SUBTERRANEAN GRANARIES. 25 



the beds of some lakes after the water has receded, and several kinds of 

 leaves. Their staple food, and that of all the lower classes in Mysore, is 

 nigi {Cynosurus corocanus), a small grain about the size of No. 7 shot, and 

 hardly distinguishable, except in being a little larger, from common turnip- 

 seed. The price of this varies in good and bad seasons from 100 lb. down 

 to 20 lb. per rupee. During the recent famine it has been 11. Two 

 pounds are required by a man ^jcr diem. 



The grain is prepared for food by grinding it in the common double-stone 

 hand-mill. One woman will grind five or six pounds per hour. The flour 

 is boiled into a stiff pudding in an earthen pot, being stirred the while witli 

 a stick, and is then made into balls. This is the chief food of all the 

 labouring classes in Mysore and many parts of Southern India. Tlie poor 

 cannot afford to eat rice, which is ordinarily three times the price of ragi ; 

 but even if procurable, rice is not regarded with favour by those who have 

 hard work to do. Some condiment is commonly used with it, generally a 

 mixture of chillies, coriander, tamarind, garlic, onions, and salt. Meat, pulse, 

 or greens are boiled with the condiments if procurable. 



Eagi is stored in subterranean granaries. They are usually situated on 

 somewhat high ground, and in gravelly soil or decomposed rock. Their 

 construction is simple. A circular liole about two feet in diameter is dug 

 to three feet in depth, when a domed chamber of an oval shape is excavated, 

 capable of containing from ten to twenty cart-loads of grain. Neither ma- 

 sonry nor props are used. A little straw is laid on the floor, and against the 

 walls of the chamber to a third of their height, when the grain is filled in. 

 A slab is placed over the pit at the bottom of the sliort shaft that enters it, 

 and the shaft is then filled in with earth. Eagi thus stored will keep for 

 an indefinite number of years. It is safe from insects and rats, and is not 

 easily accessible to thieves, as the pits are generally situated near the vil- 

 lage — sometimes in the streets — and it takes some little time to dig to the 

 grain. Moreover it is highly dangerous to enter a ragi-pit tiU twelve hours 

 or more after it has been opened. The carbonic acid gas generated therein 

 is instantaneously fatal, and though natives are well aware of this, accidents 

 frequently happen through their descending the pits before they are well 

 aired. Three brothers died in this way near Morlay in one pit in attempt- 

 ing to rescue each other when overcome by the fumes of the gas. 



In former days, when villages were subject to pillage by Brinjarries and 

 gang-robbers, grain-pits were often dug in the fields and ploughed over for 

 concealment. It occasionally happened that through the death of the owner 

 or other eventuality, the existence of certain pits was forgotten, and these 

 arc not unfrequently found at the present day, many probably two or 



