1849.] Statistics of the Circar of Dowlutabad. 501 



accordance \Yith these old boundaries ; where the marks have disap-- 

 peared new ones are given. 



Farm Yard or Kullee. ^^' "^ ^'^"^ enclosed Space 



^ of ground outside the village. Here the grain is 



stored up, as brought in from the fields, and the usual allotments 

 made. The grain is cleared from the husk, by driving cattle over it, 

 though differing in one respect from this ancient mode of beating 

 out the corn, by muzzling the cattle employed. Winnowing is ma- 

 naged by holding a basket of grain at arms length over the head, and 

 KungeeorGrainStone allowing the wind to Scatter the chaff as it is slow- 

 ly poured upon the ground. In storing grain 

 for the current year's supply it is usual to place it in wicker baskets 

 called a " kungee," about six feet in height, the bottom and sides of 

 which are protected from insects by a coating of cows' dung, and a 

 chuppur over the top to preserve it from the weather : it generally 

 standing outside the house. These baskets* hold from five to fifteen 

 maunds. When the grain is to be stored up in any quantity for 



r. . ^ Ion? periods, under-ground vaults are prepared 



Pews or Grain Vaults. or' ^ r r 



called " pews,'' where it will remain in good pre- 

 servation for several years ; these receptacles vary in dimensioDs ac- 

 cording to circumstances, holding from 120 to 225 maunds. 



The ground they are formed in is either the pandree muttee or 

 soft morrhum. The first step in their construction is to sink a small 

 shaft about the height of a man, and in which he can conveniently 

 turn round: a circular opening is then dug in the bottom suflBciently 

 large to admit a man to pass, and the ground excavated into a vault- 

 ed chamber. No further precautions are taken with the preservation 

 of the grain, than to line the sides with stalks of kurbee, and close the 

 orifice of the vault by a round flat stone, in shape similar to the com- 

 mon chukkee : the shaft is then filled up, and the surface smoothed 

 down. It is a very remarkable circumstance that the intense heat 

 the grain is subjected to in this confined state, does not deteriorate 

 its quality, it being dug out uninjured after so long a lapse of time 

 as even twenty yeai's, the heat engendered is so great, as to prevent 

 a man descending at once into the pew when first opened, and takes a 

 day or two to cool before he can conveniently enter the place, to this 

 circumstance is referred its not being infested with insects. 



