Hunting Pheasants- Method 3- Using Intoxicants

Raksi being brewed

The method I'm  going to explain today is for those who are not into hunting as a profession or those who do not possess hunting rifles. It's a simple method by which you can capture the pheasants which frequent around your fields or homes. Follow the instructions and you can  have a change to your palate. This method is often used  in the villages of Nepal.

What you need is a handful of jaand, in the solid form.
Jaand is prepared from millet. First you need to boil some millet with appropriate amount of water. When you can feel with your fingers that the millet grains have become soft, take the jaand out of the pot and spread it on a sack. Mix some marcha( basically it is yeast) thoroughly with the cooked millet.

When the jaand is a bit cool, you need to store it in a plastic drum. The surrounding of the drum should be warm; during winter wrapping warm blankets around the drum is suggested. Wrapping warm materials around the drum is suggested for warm weather too. Wait for 3 to 5 days until the room gets filled with the intoxicating aroma of the jaand that has woken. That's what the Nepalese say for the jaand which has become ready for serving.

The longer you put the jaand in the drum, the stronger it gets. Jaand can be used to prepare raksi, an alcoholic drink. You need some dishes which resemble the picture above. A pot to cook jaand (A), a pot with holes to let the steam from pot A go to pot C. Pot C should be conical and has to be refilled regularly with cold water so that the coldness helps in the condensation of the vapour arising in Pot B drip into the green pot placed in the middle of pot B. Pot B is where the raksi gets collected.

Jaand can be taken with different variations. I just explained how raksi can be made. Jaand can be taken directly from the drum too...that is ...if you had mixed some water while storing it in the drum. Then you can drink the liquid which lies at the bottom. That drink is known as Nigaar. The solid part can be taken out and squeezed through a chapani (it's metallic in Nepal but a mosquito net would serve the purpose equally well) adding some water to the jaand is called chyaang. Chyaang is usually white and thick.

The jaand which has been stored for a long time can be served as Tongba, fill it in a jug, add some hot water, let the water cool down a bit and pull the juice out through a straw pipe.

But what we are concerned here is about hunting pheasants with the help of this jaand. People usually note the place where the pheasants frequent much. They might have been lured there because of the rich availability of grains. You can note that place and take out a handful of strong jaand from your drum. Plant the intoxicant and wait for the pheasants to arrive. From your hiding place when you see that the pheasants have eaten a lot of their favorite grains(millet-that is what jaand is usually made of), and when you realise that they have had too much of their share, when you see them drunk,intoxicated..............when they can not control their movements........you can jump out and catch the pheasants as many as you can........
                                           Happy hunting...............................