Vol. I, No. 8.] The People of Mungeli Tahsii. 183 
NES. 
sown, and this making of a circle around the field is called 
. pcuding the fields.” Is there a connection in these two prac- 
tices ! 
46. Binding the Rain.—Mr. Crooke, in his Folklore of North- 
erm India, tells of various devices for binding the rainfall. In 
this district there is the belief that certain persons have the 
power to cause the rain to cease. It is said that the merchant 
when he has stored away large quantities of grain to be sold at a 
profit, will gather some rain from the eaves of the house in an 
earthen vessel, and this vessel filled with rain-water he will bury 
under the grinding mill. The consequence is that from that time 
forward the thunder will be heard rumbling in the distance like 
the grinding of a flour-mill, but there will be no more rain. I 
think it is said that the rain must be gathered from the eaves 
of a house at the Pora Festival. 
47. Counting and keeping Records.—The method of enu- 
meration followed by the most ignorant people of the district is 
that of counting by fives. For instance, if a man is counting 
fruit, he lays aside five which make one ganda. Four groups 
of five make one kori, and five groups of kories make one hun- 
dred. According to Bates’ Hindi Dictionary, a ganda means four, 
in this district, however, it invariably means five. The great maj- 
ority of the people in the district cannot count further than ten. 
The usual way to state high numbers is in koris or twenties— 
160 rupees is eight kories, and so on. Intermediate numbers are 
expressed as follows: 46=six over two kories; 115=five less six 
kories, and so on. The grain measures most in use are also on 
the same principle. Twenty kaids make one khandt, and twenty 
khandies make one gard. When grain is being measured at the 
threshing floor, the record is kept by making one small pile of 
grain (a handful in quantity) for every khandi. When grain 
is given out to the labourers from the granary, the record is 
made on the earthen wall of the granary in cow-dung,—one stroke 
of the finger dipped in cow-dung means one ata, when twenty 
strokes have been made they are crossed out and a cipher takes 
their place and the perpendicular strokes start again from one to 
twenty. 
48, Some Agricultural Practices—(1) With regard to the 
sowing of linseed, there is a belief that if the seed is sown from a 
woollen blanket and cattle graze in a field grown from seed thus 
sown, the cattle will surely die. I questioned a farmer in the 
Damoh District on this poimt and found that the same belief 
prevails there also. (2) It is also said that if iron in any shape 
should come in contact with peas when they are being sown, 
the seeds will not germinate. An iron or metallic spoon is 
never used to stir the peas when they are being boiled as dall, for 
the metal will cause the dall to be tough and indigestible. (3) 
When the rice or kodo harvest is about to be completed and the 
reaper comes to cut the last sheaf, he will throw it up into the air 
and use some of the obscene phrases which are used in the Hola 
Festival. (4) When the grain has been threshed in the threshing 
