A National Drink of the Hill-Folk of Darjeeling

In the manufacture of the alcoholic liquor the starchy portion is first converted into sugars which are next fermented. These changes are brought, about by the activity of various moulds and yeasts, and a culture of these organisms is supplied in the form of murcha prepared from several ingredients. C. M. Hutchinson and C. S. Ram Ayyar describe the manufacture of murcha in the following manner :? ' In Darjeeling the outer skin of the root of certain wild plants [that used by the Nepalis is known to them as bhimsenpati and was identified by the Curator of the Lloyd Botanic Garden as Buddleici asiatica Lour., whilst the Limboo tribes use wading-hang-ma (Polygala arillata Ham.)] is dried and powdered; four ounces of this material, half an ounce of ginger, three pieces of red pepper (chillies), and eight pounds of ground rice are kneaded into a stiff paste with water, made up into small round cakes about half an inch thick and dusted over with powdered cake from a previous batch; the cakes thus prepared are wrapped in fern leaves, placed on a mat in a dark corner of the house, and left undisturbed for three days, when they are taken out and dried, preferably in the sun, and are subsequently kept dry by hanging in a cloth above the fireplaceThese authors ascribe the saccharification of starch and subsequent alcoholic fermentation to the activity of three kinds of moulds (such as Rhizopus cambodja, Dematium, and Penicillium) and one kind of yeast, these organisms being introduced in the murcha with the jungle products, through dusting with an earlier batch, from the air, or from the fern leaves used for wrapping the cakes. It will be noted that the enzyme amylase secreted by the moulds changes the starchy matter into maltose, which is next converted into glucose and ethyl alcohol by the maltase and zymase of yeast. Fermentation enzymes are also secreted by the moulds to a certain extent.