( 101 ; 



trench four feet long, two feet broad, aud four feet deep. On the edges of this 

 trench he sets up six gharas in couples, of which the necks join, the gharas 

 being slanted towards one another. In each of the gliaras he makes a small 

 hoie on the side near the fire to let the heat well in, and a larger hole on tho 

 outer side to admit a spoon (kalchhd) to take out the sand. The spoon has an 

 iron cup and a wooden handle two feet long : it will hold 2H>s. sand, and costs 

 nine annas. The trench is then closed in, leaving the upper hole in the gharas 

 exposed ; a hole at the end lets off extra heat aud acts as safety-valve. At the 

 mouth of the oven a framework of wood is. placed through which the fuel is 

 put in. The fuel consists of all the sweepings of the village streets and the leaves 

 from groves. A man will hire a grove for a year, paying 8 annas per hundred 

 trees, preferring mango trees, as their leaves are heavy, and lie where they fall. 

 As they fall, the bhurji collects them into high stacks. Ordinary river sand or 

 the sand brought up in digging wells is used. Near the oven two hollows are 

 made in the ground. In one an earthen pan (kunda) is put, in which tha 

 hot sand from the gharas is first put, and the grain put on it and mixed. 

 Taking up handfuls of mixed sand and grain, the Ihurji separates the former 

 from the latter through a bamboo sieve ; some grains are parched more than, 

 once. For this purpose some of the gharas near the door are kept less 

 hot, so that the grain is first given a half parch (kalhdrna.) The parcher is 

 paid in cash half-pice per seer, or in grain three or four chittacks. 



103. The following grains are usually parched : 



Gram is parched twice, and is eaten simply parched or split (" deoli") ; 

 it sells at fourteen seers the rupee. 



Wheat is parched twice, and mixed with " gur" is made into cakes called 

 " gurdhani." 



Barley is parched twice, mixed with much sand. For mixture with gram- 

 flour (called " sattu") barley is prepared by being first wetted, half dried (pha- 

 ra/tm), pounded in a mortar, and then parched. 



On every llth day of the month the oven is closed, and on " Sheo- 

 bart" (Phdgunbadi teras puja) is performed with water, rice, flowers, and 

 ghi. 



104. The bhurji also extracts his castor oil for the cultivator. First 

 slightly warming (kalhdrna) the seeds in a potsherd, he pounds them in a stone 

 mortar (a wooden one would absorb the oil). The pounded seed (lugdi or 

 khadwe) is then thrown into pots of hot water, when the oil floats to the sur- 

 face and the refuse falls to the bottom. The oil is then skimmed off, and is 

 obtained in the proportion of one-third of gross weight The lugdi is used aa 

 fuel. 



