"In Mauritius a more complicated process is used; a barrel of about 50 gallons capacity is partly filled with molasses and water of density 1.10 and allowed to spontaneously ferment; sometimes a handful of oats or rice is placed in this preliminary fermentation. When attenuation is nearly complete more molasses is added until the contents of the cask are again of density 1.10 and again allowed to ferment. This process is repeated a third time; the contents of the barrel are then distributed between three or four tanks holding each about 500 gallons of wash of density 1.10 and 12 hours after fermentation has started here, one of these is used to pitch a tank of about 8,000 gallons capacity; a few gallons are left in the pitching tanks which are again filled up with wash of density 1.10 and the process repeated until the attenuations fall off, when a fresh start is made. This process is very similar to what obtains in modern distilleries save that the initial fermentation is adventitious. "In Java and the East generally, a very different procedure is followed. In the first place a material known as Java, or Chinese, yeast is prepared from native formulÊ; in Java, pieces of sugar cane are crushed along with certain aromatic herbs, amongst which galanga and garlic are always present, and the resulting extract made into a paste with rice meal; the paste is formed into strips, allowed to dry in the sun and then macerated with water and lemon juice; the pulpy mass obtained after standing for three days is separated from the water and made into small balls, rolled in rice straw and allowed to dry; these balls are known as Raggi or Java yeast. In the next step rice is boiled and spread out in a layer on plantain leaves and sprinkled over with Raggi, then packed in earthenware pots and left to stand for two days, at the end of which period the rice is converted into a semi-liquid mass; this material is termed Tapej and is used to excite fermentation in molasses wash. The wash is set up at a density of 25∞ Balling and afterwards the process is as usual. In this proceeding the starch in the rice is converted by means of certain micro-organisms _Chlamydomucor oryzae_ into sugar and then forms a suitable habitat for the reproduction of yeasts which are probably present in the Raggi but may find their way into the Tapej from other sources. About 100 lbs. of rice are used to pitch 1,000 gallons of wash." CHAPTER XI. ALCOHOLOMETRY.