98 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VI.
either in milk or cocoanut water. The quantity of milk or cocoanut water must
be proportionate to the quantity of leaves boiled, so that the milk or cocoanut
water might be entirely absorbed by the leaves. They are again kept in the hot
sun for about three or four days. After they are well dried, they are preserved
in earthen vessels for use." Similar processes were mentioned in the Bengal
evidence, but they require so much care and time that they can hardly be
common.
Travancore.
254. The following information seems to point to the preparation of ganja
from the spontaneous growth in Travancore. It is said
that poo ganja, or flowering ganja, is pressed together
while still green so as to get matted, and when the mass begins to show signs
of rotting, "it is dried in the shade and passed off in the market as chada ganja."
Chada—jheda in Sanskrit—means tangled or braided, and chada ganja is the
name of the imported article. Poo ganja is the local stuff, which from the de-
scription would appear to be little, if at all, cultivated. There is no other inform-
ation of interest from the Madras States.
Bombay.
255. The preparation of ganja in Bombay is described by several witnesses.
Mr. Ebden's (5) description, as coming from the
district of largest cultivation in the Presidency, and
being the most complete, may be quoted:—
"(a) Ganja.—Harvesting methods differ somewhat. In some cases the tops are pulled
off by hand; in some they are cut. In some the central largest tops are collected and treated
separately as first sort ganja; the central tops of side branches form second sort, and other
smaller tops arc third sort, and are called chur. The further process is much the same in all
cases. The tops are heaped according to taste in narrow rows or in large squares about six
inches thick, the different qualities when separately collected being separately heaped. The
heaps are then trodden under foot. Some manufacturers tread the fresh tops at once; some
let them dry first for various periods. After treading, it is turned over by hand and again
trodden. The process of turning and treading is repeated at intervals of three or four days,
with local variations of treatment in the intervals. In some places it is heaped in round
heaps called chakis, and weighted at top till midnight, and then opened up and scattered
and ventilated till dawn, when it is again laid out and trodden; and so on till it is judged
to be ready, when it is packed in bags, and as a rule it is speedily removed by the whole-
sale purchaser.
"The treading-floor is sometimes prepared like an ordinary threshing-floor with clay
and cowdung. I have lately witnessed the operation of treading, and in that case the floor
was simple moorum soil on a nalla bank, and had undergone no preparation beyond clean-
ing and sweeping. The ganja was spread in squares of fifteen or twenty feet wide and
about six inches thick. A line of eight or ten men danced on it to the music of a tom-
tom. Treading began in the outer edge of the heap, and was continued in a spiral until
the centre was approached, when the men fell out one by one as the space grew smaller.
They followed close on one another, dancing sideways in the leader's footsteps. The tom-
tom appeared to be highly necessary, and kept them at it.
"(b) Charas.—This is locally a bye-product which is not brought into account, but
appears to be the harvesters' perquisite, who probably part with it to friends who smoke,
if they don't want it themselves. It is the resinous substance that sticks to the hands or
collects on the sickle when cutting or plucking the tops. The hands are now and then
rubbed together, and the charas is collected in the shape of a pill, which is naturally
half dirt and sweat and half charas. A piece about the size of a marble may perhaps be
the reward of a day's work.