212 MISCELLANEOUS. 



wild, waste, or uncultivated land, and embraces everything 

 of the sort, from primeval forests down to grass rumnalis.* 

 Before the middle of March all these tracts in the low 

 country, which during the cold weather have afforded 

 grazing for their cattle, are burnt by the villagers to get 

 rid of the long and coarse grass, so as to ensure a young 

 growth with the advent of the rains. The ashes caused 

 by these burnings fertilise the soil, and in Burmah the rice 

 fields are enriched by the ashes of the long straw, which is 

 left standing with a similar object. The result of the 

 conflagrations is to deprive the greater part of the country 

 of cover for game of all kinds, which then betake them- 

 selves to areas which may have escaped the ordeal. Certain 

 low-lying districts are annually exempted from burning, in 

 order to afford grazing for immense herds of cattle collected 

 from various villages and placed under charge of gowlees 

 (herds) during the hot weather, who drive them to fresh 

 fields and pastures new, as the grazing becomes exhausted in 

 a given district. 



A few so-called " mango showers " fall at intervals during 

 the hot weather months of April and May, and the young 

 grass soon begins to sprout, under their genial influence, 

 in combination with the top dressing of ashes already 

 furnished by the fires ; but grazing is not in sufficient 

 quantity to tempt the larger kinds of herbivorous game 

 from their fastnesses before the middle of June. There- 

 fore the hot weather months are those usually devoted to 

 tiger shooting, as these animals, together with those they 

 prey upon, cannot exist without water and shade, and have 

 then to concentrate in the comparatively restricted areas 

 which fulfil these requirements. The majority of the 

 smaller tanks and nullahs throughout the country will 

 * Large expanses of meadow. 



