PRIMITIVE TREATMENT OF FORESTS. 65 



them to a rude tribe, called Malayar or Malay -cudies. The 

 Malayar, who dwells on any hill of this kind, has the 

 exclusive hereditary right of cultivating it ; but while not 

 occupied by this labour he and his family must work for 

 the proprietor, Hulcara, at the allowance of provisions 

 usually given to slaves. The Malayar may give up his 

 possession when he pleases, which secures him from being 

 ill-used by the proprietor ; for such people on an estate 

 add greatly to its value. They work for their master ten 

 months in the year ; but have six or seven miles to come 

 and go from their hills to their master's fields ; they labour 

 only six hours in the day. In this neighbourhood no tax 

 is imposed on this kind of land ; but in some districts the 

 Malayars pay annually a small sum to Government for 

 each hill. 



' The following is the manner in which this sort of 

 cultivation, called Cumri, is performed. In the beginning 

 of the dry season the Malayar cuts down all the trees and 

 bushes from a certain space of ground, and before the 

 rains set in he burns them, the ground is then dug with 

 a sharp bamboo, and sown with shamay (panicum miliare\ 

 ragi (cynosurus carocanus), rice, and various cucurbitaceous 

 plants. The grains are sown separately ; but seeds of the 

 cucurbitaceous fruits are mixed with all the farinaceous 

 crops. With the ragi are also mixed the seeds of hibary 

 (cytisus cajan), and of abary (dolichos lablafy. Next year 

 another piece of ground must be cleared, the former not 

 being fit for cultivation in less than twelve years. In 

 Tulava, this is the only kind of cultivation of dry grains, 

 although much of the ground seems fit for the purpose ; 

 but the natives have a notion that no high ground can 

 produce anything, unless a great deal of timber has been 

 burned upon it. 



' They therefore consider the greater part of the country 

 totally useless, except for pasture or hay, and very little of 

 it produces the proper grass. One kind of grass only that 

 is produced in Tulava is eatable ; and when I proposed to 

 the natives to destroy the bad kinds, and sow the seed of 



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