THE BOTANY OF IHE KACIUN llllJ.S NORTM-EAST OF MYlTk'VlNA. 219 
invariably used for the ploughing. In reaping all their cereal crops 
only the heads are taken, the straw being left on the field. 
In the villages at higher elevations (generally over 3,500 feet 
above sea-level) rice-cultivation gives place almost entirely to the 
following 
1. Maize {Zea Mays), 
2. A small-grained millet {Set art a ttaltca), 
3. The marua or rdgi millet (Eleusine Coracana')^ 
4. Buckwheat {fagopyrum esctilentum). 
Close to every village were small gardens with plants of tobacco 
and cabbage-mustard, occasionally tea, less frequently opium* 
F’umpkins, and catiang beans, a garlic and a coarse radish were 
often found growing round huts in the “toungyah” clearings ; kachhu 
too is grown in the majority of the villages. 
Tobacco leaves when plucked are half-dried in the sun, then finely 
shred and further exposed to the sun till they are sufficiently cured. 
Among the Yawyins this curing process is continued till the leaf 
assumes a light yellow colour. The Marus on the other hand use the 
leaf while still green ; in this state if smoked in a pipe it burns one's 
mouth. Only Nicotiana tabacum was seen during the journey. 
The smoking of tobacco is confined among the Marus to old 
people who have no teeth left wherewith to chew. Among the 
Yawyins all the adults smoke and the chewing of tobacco is not 
indulged in. 
Most Kachins, however, chew a mixture of lime, tobacco and 
pan ; very occasionally also betel-nut is chewed. The pdn and 
supdridJt^ probably both imported; at any rate neither Piper Betle 
nor Areca were met with. 
Near the Kyeng-mo Kha, Cannabis saliva was found wild in the 
forest, but the people appeared to have no knowledge of gdnja^ and 
no idea that this plant possesses narcotic properties. ' 
To obtain opium the poppy-head, when ripe, is notched with a dd 
and the exuding juice is wiped off on a piece of cloth; the cloth 
when saturated is dried and rolled up, the opium being stored and 
carried about in this form. When required for use the cloth is put 
into a small metal ladle with some water and boiled over a fire ; after 
having been boiled the cloth is removed. Plantain leaves, very fine- 
ly shred and toasted brown in front of a fire, or in place of plantain- 
leaf, finely cut tobacco being then added in quantity sufficient to 
absorb the mixture cf water and opium contained in the the 
resulting mass is rolled into balls for smoking. The only object 01 the 
cloth is to prevent vvaste, and the same piece is boiled -over and over 
