i860.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 117 



are sown. But even the fate of these crops is very uncertain, for 

 if the scanty rainfall of 3 or 4 inches is not distributed in showers, 

 falling at reasonable intervals they become stunted, and the yield of 

 fodder (in these parts as important as grain) is insufficient for the 

 support of the cattle. The crops having been reaped, these tracts lie 

 quite fallow until next rains, and are almost undistinguishable from 

 the surrounding <; jungle," if the term can be applied to such a com- 

 parative desert. 



The states, I have mentioned, are essentially pastoral. In Bikaneer, 

 camels are reared in enormous numbers, and in Mar war the wealth 

 of the people lies chiefly in their horned cattle, while in none of the 

 three is sufficient grain grown for the support of its own inhabitants. 

 After the rains, a scanty crop of grass springs up, which, with the dry 

 Stalks of the bajra (xndjoar, affords the year's supply of fodder for the 

 cattle. Camels find their chief food all the year round in the leaves 

 and twigs of Zizyphus, Salvador a, Acacia and other jungle shrubs. 



On the first symptoms of a failure of grass, the majority of the 

 horned cattle are driven off under the care of the younger men to 

 seek forage in Mai wall or G-uzerat, a few bullocks being left to 

 conduct ploughing operations, should showers fall in time to give any 

 hope of a rain crop, and to prepare the soil for the cold weather crop, 

 small as it is. Poorer people who have no cattle, aged and infirm 

 people, and children, do not leave the country until pressure for 

 human food begins to be felt. 



Last year so early as the middle of August, the wiser ryots had 

 their flocks in motion towards Malwah, but as rain so utterly failed, 

 many who put off their departure until a month later, were obliged 

 to remain altogether on account of the weakness of their cattle, the 

 impossibility of finding forage for them on the road, and the difficulty 

 of getting food even for themselves. Not a few who had actually 

 reached Gkizerat, having sold their cattle and valuables, and being 

 unable to find employment, returned to Marwar, preferring to die 

 in their homes if it must come to that, and like true natives trusting 

 for something to turn up. But the scarcity is not of food only but 

 of water also, and many a poor wretch was, I believe, prevented from 

 fleeing the country from his inability to walk from one well of sweet 

 water to the next, much of the Marwar well water being brackish 



