Messrs. Burton and TFaiw's Journey into the Batalc Country. 511 



Implements of Husbandry. 

 The implements of luisbandry of the BataJcs are principally made of 

 wood. They break up the new ground with a hoe, -somewhat resembling 

 a rake, with four or five teeth, about an inch broad and twelve or sixteen 

 inches long. Some art is requisite to avoid breaking it ; but used in the 

 manner they adopt, it is capable of great effect. In the plain of Silin- 

 dung, where the soil is sandy and soft, the plough alone is used, and is 

 worked by the buffalo. The rice here is formed into beds of six or eight 

 yards in length by two or three in breadth, with intervening passages 

 for irrigation. The whole plain is thus divided and plentifully watered. 

 They reap the rice with a small iron sickle, somewhat resembling our own ; 

 and beat it out of the husk with a wooden pestle and mortar. Although they 

 have thus far advanced in ingenuity, and have reduced the powers of the 

 Ijuffalo to the drudgery of the field, they still labour at a great disadvantage. 



Tenure of Land. 

 Property in land seems scarcely yet established. The plain of Sili?idung, 

 however, from its superior fertility, is claimed by four chiefs, whose 

 respective portions are of various extent. They jjarcel it out for culti- 

 vation to the chiefs of villages, for a slight acknowledgment, in produce 

 or otherwise, and these again to individuals under themselves, generally in 

 consideration of a short term of personal service. 



Manifaciures. 



Tiie progress of the arts and manufactures is much on an equality with 

 that of agriculture. The fabrication and dyeing of cloth devolve solely 

 upon the female sex, and as but a small quantity of foreign cloth is im- 

 ported, affords employment to a considerable number. Girls are taught, 

 while young, to spin and wind off thread, which are performed with a wheel 

 and reel, similar to those of India, They gradually learn to dye the thread 

 and set the loom, and by the time they reach the age of puberty, to weave 

 a piece of cloth. The loom consists simply of a couple of stretchers for 

 the woof, which is opened at every passage of the shuttle or web with the 

 fingers. This tedious and dilatory process necessarily renders the cloth 

 expensive ; and, it may be presumed, good imitations of it would find a 

 ready and advantageous sale. A rather superior kind of white pottery is 

 produced in the vicinity of the lake. Large dishes and platters, glazed and 



Vol. I. 3 X 



