coll 



(h) /' As soon as the ears of the grain make their appearance, an 

 army of watchers called kanganies (literally eye- watchers) is let loose. 

 As they get no pay for the duty and are for the most part the/)ld 

 militia of the country, on whom this kind of work is imposed since 

 fighting time had departed, and get a grain fee on the crop they 

 watch, their watch is at best often lax. 



(c) " When the crop arrives towards maturity, it is the turn of 

 sirkar village officers and the village headmen (called mirasidars here) 

 to go round the fields and note down estimates of the crop. That 

 there is considerable wooing and feeing at this stage goes for the 

 saying. As in other matters, so in this, the race is to the rich and 

 woe to the poor. 



(d) " As soon as the village officers have done and reported the 

 first estimate, down come special estimators from the taluk cutcherries 

 to check the first estimate. Their demands have equally to be 

 satisfied. Then comes the business of obtaining permission to cut 

 and stack the crops. Here again another stage, where much feeing 

 and grudge-paying take place. If permission is delayed just two 

 days, an adverse shower of rain irreparably damages the crop on the 

 field, or over-exposure to the sun renders the grain unmarketable. 



(e) ''Then comes the threshing and division of the grain on the 

 threshing-floor. What takes place then may be imagined. If the 

 outturn is less than the estimate, the ryot is made responsible for 

 the difference without any further ado. If it is more, woe be to the 

 estimators. The result in the latter case is often that the difierence 

 is made away with and shared half and half between the ryot and the 

 officers concerned. During all this time the unpaid army of the 

 watchers continues on duty. 



(/) " Now the sirkar grain is removed to the granaries. Is all 

 danger over now ? By no means. A fresh series of frauds com- 

 mences. The granaries have neither impregnable walls, nor are their 

 locks Chubb's patents. The half-famished vettiyan, the hereditary 

 watchman of the village, mounts guard, and he and the village head- 

 men are personally held responsible for any deficiency which may 

 occur on the re-measurement of the grain out of the granary. It 

 often happens the poor vettiyan, stung by hunger, is driven to certain 

 deeds much against his conscience. Scaling over the mud walls or 

 forcing open the too easily yielding village locks, he helps himself from 

 time to time to what his urgent wants may dictate. It is not often he 

 is able to replace, even if he was so minded, what he has appropriated 

 before the day of reckoning comes. This comes sometimes soon and 

 sometimes late, depending on the time when the paddy is required for 

 sirkar purpose, or for sale to purchasers. When it does come, there 

 is crimination and recrimination without end, the vettiyan charging 

 the mirasidars, and the mirasidars the vettiyan. The sirkar officials, 

 to vindicate its robbed rights, come down heavily on both, and often 

 both are ruined. If the misappropriation is made in very small 

 quantities, the way of replacement is very ingenious ; a quantity of 

 chali" or a quantity of loose earth or a quantity of big-grained sand is 

 put in to make up the measure. 



ig) " Time passes and the months denoting favorable markets 

 come round. There now remains the business of disposing of thg 



