Mr. Hodgson's Description of the Village of Pudu-vciJ/al. 79 



by bad seasons or loss of ploughing cattle by disease, custom obliges the 

 sovereign, or his representative, to aid them witli advances of money, to be 

 repaid out of tlie crop of the ensuing year. 



The privileges of the original settlers in this village are held, by 

 custom, in four principal shares, and each principal share is subdivided into 

 sixteen parts, making in all sixty-four shares. 



By the custom of tlie village a principal share cannot be sold, because 

 a principal share contains the property of mau}^ ; but custom admits of 

 the sale of a subdivision of a principal share under certain limitations, also 

 defined by custom. The principal shares, viz. the four, are, or are sup- 

 posed to have been, the shares fixed when the village was first settled. 

 They have remained unaltered, if not for ages, at least for so long a period 

 as tradition or history, or tlie memory of man reaches. The subdivisions of 

 these principal shares are the portions held by the descendants of the first 

 settlers, or by the purchasers of their rights. 



The land in tliis village is cultivated with ploughs drawn by oxen, a 

 pair to each plough. Part of the land is ploughed in a dry state and part 

 in a wet state : part is sown broad-cast, and part is set with young rice 

 plants, previously raised in beds, and transplanted into the prepared mud 

 by the females of the families of the labourers and slaves. The irrigated 

 land is divided into portions of a greater or less extent, according to the 

 level of the surrounding land, and is environed with a bank of earth to 

 retain the water. One plough is considered sufficient for the cultivation of 

 from five to six canis of ground during one season of cultivation. In this 

 village a pair of strong bullocks for heavy wet-land work cost fourteen 

 pagodas, or about £5. 12s. ; a less serviceable pair, about £4. ; a still infe- 

 rior pair may be had for about £2. 15s., or £3. A pair of buffaloes would 

 be still cheaper ; but they are not in use except among the very poorest 

 class of cultivators, as they do not work well in the heat of tlie sun. 



From the poorness of the soil and large portion of the produce paid 

 as revenue, agriculture was represented as not being a profitable pursuit in 

 this village. Many of the cultivators are painters of chintz cloth, and 

 8ome deal in grain. The produce of a plough worked with two oxen and 

 one driver, is estimated in money at about £4. ; and tlie cost and charges 

 of supporting the slaves or labourers who perform field-work, replacing 

 bullocks, &c., is estimated at from £3. to £3. lOs. per plougii. In an 

 account delivered to me, and deposited in the Library of the lloyal Asiatic 



