Ixv 



A porter taking a load is paid one buUah of grain or As. 2 for a 

 whole day. 



Dhdrdpuram, Coimhatore District. — Agricultural labourers are hired 

 in the beginning of Chithirai (April) for a year. They change their 

 service when their term expires. They seldom borrow from their 

 masters, but when they do, they repay the loan at the end of their term 

 by the sale-proceeds of their cattle. A male labourer gets 20 bullahs of 

 paddy for labour on wet lands in towns, and 16 bullahs of dry grain in 

 husk for labour on dry lands in villages as his monthly wages. A 

 labourer on wet lands gets also annually a mlagai/ of paddy with a pre- 

 sent of one or one and-a-half rupees or cloths of equivalent value for 

 approved service. Where the labourer does not own a house in the 

 village in which he is employed, the master provides for him a thatched 

 hut to live in, to be surrendered to the employer on the termination of 

 the period of service. The labourer's wife works in the master's fields 

 at seed-time and harvest and elsewhere at other times. A woman's 

 daily wages are one hullah of dry grain in husk worth about one anna. 

 For reaping, a man gets 6 puddies and a woman 5 puddles a day. 



The labourer's diet consists of boiled grain and soup prepared of 

 mochai or avarai (beans) with coriander and capsicum ground into a 

 paste mixed with salt. A rag is his clothing and hut his home. The 

 labourers are strong and hardy and are not overrun with vermin and 

 cutaneous disorders as a class. The women, although untidy, are fully 

 clothed. 



Poildchi. — There are now two kinds of servants, called padiyals, 

 employed by the farmer to cultivate the lands, and pungals. The padi- 

 yals are engaged for a year, the year running from Chittirai to Chittirai 

 (April) in some places and Thai to Thai (January) in others. The 

 padiyals invariably receive an advance of money varying from Rs. 10 

 to Rs. 30, which they have to repay on quitting the master's service. 

 The advance is taken by the padiyals out of necessity and partly in 

 order that they might have a hold on their employers against summary 

 dismissal of their services at the pleasure of the masters. The padiyals 

 are paid monthly in kind. Persons between 12 and 18 years of age 

 are paid from 12 to 16 bullahs of grain according to age and nature 

 and efficiency of work. Those over 20 years of age receive 18 bullahs. 

 Besides the wages in grain, each padiyal is provided with a cumbli or 

 As. 8 to Rs. 1-8-0 for the purchase of one. He is also supplied with 2 

 pairs of slippers. The wife and children of the padiyal are paid for 

 whatever work they perform, the wages of a female for transplanting 

 being 8 pies or one bullah of grain. If the padiyals leave their masters' 

 service before the expiry of the term of their service, the masters seize 

 their cattle and sell them and recoup themselves for the money 

 advanced to the laborers, tf, on the other hand^ the masters dispense 

 with the services of the padiyals, they cannot recover the lo^yas before 

 the full year of engagement expires. 



The pungal goes to a rich farmer and for a share of the crop 

 undertakes to cultivate his lands. The farmer advances the cattle, 

 implements, seed and money or grain that is necessary for the subsist- 

 ence of the pungal. He also gives each family a house. He takes no 

 share in the labour, which is all performed by the pungal and his wife 



