THE RICE-FIELDS OF INDIA 155 



swamps of South Carolina and in the rich alluvial plains of the 

 Danube and the Po, 



Along the low river banks, in the delta-lands which the rains 

 of the tropics annually change into a boundless lake, or where, 

 by artificial embankments, the waters of the mountain streams 

 have been collected into tanks for irrigation, the rice-plant 

 attains its utmost luxuriance of growth, and but rarely de- 

 ceives the hopes of the husbandman. 



The aspect of the lowland rice-fields of India and its isles is 

 very different at various seasons of the year. Where, in Java, 

 for instance, you see to-day long-legged herons gravely stalking 

 over the inundated plain partitioned by small dykes, or a yoke 

 of indolent buffaloes slowly wading through the mud, you 

 will three or four months later be charmed by the view of 

 a gracefully undulating corn-field, bearing a great resemblance 

 to our indigenous barley. Cords, to which scare-crows are at- 

 tached, traverse the field in every direction, and converge to a 

 small watch-house, erected on high poles. Here the attentive 

 villager sits, like a spider in the centre of its web, and by pulling 

 the cords, puts them from time to time into motion, whenever 

 the wind is unwilling to undertake the 

 office. Then the grotesque and noisy 

 figures begin to rustle and to caper, and 

 whole flocks of the neat little rice-bird 

 or Java sparrow {Loxia oryzivora\ rise 

 on the wing, and hurry off with all the 

 haste of guilty fright. After another j,^a sparmw. 

 month has elapsed, and the waters have 

 long since evaporated or been withdrawn, the harvest takes 

 place, and the rice-fields are enlivened by a motley crowd, 

 for all the villagers, old and young, ai-e busy reaping the golden 

 ears. 



The rice-fields offer a peculiarly charming picture when, as in 

 the mountain valleys of Ceylon, they rise in terraces along the 

 slopes. " Selecting an angular recess where two hills converge, 

 the Kandyans construct a series of terraces, raised stage above 

 stage, and retiring as they ascend along the slope of the accli- 

 vity, up which they are carried as high as the soil extends. 

 Each terrace is furnished with a low ledge in front, behind 

 which the requisite depth of water is retained during the 



