INTROD, Some places, over fields of great extent, for attar and rose-water. Sugar-cane, though still more abundant, requires rich, and well-watered spots, and is not spread over the face of the country like the productions just mentioned. Large tracts of land are given up to indigo, and many other more brilliant dyes are among the produce of the fields. Flax, mustard, sesamum, palma Christi, and other plants, yield an ample supply of oil, both for culinary and other purposes.

The principal food of the people of Hindostan is wheat, and in the Deckan, jowár and bájrat: rice, as a general article of subsistence, is confined to Bengal and part of Behár, with the low country along the sea all round the coast of the Peninsula : in most parts of India it is only used as a luxury.†. In the southern part of the table land of the Deckan the body of the people live on a small and poor grain called rági.‡

Though these grains each afford the principal

* Jowár (Holcus sorgum). It grows on a reedy stem to the height of eight or ten feet, and bears irregularly shaped clusters of innumerable round grains, about twice as big as mustard seed. It is common all over the Levant, under the name of dúrra (or dourrah); and in Greece, where it is called kálambóki; there is likewise a coarse sort in Italy, called melica rossa, or sorgo

rosso.

Bájra (Holcus spicatus) resembles a bulrush, the head being covered with a round grain, smaller, sweeter, and more nourishing than that of jowár.

It was probably the circumstance of our early settlements in Bengal and on the coast of Coromandel that led to the common opinion that rice is the general food of India.

Cynosurus corocanus.

supply to particular divisions, they are not confined INTROD. to their own tracts. Bájra and jowár are almost

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as much consumed as wheat in Hindostan, and are grown, though in a less degree, in the rice countries to wheat is not uncommon in the Deckan, and is sown in the rice countries: rice is more or less raised all over India in favourable situations, as under hills, or where a great command of water is obtained by artificial means. it

Barley is little eaten, and oats,' till lately, were unknown; but there are several smaller sorts of grain, such as millet, panicum Italicum, and other kinds, for which we have no name. Maize is a good deal grown for the straw; and the heads, when young and tender, are toasted and eaten as a delicacy by the villagers; but I doubt if the grain is ever made into bread. distorte sat d

is

There are many kinds of pulse, of which there

a very great consumption by people of all ranks; and a variety of roots and vegetables*, which, with a large addition of the common spices, form the ordinary messes used by the poor to give a relish to their bread. Many fruits are accessible to the poor; especially mangoes, melons, and water melons, of which the two last are grown in the wide beds of the rivers during the dry weather. Gourds and cucumbers are most abundant. They are sown

* As the egg plant or brinjal, the love-apple or tomato, yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, radishes, onions, garlic, spinach, and many other sorts, wild and cultivated, known or unknown in Europe.

INTROD. round the huts of the poor, and trailed over the roofs, so that the whole building is covered with green leaves and large yellow flowers. The mango, which is the best of the Indian fruits, is likewise by much the most common, the tree which bears it being everywhere planted in orchards and singly, and thriving without any further care. Plantains or bananas, guavas, custard apples, jujubes, and other fruits of tropical climates, are also common.* Grapes are plentiful, as a garden fruit, but not planted for wine. Oranges, limes, and citrons are also in general use, and some sorts are excellent. Figs are not quite so general, but are to be had in most places, and in some (as at Púna, in the Deckan,) they are, perhaps, the best in the world. Pine apples are common everywhere, and grow wild in Pegu.t

Horses, camels, and working cattle are fed on pulse. Their forage is chiefly wheat straw; and

One of the most remarkable, and in some places the most common, is the jack, an exceedingly rich and luscious fruit, which grows to the weight of sixty or seventy pounds, directly from the trunk of a tall forest tree.

+ Several Chinese fruits have lately been introduced with success, and some European ones, of which the peach and strawberry are the only kinds that are completely naturalised. The apples are small and bad; and pears, plums, &c. do not succeed. at all.

In Hindostan it is a sort called channa, of which each pod contains a single pea on a low plant, from the leaves of which the natives make vinegar. It is the Cicer arietinum of botanists, and exactly the Cece of Italy. In the Deckan the pulse used is cúlti, a small hard pea, which must be boiled before it is eaten, even by animals.

that of the jowár and bájra, which, being full of INTROD saccharine matter, is very nourishing. Horses get fresh grass dried in the sun; but it is only in particular places that hay is stacked.

There are, in some places, three harvests; in all, two. Bájra, jowár, rice, and some other grains are sown at the beginning of the rains, and reaped at the end. Wheat, barley, and some other sorts of grain and pulse ripen during the winter, and are cut in spring.

Elephants, rhinoceroses, bears, and wild buf- Animals. faloes are confined to the forests. Tigers, leopards, panthers, and some other wild beasts are found there also, but likewise inhabit patches of underwood, and even of high grain, in the cultivated lands. This is also the case with wild boars, hyenas, wolves, jackalls, and game of all descriptions, in the utmost abundance. Lions are only found in particular tracts. Great numbers of many sorts of deer and antelopes are met with in all parts. Monkeys are numerous in the woods, in the cultivated country, and even in towns. Porcupines, ichneumons, a species of armadillo, iguanas, and other lizards, are found in all places; as are serpents and other reptiles, noxious or innocent, in abundance.

There are horses in plenty, but they are only used for riding. For every sort of draught, (ploughs, carts, guns, native chariots, &c.,) and for carriage of all sorts of baggage and merchandise, almost the whole dependence is on oxen.

The

1

INTROD. frequency of rugged passes in some parts, and the annual destruction of the roads by the rains in others, make the use of pack cattle much greater than that of draught cattle, and produce those innumerable droves which so often choke up the travellers' way, as they are transporting grain, salt, and other articles of commerce from one province to another.

Camels, which travel faster, and can carry more bulky loads, are much employed by the rich, and are numerous in armies. Elephants are also used, and are indispensable for carrying large tents, heavy carpets, and other articles which cannot be divided. Buffaloes are very numerous, but they are chiefly kept for milk, of which great quantities (in various preparations) are consumed*: they are not unfrequently put in carts, are used for ploughing in deep and wet soils, and more rarely for carriage. Sheep are as common as in European countries, and goats more so. Swine are kept by the lowest casts; poultry are comparatively scarce, in small villages, from the prejudice of the Hindús against fowls; but the common fowl is found wild in great numbers, and resembles the bantam kind. The peacock, also, is common in a wild state. White cranes and egrettes are extremely numerous throughout the year; and grey cranes, wild geese,

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The commonest of these are clarified butter (ghí), and a sort of acid curd (dahí) which is called yourt in the Levant. Cheese is scarcely known, and butter never used in its natural

state.