HILLS NEAR RAJAMAHALL. QJ 



watering their fields ; which in fact might not be pos- 

 sible, from their situation. This last season their 

 crops in general failed, from want of rain : on these 

 occasions, the mountaineers cut more wood and 

 bamboos, and make greater quantities of charcoal, for 

 which they find a ready mart in the lowlands, and 

 exchange it for grain. From this resource, and the 

 thriftyness of some among themselves, who are pro- 

 vident, they averted a famine during the great scar- 

 city in 1769 and 1770: many of the inhabitants of 

 the plains retired to the hiils, where they got a sub- 

 sistence; but, having associated and mixed with 

 the highlanders, they of course lost their casts, and 

 therefore many remained with them. The Takalloo 

 is the most productive of any of their grain, and is 

 their chief subsistence. There are no esculent herbs, 

 nor garden-stuff on the hills. Pungdoallee, the same 

 as Soot nee in the lowlands, grows wild, and is larger 

 than the Sootnee. In times of scarcity, SingJah (in 

 Moors, Jlngoor) is found in the jungles, but it must 

 be boiled in several waters, or well roasted, and is a 

 dangerous unwholesome food : of much the same na- 

 ture is Kindallee, which is sliced thin and boiled in 

 sour waters, otherwise it is poisonous. The Mango- 

 tree, Tamarind, Kuthul, Bale, Barrel, Bayer, Movo- 

 iva/t, Jamon, Phulsah, Dwarf Ciu/joor, that yields a 

 bad kind of date, and Keand, with others peculiar to 

 the hills, grow wild. Their domestic animals arc 

 hogs, goats, and fowls ; they have also some dogs 

 and cats ; the wild animals are in general the san^e 

 that are met with in the plains, except a species pi 

 Vol. IV. H large 



