124  Culture  of  Gunjah  in  Bengal,  {%S',mr 
nerative.  Ganja  is  one  of  the  first  staple  articles  of  produce  in  this 
district,  and  the  value  of  export  may  be  estimated  at  200,000  rupees. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  value  of  this  export  was  represented  by  40,000 
rupees ;  the  drug  was  sold  by  the  cultivators  at  eight  annas  to  one 
rupee  four  annas  a  maund,  and  now  the  price  has  enormously  increased. 
The  general  rise  in  the  price  of  all  articles  of  food  also  influenced  the 
ganja  trade.  From  4,800  to  5,091  licenses  are  annually  issued  for 
the  sale  of  this  drug  in  Bengal.  The  cultivators  of  ganja  are  mostly 
Mahommedans,  because  the  bulk  of  the  population  in  the  northern 
part  of  this  district  is  of  that  persuasion.  Some  of  them  are  well-to- 
do  in  the  world,  and  have  accumulated  small  fortunes  by  industry  and 
economy,  but  they  do  not  know  how  to  utilize  their  money  or  enjoy 
it.  The  hooka  is  in  general  use,  and  both  sexes  smoke.  Children  at 
an  early  age  acquire  the  awkward  habit  of  smoking  the  hooka  ;  at  an 
early  hour  of  morning  the  men  leave  the  house  with  a  hooka  in  hand 
to  work  in  the  field.  The  use  of  stimulants  is  unknown  to  the  ryots 
on  the  north  of  this  district.  Of  late  they  have  imbibed  the  habit  of 
chewing  opium;  ganja,  which  is  extensively  cultivated  by  them,  finds 
no  favor.  The  ganja  trade  is  carried  on  by  three  distinct  classes  of 
men  :  the  cultivators  who  produce  the  drug,  the  wholesale  dealer  who 
exports  it  from  the  producing  district,  and  stores  it  in  a  public  gola 
to  sell  to  the  retail  vendors,  and  the  retail  vendors  who  supply  the 
consumers.  Each  in  his  turn  makes  whatever  profit  he  can.  Neither 
the  first  nor  the  second  has  any  fee  to  pay  to  Government.  The  cul- 
tivators sell  the  drug  to  the  wholesale  goladar  and  retail  vendor,  and 
to  nobody  else,  and  any  violation  of  this  condition  subjects  him  to  a 
penalty  and  a  forfeiture  of  his  license.  He  makes  his  bargain  with- 
out the  intervention  of  excise  officers.  He  submits  his  samples  to  the 
purchaser  through  a  broker,  and  if  it  is  approved,  the  bargain  is  struck* 
and  the  drug  is  conveyed  to  the  cutchery  of  the  supervisor  of  the  cul- 
tivation of  ganja  to  have  it  passed.  The  wholesale  goladar  sells  the 
drug  to  the  retail  vendor  in  the  presence  of  excise  officers.  The  retail 
vendor  pays  a  monthly  fee  of  four  rupees  for  each  license  and  the 
duty  fixed  by  the  Board  of  Revenue.  This  fee  in  the  town  of  Cal- 
cutta and  its  suburbs  is  fixed  at  sixteen  rupees  in  Calcutta,  and  at 
eight  rupees  and  four  rupees  in  the  suburbs  respectively.  The  whole- 
sale trade  is  confined  to  two  hundred  people,  and  they  are  all  men  of 
substance.  The  retail  vendors  are  men  of  small  capital,  averse  to  ag- 
ricultural labor.  They  are  generally  illiterate,  and  cannot  even  write 
