Mr. HoDGsoi^s Description of the Village of Pudu-vayal. 81 



The lots are not drawn for all the land at once, but in subdivisions 

 according to quality : for instance, for the division nearest the reservoir, as 

 being less liable to the effects of drought, first ; then for the next division, 

 as being further removed from the reservoir ; and then for the third, which 

 perhaps receives an adequate supply of water once in two or three years 

 only. It is thus apparent, that the object in drawing lots for the annual 

 or periodical occupation of the land, is to secure to each person interested 

 a proportion of each description of land, viz. of the best, the good, and 

 the indifferent ; in other words, of the best watered, second best, and so 

 on. Each of these subdivisions of land has an appropriate name in the 

 village register. 



The agricultural labourers employed by the cultivators of this village are 

 of three descriptions : — 1st. Slaves,* transferred with the other privileges of 

 the village occupants, when those privileges are sold or mortgaged ; ^d. 

 Bondsmen, who may be said to have mortgaged themselves, and who can re- 

 deem or work out their bondage ; 3d. Hired labourers. The slaves, bond- 

 labourers, and hired labourers, are remunerated or supported by allowances of 

 grain and donations of cloth for clothing ; their families have the benefit of 

 gleanings and of the sweepings of the treading-floor.t They have small plots 

 of ground for gardens, free from tax ; pay no poll or house-tax ; and have 

 presents on marriages or births in their families, and on the new year. The 

 females of their families earn something by beating the husk from the rice ; 

 by planting the young rice-plants during the season of sowing and planting ; 

 and by doing other labours in the village, rearing poultry, and carrying 

 eggs, poultry, &c. for sale. There did not appear to be much difference in 

 the treatment experienced by the agricultural slaves and that received by 

 agricultural free labourers, except that the latter were paid a larger portion 

 of their remuneration in money, and found themselves in clothes. 



* I was shewn in this village a deed of gift of a female, of the agricultural class of slaves, 

 and of her family, dated 131 years ago, written on a palm-leaf of three leaves, curiously and 

 naturally joined, as indicating the sale of three persons, being for a woman and two children ; 

 also two other deeds relating to slaves ; of these I was promised copies, but did not receive 

 them. An essay on agricultural slavery in tlie East-Indies will, I trust, be read to the Society 

 at no distant period by one of its members ; and authentic information on this subject may be 

 looked fur from India. 



\ All the grain is trodden out of the straw by driving cattle over it, tied together by the 

 neck. 



Vol. II. M 



