644 
THE ASSAMESE SELECT COCOONS. 
that are to be wound off, after having been 
exposed to the sun for three or four days, 
are put over a slow fire in an earthen vase 
full of water. One person winds off the 
silk with an instrument made of three pieces 
of stick joined together thus : the perpendi- 
cular one is held at one end w/ith 
the right hand, and the left 
directs the thread over the cross 
bars ; taking care in doing this 
to make it rub against the fore- 
arm to twist it, whilst another person at- 
tends to the fire and the putting on new 
cocoons. When a sufficient quantity for a 
skein has thus accumulated it is taken off 
the cross bars.’' 
“It appears there are not many plantations 
of mulberry in AssAm^ on such a scale as 
to be worth mentioning ; a few men of rank 
have small patches of it, sufficient to pro- 
duce silk for their own use ; — the few ryuts 
that sell the silk generally have not more 
than a seer to dispose of in the year, — the 
produce of a few plants round their huts or 
in the hedges of their fields. The leaves 
are not sold as in Bengal, and when a ryut’s 
own supply fails, he obtains it from neigh- 
bours who have a few trees merely for the 
fruit. The worms are reared by alone, 
people of an inferior caste : those of the 
highest can cultivate the plant and do all the 
out-of-door work ; but none but d,joogee 
can, without degradation, attend to the 
w’orms or touch the silk whilst reeling. 
These prejudices do not exist in Bengal.'^ 
“ Mr. Scott, a few years ago, introduced 
from Rungpoor,xeQ\evs, reels and plants of the 
morns alba, and established a factory at 
Darang, with a view to extend the culture of 
mulberry silk, and improve the reeling of the 
mooga. Several causes rendered the experi- 
ment abortive, the want of European super- 
intendence and Mr. Scott’s untimely death 
being the principal ones*. 
• From the opinions given liy several ineichnnts 
of Calcutta on samples of Assam mnlneriy si'k. 
reeled on l(aliai! reels from ivoinis pioperly fed 
and attended to, I am led to believe this province 
exceedingly favnralile to the production of veiy 
superior silk. — The samples sent doun would 
have fetched the highest prices in the Cnlcuita 
market, and they were got up under the unfavora- 
ble circumstances of a rude experiment.— F. 
J£NK1NS. 
ERIA SILK — The eria worm and motfe 
differ from the mulberry worm and moth in 
every respect, as will be better understood by 
the accompanying drawings and insects (plate 
1 X :) like it, however, it goes through four dif- 
ferent moultings, but its sickness in doing it 
lasts only twenty-four hours ; the last stage 
takes eight days, the others four. The dura- 
tion of its life varies according to seasons r 
in summer it is shorter, and the produce both, 
greater and better; at this season, from its 
birth to the time it begins its cocoon, twenty 
to twenty-four days expire, in fifteen more 
the moth comes forth, the eggs are laid in 
three days, and in five they are hatched, mak- 
ing the total duration of a breed forty-three to- 
forty-seven days : in winter it is nearly two 
months ; the number of breeds in the year 
are reckoned at seven. 
This wmrm is, like the mulberry worm, 
reared entirely within doors : it is fed prin- 
cipally on the hera or palma christi leaves; it 
eats the mulberry leaf also but is said to pre- 
fer the former : when the palma-chvisti leaves 
fail, they are also fed on those of several 
other trees known in this part of A'ssam by 
the following names : — 
1. Kossool. 
2. Hindoo gass. 
3. Meekeerdal. 
4. Okonnee 
5. Gomarree. 
6. Litta Pakoree. 
7. Borzonolly. 
The worms thrive best and produce most 
when entirely fed on the palma-christi : it is 
the only plant which is cultivated purposely 
for it. there is hardly one ryut who has not 
a small patch of it near his house or on the 
hedges of his fields ; it requires little or no 
culture. The ground is turned up a little with 
the hoc and the seeds thrown in without 
ploughing ; whilst the plant is young it is 
weeded once or twice, but it is afterwards 
left to itself. The plant is renewed every 
three years. On the leaves of Nos. 1 and 2, 
worms can be reared entirely, but they do not 
thrive well upon it; many die even after hav- 
ing begun the cocoons, and the few of these 
that are got are small and yield but little. 
These and the others are only used in the 
fourth or fifth stage, when they are considered 
to answer quite as well as the palma-christi^ 
leaves. The kossool (No, 1) alone can be 
given alternately with the palma-christi. 
The whole of these trees are found in the 
forests, but not cultivated. 
To breed from, the Assamese select cocoona 
from those which have been begun in the 
largest number on the same day — generally 
the second or third day after cocoons have 
begun tq be formed ; those that contain males 
being distinguished by a more pointed end. 
These cocoons are put in a closed basket 
and hung up in the house out of the reach of 
rats and insects. When the moths come 
forth they are allowed to move about in the 
basket for twenty- four hours; after which 
the females (known only by the larger body) 
are tied to long reeds or canes, twenty or 
