A long line of etceteras might here be added as to the number of good purposes to which the bamboo is adapted and appropriated in Native economy; I must not omit that even the writing-paper on which I first practised the Persian character was manufactured from the bamboo, which is esteemed more durable, but not so smooth as their paper made from cotton. The young shoots of bamboo are both pickled and preserved by the Natives, and esteemed a great luxury when produced at meals with savoury pillaus, &c.
I am told, a whole forest of bamboo has sometimes been consumed by fire, ignited by their own friction in a heavy storm, and the blaze fanned by the opposing wind; the devouring element, under such circumstances, could be stayed only when there ceased to be a tree to feed the flame.
[1] The Indian rose-water is made principally from Rosa damascena about Ghazipur in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It has no medicinal value, but is used as a vehicle for other mixtures (Watt, Economic Dictionary, VI, part i. 560 ff.).
[2] Bibi Sahiba. 'On the principle of the degradation of titles which is general, this word in application to European ladies has been superseded by the hybrid Mem Sahib or Madam Sahib, though it is often applied to European maid-servants or other Englishwomen of that rank of life' (Yule, Hobson-Jobson[2], 78).
[3] It is one of the flowers which produce pollen catarrh. Pope's
suggestion that a man with a hypersensitive nervous system might 'die
of a rose in aromatic pain', is not an impossible contingency.
[4] Goulard water, named after Thomas Goulard, a French surgeon: a
solution of sub-acetate of lead, used as a lotion in cases of
inflammation (New English Dictionary, s.v.).
[5] P. 235.
[6] Not in Platts' Hindustani Dictionary: probably barhan,
increasing.
[7] Ritha, the berry of the soap-nut tree, Sapindus trifoliatus
or mukorossi. (Watt, Economic Dict., vol. vi, part ii, 468.)
[8] Nila tutiya, copper sulphate: used as an emetic in cases
of poisoning, but not now recognized as a remedy for snake-bite.