CATCHING A RAJA.

37

natives can throw it with very great precision, whirling it over their heads in a manner different to the English method, and which is very difficult to learn. After a considerable amount of practice I could cast it fairly in a circle, but with no very great precision; and on this occasion by the request of the assembled crowd, I undertook to exhibit the English and native methods of casting for their benefit. Just then a Raja appeared with a considerable retinue on the scene; one of his followers bearing the silver stick which proclaimed his dignity and his rank. Although he was no doubt surprised to find me engaged in so lowcaste an occupation, he was far too good a courtier to say so; indeed he was loud in his declarations that I should exhibit unusual skill, and that it would be quite an honour for any fish to be captured by my hands. I begged the bystanders to keep clear, as the net often took an erratic course; but the little Raja, to show his confidence in my skill, persisted in standing near. When all was ready and everyone was on the tip-toe of expectation, I whirled the net over my head, and quite unintentionally threw it with the utmost precision over the little Raja,

38

THE MANGO CROP.

who was brought to his knees, and so effectually entangled in the folds of string that he could not move. The shouts of laughter which followed-for everyone saw that it was a pure accident-were so general and loud that even the great man's most devoted attendants could not recover themselves for some time, and come to their master's aid; but at last we got him out, and considering that he joined subsequently in the laughter, I feel satisfied that he bore me no malice, or thought for a moment that I had caught him on purpose.

In speaking of the food-supplies of Monghyr, mention must be made of the Mahwa crop gathered in April; and the mango crop gathered in June, as they form very important items in the food supply which the poor people consume. Every village contains mango groves, but, like orchards in England, their yield is very uncertain, a good season coming, on an average, not oftener than once in three years. The ordinary mangos which the lower classes eat, bear the same relation to the selected kinds seen on the tables of Europeans, as English cider-apples bear to the finest ribston pippins. North of the Ganges nine-tenths of

THE MAHWA TREE.

39

the trees are cultivated mangos. In the country south of the river, although mangos are numerous, they give way to the mahwa. This tree, the Bassia latifolia of botanists, and a member of the Sapodilla family, though little known beyond the country where it grows, may be ranked among the most useful trees in the world. It is a fountain producing food, wine, and oil. Food to thousands of poor people, who find the succulent flowers, both fresh and dried, wholesome food; wine, or rather spirit, distilled from the flowers, to the whole of the district; and oil, pressed from the fruit, used for the adulteration of ghi in this district and in Calcutta.

Anyone standing on the hills at Kharakpoor looking over the plains below, may see a million Mahwa trees which, if he is fresh from Bengal, he will probably mistake for mango trees; but unlike mangos so uncertain in their yield, the mahwa crop never fails; for the part eaten is the succulent corolla, which falls in great profusion from the trees in March and April. This season is a great feasting time for the humbler members of creation. Birds, squirrels, and tupaias feast among the branches by day,

40

THE TREE IN FLOWER.

whilst the poor villagers collect the corollas which have fallen on the ground. Nor does the feasting end with the day. At sunset peacocks, and jungle-fowl steal out of the surrounding jungle to share the mahwa with deer and bears, many of which fall victims to the bullets or arrows of hunters who sit concealed overhead.

Of the vast amount of mahwa collected, by far the greater part is eaten; and during the

EXPERIMENTS IN DISTILLING.

41

famine of 1873-74 it kept alive thousands who otherwise must have starved. All famine officers in Behar will recall its peculiar sickly odour as they passed through the villages where it had been collected. The residue which is not eaten, is taken to the Government distilleries, and there, with the aid of rude stills, is converted into a strong-smelling spirit, which bears considerable resemblance to whisky. On arrival at the distillery, the mahwa, when first I went to Monghyr, paid a duty of four rupees four annas, or eight shillings and sixpence per hundred-weight, on the supposition that this would make about three gallons of proof spirit, but after a considerable number of experiments this duty was raised to about ten shillings per hundred-weight. It would probably, however, answer very well for the Government to substitute European patent stills for the rude machines which the natives use, as over six gallons of proof spirit has been made in England from a hundred-weight of mahwa, which I sent home to England. A gentleman who was living at Monghyr when I was there, took out a patent for removing, with a very simple process, the fusil oil, or what