( 3 ) 



20. During the cold season east winds are prevalent. At the commencement of the 

 hot season north winds are frequent, which later on veer round and become west winds. 

 South-west winds prevail during the monsoon. During February and March hailstorms are 

 not unusual. 



21. The average rainfall at Jubbulpore up to the year 1886 was 52 inches. Mo 

 the year's fall is received during the south-west monsoon, the winter rains being ._, 

 variable and occasionally failing entirely. Accurate data concerning the rainfall of the 8 

 years since 1886 are given below : 



Most of 

 very 



ARTICLE 5. Agricultural Customs and Wants of the Population. 



22. The great majority of the population is essentially agricultural. About 40 per 

 cent, are of Aryan extraction, the remainder consisting of Gonds, Kols, Bharias and other 

 aborigines. The amount of forest produce required for their dwellings, agricultural imple- 

 ments, &c., is not large and is almost entirely supplied by the existing large areas of malgu- 

 zari jungle, being for the most part obtained free under the ancient custom of nistar. The 

 income obtained from agriculture is always supplemented by profits derived from cattle- 

 farming on a more or less extensive scale and the supply of grazing therefore becomes for us 

 a question of considerable importance. 



23. The habitations of the people may be roughly divided into 3 classes, viz., (a) those 

 occupied by landowners and members of the trading and literary classes ; (6) those inhabit- 

 ed by artisans and petty cultivators of Aryan stock ; and (c) those which afford some sort of 

 shelter to village menials and aborigines. 



24. Houses of type (a), but few in number, consist of a main, often double-storied 

 block forming one side of a quadrangle, the other three sides being enclosed by granaries and 

 stabling. The walls are of masonry built up inside a timber frame-work. The front of the 

 building often consists of a reception room for friends and visitors entered through an open 

 verandah supported on carved teak posts. The entrance to the courtyard is through the front 

 block and is closed by a massive iron-bound wooden door. The building is roofed with tiles 

 laid on split bamboos resting on sawn rafters. The principal woods employed are teak, sal, 

 saj, jamun and haldu. The value of timber used in such constructions often amounts to 

 Rs.500. 



25. Buildings of the second type (6), comprising quite nine-tenths of houses of the 

 average village are never double-storied. They usually have substantial mud walls, 

 concealing an interior timber frame-work and are roofed with tiles resting on split 

 bamboo and round rafters. Every house has an open verandah supported on wooden posts, 

 which are sometimes gaudily painted. Occasionally there is a small back-yard enclosed by 

 a mud wall and sometimes a small garden is attached, fenced in with dead thorns or a quick 

 hedge of small shrubs. Tiles are almost universal and thatch is rarely used. Cattle-pens 

 are open to the sky and are usually fenced in with dead thorns. Timber of the inferior 

 kinds is generally used in these houses, neither teak nor sal, as a rule, being within the 

 means of the owners. A small house of this class would measure 12 15 feet X 7 8 feet, the 

 walls usually being 5 7 feet in height. The almost round, curved central tie-beam (about 

 10 inches in diameter) rests on two uprights of 8 9 inches square section. Above this, sup- 



' ported by a sort of triple queen's post, comes the ridge pole, which consists of two round 

 poles 6 7 inches in diameter and as many feet long, joined together over the queen's post 

 and with their ends supported by 4 hip rafters of somewhat similar dimensions. The laths 

 supporting the tiles are fastened to the ridge pole and hip rafters. The whole woodwork, 

 including the single door, rarely costs more than a few rupees and lasts about 10 12 years. 



26. Dwellings of the third type are usually squalid, one-roomed thatched huts, the 

 walls of which consist of wattling, which is sometimes plastered over with a mixture of clay 

 and cowdung. The posts are of seja, dhawa or ghiria and the thatch is laid over siharu, 

 sometimes ningori, branches spread flat over a light bamboo trellis. 



27. On the outskirts of the larger and more wealthy Aryan villages, enclosures of 

 various sizes, called " khallians," are made for the purpose of threshing and storing newly 

 garnered crops. These enclosures consist of a dead fence of seja, tendu or ghiria posts, 

 against which are fixed branches of ber, khair or bamboos. 



