1849.] Kdcch, Bodo and Bhimdl people. 739 



with dyes. Arhar and a few more of the superior agricultural and 

 horticultural products of the plains are occasionally grown by the 

 Bodo and Dhimals, whose chief products, however, are those given 

 above, and of them not absolutely all in one field and year, though 

 from 1 2 to 1 5 are always there, and include a good supply of vegetables, 

 condiments and cerealea, but the last deficient in the article of rice, which 

 is the principal grain eaten. Of vegetables the favorites are Bengans, 

 cucurbitacea and roots (Tha vel Kin, in their own tongues) : of cereals, 

 rice : of condiments, red peppers. Mustards are grown not for their 

 oils, nor as stimulants, but merely for eating like parched peas. The 

 oil seeds are fried and are relished in that state :* the young plants also 

 are used as greens. The surplus seed is sold to the oilmen of the plains, 

 neither Bodo nor Dhimal being wont to express oil, of which they con- 

 sume little, and that only for cooking. Lights they use none (save on 

 occasions of ceremony and of puja) but go to bed early and sit by the 

 fire — a splendid wood fire — till then. The small quantity of oil used 

 for cooking they buy in the adjacent marts of the Kocch. The cotton 

 crop and the surplus of the mustard crop, are all the agricultural pro- 

 ducts which they sell any portion of. Cotton is habitually sold, the 

 small portion only that is needed for clothing the family being reserved, 

 which may be about one-fifteenth of what is raised. The domestic 

 animals have been enumerated elsewhere, and must be spoken of again 

 when we come to the head of food. Agriculturally viewed, they are a 

 dead letter, not even their manure being employed. 



Upon the whole the agriculture of the Bodo and Dhimals is con- 

 ducted with as much skill as that of their lowland neighbours ; with 

 skill superior much to that of their highland neighbours ; and with 

 pains and industry greatly above those of either highlanders or Kocches. 

 The following details of what is raised by one Bodo cultivator, and 

 consumed by himself, his wife and three young children, imperfect 

 though they be, will help to convey a just idea of his position. 



Bodo peasant tilling about If bigha with the spade. 



* They are fried with greens, and of course yield up a good deal of their oil to 

 flavour the vegetables. 



c 2 



