Manchurian Books

I was told that a Hindoo could scarcely be
persuaded to enter a dark room without a light; if a horse or ox
makes the slightest start, both great and small run frightened and
shrieking away. On the other side, again, I heard from the English
officers that the sepoys were very brave soldiers. Does this
courage come with the coat, or from the example of the English?
During the last day I saw a great many poppy plantations. They
present a remarkable appearance; the leaves are fatty and shining,
the flowers large and variegated. The extraction of the opium is
performed in a very simple, but exceedingly tedious manner. The yet
unripe poppy heads are cut in several places in the evening. A
white tenacious juice flows out of these incisions, which quickly
thickens by exposure to the air, and remains hanging in small tears.
These tears are scraped off with a knife in the morning, and poured
into vessels which have the form of a small cake. A second inferior
quantity is obtained by pressing and boiling the poppy heads and
stems.


Pages:
532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556