648 
EPIDEMICS AMONG THE WORMS. 
twelve seers, are considered by the Assamese 
a good yearly return. Sixty rupees, the value 
of twelve seers, must be a very profitable one, 
for there is little laborer expense to the ryut 
in making or keeping up a plantation ; whilst 
the trees are young, the ground is availuble 
for cultivation, besides reavingworms; sugar- 
cane, rice, pulse. See. are cultivated with 
benefit rather than injury to the young trees. 
The tax is fourteen annas the acre in this 
district. The great value of the mooga is, 
that it enables the weaker members of a 
family to contribute as much as the most 
robust to the welfare of the whole. Besides 
attending to the worms, most of them weave, 
spin, or make baskets, while watching them. 
From causes which I have been unable to 
ascertain, and of which the natives are igno- 
rant, the mooga some years failed so com- 
pletely in particular districts, that none was 
left to continue the breed. There being very 
few hauts or markets to resort to, to procure 
cocoons for breeding from the more fortu- 
nate people of other districts, a failure of 
this kind in one place is sensibly felt for two 
or three years after in the production. The 
time of the ryut, who has at most half or a 
quarter of an acre of mooga trees, is too valu- 
able to allow of his being absent for a month 
and more, going from village to village, and 
bouse to house, to find out the people who 
have cocoons for sale. This last season in our 
Jumna ?nukh ( Cachar) pergunnah the mooga 
was a complete failure ; theVe are no worms 
on the trees now, from inability to procure 
cocoons, although there was a very abundant 
crop in two pergunnahs at the opposite end 
of the district. 
The mooga plantations are principally 
round the ryuts’ houses, and are included in 
bouse-lands. By this year’s measurement 
of the Barree lands in the three divisions of 
the Nou'gong zillah, w'here the land tax 
obtains, the quantity in actual occupation 
(exclusive of those which being unclaimed 
have reverted to the state) amounts to 
5350 acres : the proportion of mooga planta- 
tions is upwards of one-fourth or 1337 aci'es. 
In the five other divisions of the same zillah, 
which are three times the area, and have 
more than double the population, but of 
which we have no accurate measurements, 
I will only venture to estimate the quantity 
of mooga plantations, at half that of the other 
three, or about 600 acres, but on this low 
calculation there would be a total of 2000 
acres for Noivgong. Estimating the planta- 
tions of the Derung and Kamrup zillahs at 
only 1500 acres each, there would be a total 
of 5000 acres of those plantations in Lower 
Assam, exclusive of what the forests contain 
of them : this quantity is capable of pro- 
ducing in one year 1500 maunds. In Upper 
Assam I understand! the plantations are more 
extensive than ours. 
4. KONTKURI MOOGA.— This worm 
feedson many trees besides the “moopa trees;” 
it is found oftener on the bair (Zizyphus juju- 
ba) and the seemul ( Bom baxhepfaphy Hum), hut 
notin great quantities. The worms, moths, 
and cocoons are considerably larger than any 
of the others ; indeed the cocoon is the size 
of a fowl’s egg. Several Assamese told me 
they had vainly attempted to domesticate 
them ; the eggs have been hatched, but after 
observing the worms for a few days on the 
trees they have at once disappeared. They 
attributed this to its being a dewang.” or 
spirit; the real cause may probably belts 
being fond of changing its food, and gifted 
with greater locomotive powers than the 
generality of the silk worms. I have been 
told by some Bengalees that it is found in 
Bengal in the wild state on the “ bair” as in 
Assam, and called ” Gootee-poka ;” it is 
there reeled off like the mulberry silk, and 
much valued for fishing lines, but not wove, 
probably from its scarcity. The fibre is 
stronger than that of the mooga and of a 
lighter colour. 
5. DEO MOOGA. — I accidentally became 
acquainted with this worm.whicli is very little 
known to the natives, and entirely in llie wild 
stale, 'ritree years ago being employed m 
Jumna-miikh {Cachar), 1 had occasion to take 
some bearings, for whicl) purpose 1 had a white 
cloth put up on a large “ bur” tree (Ficws 
Indica). The year after, being near tlie spot, 
the ryuts came and told me that two months af- 
ter I left ( April), they observed that the tree 
had lost all its foliage ; they went to it and 
found in the surrounding grass and dry leaves 
a large number of small cocoons : these they 
spun like the m’a out of curiosity and used 
it with the latter. They took no further 
notice of succeeding breeds, finding the thing 
of little present use. I lost a few cocoons 
wliich I procured at the time, but have lately 
seen both the worm and the cocoon : the 
former is quite different from any other ;. it 
is more active, its length is under 25 inches,, 
the body very slender in proportion to its 
length, the colour reddish and glazed. I could 
not observe them more particularly, as they 
weie brought tome one evening at dusk : 1 
put them in a box, with the intention of exa- 
mining them the next morning, but they dis- 
appeared during the night, although it vva& 
open very little to admit the air. The moth 
is very much like that of the mulberry, so is 
the cocoon also in appearance, colour, and 
size : 1 have questioned many of the natives 
about this worm, hut none had ever seen it 
before; their opinion of it is that it is a 
“dewang” (spirit), brought there by the 
prismater compass and the white flay. I'his 
made them call it deo mooga. 
The havmpoltonee, a caterpiller very com- 
mon in Assam (and elsewhere perhaps), may 
also be mentioned as one of the varieties of 
the species, although it forms but a very im- 
perfect cocoon : it feeds on most leaves. I 
have had no opportunity yet of observing it 
myself; but am told by the natives that it 
goes through similar stages to the others. The 
worm is about two inches long, of a brown 
colour, and covered with hair ; the moth of the 
same colour as the mooga moth, but only half 
