400 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER faith are anxious to be buried, as they consider the ground holy. 
The only considerable temple was pulled down by Bahadur Khan , 
Aug. 1 — 6. the last Asoph of the place; who was building a monument for his 
wife with the materials, when the arrival of the British army put a 
stop to such proceedings. 
Near Sira the quantity of watered ground is greater than that of 
dry-field; but unfortunately it is situated in a very dry climate; 
so that, during the last fourteen years, the tanks have been filled 
only five times so as to give a full crop. In the other nine years, 
by means of the little rain that fell, and by the use of the machine 
called Capily , the inhabitants have been able to raise a quarter of 
the full crop ; and one third of the whole grain consumed in the 
country has been brought from other places, especially from the 
banks of the Caxery. Scarcity is therefore a common evil ; and in 
the memory of young men, famine has several times spread all her 
terrors over this unfortunate place. Although in the immediate 
neighbourhood of a powerful garrison, all the villages are strongly 
fortified. On asking the reason of such precautions from a very 
intelligent chief of a village, from whom I took most of my infor- 
mation, he told me, that it was chiefly on account of robbers, who 
in the time of famine were very numerous. During this calamity 
the inhabitants of one village wish, by plundering their neighbours, 
to support life ; and of course, expecting the same treatment, each 
is shut up, and guarded from the nocturnal attacks of its neighbours, 
as if these were its most inveterate enemies. In war also the people 
have found these fortifications very useful. In their defence they 
employ few weapons except stones, which both men and women 
throw with great dexterity, and equal boldness. They do not at- 
tempt to defend themselves against any thing that wears the face 
of a regular body of men; but they stone, with the greatest intre- 
pidity, the irregular cavalry that attend all native armies, and who 
are seldom provided with fire-arms. On a visit which I made to 
the chief above mentioned, he boasted, that with ten men he had 
Villages 
strongly for- 
tified. 
