such information as I 
can on the subject. 
A few years ago the secretary of the Calcutta Agri-Horti- 
cultural Society wrote to me for information regarding 
Pwai-ngyet. Until then, I knew very little about it, but my 
attention having been called in this way to it, I made it 
my business to find out what it was. 
If I read your remarks rightly, you appear to be of 
opinion that Pwaz-ngyet is the pure unaltered gum or resin 
of Canarium strictum, only bored and channelled by the 
bee. If this were so, then the substance should only be 
found on that tree. It is, however, found on different trees ; 
sometimes too in the ground, or in a hollow among rocks ; 
and, occasionally, even in the hollow post of an old house. 
I have seen the bees making their nests in all these 
several situations. 
Pwat-ngyet, | believe myself, is a combination of various 
gums or resins, and probably also of oils, gathered from 
various sources, while in a soft state, by the bee, and built 
up and moulded, very much as wax is moulded ; with this 
difference, that whereas wax is formed by the honey-bee 
into cells of perfect and uniform symmetry, the cells in 
Pwai-ngyet assume no regular form at all. 
What trees contribute their juices to form Pwat-ngyet I 
cannot say for certain, though I incline to think that 
Thengan-tsee, or the resin of the Thengan (Hopea odorata), 
is the chief ingredient, and that the oil of the various Dzp- 
terocarps, or wood-oil trees, particularly of Dzpterocarpus 
levis,the wood-oil tree par excellence, also enters into the com- 
position of the material. My reasons for thinking so are, 
that the texture, the colour, and the smell of Pwaz-ngyet are 
all such as would apparently result from a combination of 
the two substances mentioned; and that Hofea odorata 
and Dzipterocarpus levis are among the principal giants of 
our forests, and common trees. On the other hand, I do 
not think (though I will not besure) that Canarium strictum 
is found in our provinces, although I believe a species of 
Canarium, a large timber tree, is found in Pegu. 
The Trigona leviceps builds its nest generally in the 
hollow of a tree, entering by a small aperture. These 
