1840.] Account of KhyrfooT and the Fortress of Bukur. 1101 



wHcli shelter a host of lazy Moojawiirs, who besides the allowance they 

 derive from government, are otherwise a burthen on the people. 



Sales of land are rather frequent, and the law compels a proprietor before 

 he disposes of his estate to a stranger, to signify his intention to his neigh- 

 bours whose property adjoins. If they all decline to purchase at the 

 price offered by the stranger, the proprietor concludes the bargain, and 

 presents him with a title deed, signed by the neighbours, to prevent any 

 one disputing his claim hereafter. 



Grain is trodden from the husk, out of doors, by six and eight oxen 

 abreast, and beaten afterwards with sticks to remove what particles 

 remain in the ear. It is winnowed in small shovel-shaped baskets of 

 moonj grass, and removed from the field on carts or boats. The process of 

 agriculture is cheap and slovenly, and two and three kinds of grain, and 

 grain and vegetables, are mixed in the same field. The Ameers let their 

 land to tenants by the year, and it is in a worse state than that of the 

 farmer, who superintends his land himself. Tamarisk stumps half burnt 

 encumber the fields, which are seldom weeded after the grain appears. 

 The cuts from the Indus are narrow, crooked, and carelessly dug, and 

 the earth constantly falls back into the cavities, and the peasant has to 

 do his work again. 



Cattle sheds are built of reeds and tamarisk boughs, which are an imper- 

 fect protection from the weather. There are no mangers and troughs 

 to receive fodder, which is scattered about, trodden under foot, and much 

 of it wasted. 



In the Purgunnah of Moghulee, labourers who cut wheat, gram, sesamum, 

 mustard, &c., receive two patees, or pinkees* daily of the grain they reap, 

 and their labours commence early, and terminate at noon, as it is impossible 

 to work later in summer, from the intense heat. The payment is always 

 in winnowed grain at the end of harvest. Women are not employed to 

 reap corn and sugar-cane. Joowaree and Bajree, are reaped in November, 

 and the labourer works from sunrise till sunset, and earns thxee patees 

 or pinkees of grain ; a woman only half the quantity. For cutting rice, 

 the remuneration is two or three pinkees per diem. For sugar-cane two 

 annas {3d.) a day, and five or six pys {2ld.) for hemp and tobacco ; women 

 earn only half the sum. The farmer divides the pea harvest into seven 

 portions, two of which he gives to the reaper. Sometimes the Zumeendar 

 gives servants, permanently in his employ, one-fourth of his share of the 

 crop, which seems a better mode of remuneration than fixed wages, as it 

 closely allies their interest with his own, and they gain and lose in 

 proportion. 



* A Pinkee is rather more than | of a seer, and two Patees equal 1* seer. 



