No. 4.-3848.] SINHALESE RURAL ECONOMY. 



41 



village together, who share equally in the produce ; the women 

 do their share of the work in weeding and harvesting, also in 

 carrying the brush off the land to be used for firewood. It is 

 computed that the labour of two men in this cultivation will 

 produce sufficient for the subsistence of three persons. Swamp 

 paddy is more prolific and the labor of cultivation easier, the 

 labour of one man being supposed to be sufficient to raise the 

 food of three and often more. The same superstitious ceremo- 

 nies are observed with reference to the operations as described 

 above. 



Kurakkan. 



Kurakkan, or Natcherin, is extensive^ cultivated on chena 

 lands in this District ; it is a small seed like brown mustard, 

 which when ground into flour is used in making cakes. The 

 same land will often bear two crops, but most frequently after 

 the first, instead of a second crop of grain, chillies are sown. 

 The cultivation of kurakkan is carried on most extensively in 

 Bintenna ; there it is said to yield frequently 50-fold. The 

 natives, after the clearing and sowing is completed by the men, 

 consider it degrading for any but the weaker sex to perform 

 the remaining part of the labour, the weeding. The cropping 

 and the threshing, therefore, is performed by cutting the heads 

 from the plant and drying them on mats. When dry and of a 

 bright brown colour, the heads are crushed in a basket or 

 between mats, which soon disengages the small seed, and 

 winnowing in kulu, (hand baskets) completes the process. 

 The seed after winnowing and before storing is exposed to the 

 sun in shallow trays, which hardens it. Before threshing or 

 grinding they do not observe any form of divination to discover 

 a happy time to commence the work, — a remarkable exception 

 to the general rule. The cultivation of kurakkan is not gene- 

 rally profitable ; the return compared with the labour expended 

 will not yield a subsistence. It is only cultivated as an 



