1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. 443 



less frequently, in the fields where it is to remain. These are carefully 

 and laboriously manured and worked up by the treading of cattle : and 

 in May, the task of removing the young plants from the nurseries falls 

 on the women and children, who work cheerfully under a sun which 

 would be fatal to the European. They are also the only reapers and 

 weeders of the province, and are, in truth, little better than slaves. 

 During the wet season, and indeed at all seasons, the crop is kept con- 

 stantly inundated : and had Collins ever tried the experiment, he would 

 never have written the line " what times 'tis sweet o'er fields of rice to 

 stray." In the upper grounds the people well understand the propriety 

 of the rotation of crops : but where a copious supply of water and a 

 hot sun are conjoined, rice seems to be planted from year to year. The 

 Harvest takes place from the middle of September to that of October. 

 There are many varieties of this grain ; the best has its name from the 

 Salim district on the Punar river, S. E. of Almorah. 



Sorghum vulgare : " Joonulee :" S. Yonul. Little grown. 



Panicum fmmentaceum ; " Mandira." " Jhoongura ." " Sama.'* 



Panicum italicum : " Konee," " Kungnee," 



Panicum miliaceum : " Cheena." 



Eleusine corocana : " Mundooa." The latest crop to ripen, and 

 most extensively grown, though a bitter and indigestible food. The grain 

 is rudely broad-cast, and afterwards transplanted and regularly distri- 

 buted during the first heavy showers of June. 



Zea mays : " Mukkuee." " Bhootta." 



Amaranthus anardana : " Chooa." " Ramdana." 



Amaranthus speciosus : The drooping ditto : gardens. 



Fagopyrum vulgare : " Ogul." Buckwheat. 



Perilla ocimoides : " Bhungura." 



Sesamum orientale :* "Til." The white variety, " Tilee." 



* This plant, (with black seed) wild everywhere in the Kumaoon. Bhabur is largely 

 cultivated as high up as Almorah. Dr. H. H. Wilson, in an interesting paper in a recent 

 number of the R. A. Society's Journal, comparing the Indian festivals with those of Eu- 

 rope, remarks the custom of the Greeks on occasion of marriages to mix Sesamum in the 

 svveetmeets distributed to the friends and guests of the parties. The same practice is 

 universal amongst the people of Kumaoon ; " Luddoo" being the vehicle used. From the 

 Sanscrit ' til,' to be unctuous, probably comes the Latin Tilia ; our English " Lime" may 

 allude to the same honey-like exudation from the leaves. 



