and the Manufacture of Opium.
PAPAVER
somniferum.
the Economic Products of India.
63
MANUFAC
-
TURE.
at the base to the summit of the pod. Three sets of people are so arran
g -
e d
that each plant is bled all over once every three or four days, the bleed-
ings being three or four times repeated on each plant. This operation
always begins to be performed about three or four o'clock in the afternoon,
the hottest part of the day. The juice appears almost immediately on the
wound being inflicted, in the shape of a thick, gummy milk, which is
soon thickly covered with a brown pellicle. The exudation is greatest
over-night, when the incisions are washed and kept open by the dew. The
opium thus derived is scraped off next morning with a blunt iron tool re-
-sembling a cleaver in miniature. Here the work of adulteration begins -
the scraper being passed heavily over the seed pod, so as to carry with it
a considerable portion of the beard, or pubescence, which contaminates
the drug and increases its apparent quantity. The work of scraping
begins at dawn, and must be continued till to o'clock ; during this time a
workman will collect 7 or 8 ounces of what is called chick. The drug is
next thrown into an earthen vessel, and covered over or drowned in linseed
oil at the rate of two parts of oil to one of chick, so as to prevent evapora-
-tion. This is the second process of adulteration, the rayat desiring to sell
the drug as much drenched with oil as possible, the retailers at the same
time refusing to purchase that which is thinner than half-dried glue. One
acre of well cultivated ground will yield from 70 to 100 pounds of chick.
The price of chick varies from 3 to 6 rupees a pound, so that an acre will
yield from 200 to 600 rupees' worth of opium at one crop. Three pounds
of chick will produce about two pounds of opium, from the third to the
fifth of the weight being lost in evaporation. It now passes into the hands
of the bunneah, who prepares it and brings it to market. From 25 to 50
pounds having been collected is tied up in parcels in double bags of sheet--
ing cloth, which are suspended from the ceiling so as to avoid air and
light, while the spare linseed oil is allowed to drop through. This opera-
-tion is completed in a week or ten days, but the bags are allowed to
remain for a month or six weeks, during which period the last of the oil
which can be separated comes away, the rest probably absorbs oxygen
and becomes thicker, as in paint. This process occupies from April to June
or July, when the rains begin. The bags are next taken down, and their
contents carefully emptied into large vats from 10 to 15 feet in diameter
and six or eight inches deep. Here it is mixed together and worked up
with the hands five to six hours, until it has acquired an uniform colour and
consistence throughout, and become tough and capable of being formed
into masses. This process is peculiar to Malwa. It is now made up into
balls of from 8 to 10 ounces each, these being thrown, as formed, into a
basket full of the chaff of the seed pods. It is next spread on ground
previously covered with leaves and stalks of the poppy ; here it remains
for a week or so, when it is turned over and left to consolidate, until hard
enough to bear packing ; it is ready for weighing in October or Novem--
ber, and is then sent to market. It is next packed in chests of 150 cakes,
the total cost of the manufacture at the place of production being about
R 14 per chest."
Pasewa or Pasewha .—This is the dark coffee-coloured fluid which col
-lects in the bottom of the vessels in which the freshly gathered juice of the
capsules is placed by the cultivators when brought home. The shallow ves-
sels arc tilted to such a degree that the pasewa can drain off and be collected
and sent in separately for weighment. The reason for its separation is that
pasewa, if allowed to remain in opium, injures the physical characters of
the drug, causing it to look black and liquid, whilst at the same time it
gives the drug an unduly high assay when tested by evaporation on the
steam table. Pasewa consists of the most soluble of the principles of opium
Pasewa