1840.] Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Buhur. 1109 



double tlie quantity of cotton seed. Cattle on the banks of the Indus are 



subsisted on grain stalks. 



The bullock-driver in Khyrpore gets five pys a day, and a boy only 



three pys (10 shillings, and ^s. 5d. a month). He works from morning 



till night, and eats his meals vrhen he can, and frequently falls a sleep 



from fatigue, in his master's absence. Some Zumeendars hire bullocks 



for wells at two tukkes each per diem. 



A tenant pays his landlord six rupees a harvest for'the use of a wheel, 



calculated as follows : — 



Rs. As. 



The two wheels (chukur), 4 



The Kanjur, 8 



The Lut, 8 



The Driver's seat, 4 



The Parch trough, 4 



The Nesur trough, 8 



6 



The tenant is at the charge of feeding and keeping the bullocks, and in 

 some instances repairs the wheel. 



The small quantity of rain that falls in Sind, makes it almost needless to 

 store grain. The farmer heaps it in the air in a high and dry situation, 

 digs a trench round it, to drain off rain, and covers it with two or three 

 layers of mats made of gondlee, a kind of reed. He adds a compost of clay 

 and chaff, which he beats into a cake, and smooths with his hands. A heap 

 (puUee) plastered with cow-dung, will bear the weight of a horseman, and 

 lasts several years. I saw their power to resist water at Sukhur in July 

 1839, where some heaps were exposed to remarkably heavy rain for two 

 days without suffering injury. 



The peasants of Moghulee purgunnah, where date trees are plentiful, 

 cover their grain with mats made of the leaves, and to give additional 

 strength to the heaps, sometimes put a second covering of mats of the peel 

 of moonj grass, and over them one or two coats of clay and chopped straw. 

 Grain is thus preserved in situations where there are no means of 

 transporting it to the markets, and on the banks of rivers and canals 

 where the people inhabit temporary huts. But the farmer transports 

 his grain, whenever it is possible, to the mud floor of his cottage, which 

 is smeared with cow-dung, but has neither mats nor carpet, and spreads 

 it in the sun, five or six times a year to expel the weevils which would 

 otherwise destroy it in a few months. Wheat, rice, chunna (Cicer arie- 

 tinum), bajra (Holcus spicatus) and moong (Phaseolus mungo) will keep in 



