CULTIVATORS AND HARVEST 171 



betel vines which wreathe the pillars of that fairy 

 hall, it is softened with balmy moisture, and laden 

 with fragrance and scent to woo your senses in 

 perfect tune with the tinkling music of the water 

 and the enchanting beauty of the whole scene. 



In a large hut among these shades, with bananas 

 waving their banner leaves over the smooth and 

 well-swept yard in front, where the children play, 

 lives the family that cultivates the garden. They 

 are a sect of Brahmins, but very unbrahminical, 

 unsophisticated, industrious, temperate, kind and 

 hospitable. Other Brahmins despise them and wish 

 to deny them the name, because they have soiled 

 their priestly hands with agriculture. But -they 

 return the contempt, and walk in the way of their 

 fathers, a way which leads them among the purest 

 pleasures that this life affords and keeps them from 

 many of its more sordid temptations. Perhaps the 

 picture has its darker shades too. I have not seen 

 them, and why should I look for them ? 



The betel nut harvest is something of the nature 

 of an acrobatic performance, for the crop is not on 

 the ground, but on poles forty or fifty feet high. 

 This is the manner in which it is gathered. The 

 farmer, attended by his wife, goes out, and slipping 

 a loose loop of rope over his feet to keep them together, 

 so that when he gets the trunk of a tree between 

 them it may fit like a wedge, he clasps one of the 

 trees with his hands and goes up at a surprising rate. 

 He carries with him a long rope, and when he reaches 



