privileges of the headmen are-to pay rent at a rate less than other rayats, and to be exempted from paying any illegal cesses. From the villagers, also, they receive presents at marriages and other festivals. The panchayat or village assembly is composed of the village headmen. There are no patwáris, in the sense of village accountants, found in the District, but the name is applied to the rent-collectors of small landed proprietors.

THE MATERIAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.-The Collector reported in 1870 that the material condition of the people was not good, and that there was little hope of early improvement. The chief causes assigned for their low condition are (1) the bad relations that exist between landlord and tenant, and the prevalence of illegal cesses; (2) the expenditure of large sums by the poor, as well as the rich, on weddings and the accompanying festivities; (3) the total absence of capital in the hands of the agricultural community, which necessitates the existence of mahájans, or lenders of money and grain,—a class whom it is customary to revile, but without whom the agricultural operations of the District would come to a stand-still; (4) the total ignorance and absence of education among the agricultural classes, who are thus placed at the mercy of zamindárí servants and others, whose interest it is that the rayats should remain in their present state.

DRESS. The Assistant-Magistrate stated in 1870 that the ordinary dress of a well-to-do shopkeeper consists of a cotton dhutí and kurtá,—the former of native, the latter of English make,—and a chádar or shawl of the same material as the dhutí. These garments are worn in the ordinary fashion, the dhutí round the loins, the kurtá as a waistcoat, and the chádar round the neck, hanging low on each side: the whole dress costs from three to four rupees (6s. to 8s.). The ordinary rayat wears only a dhutí, costing about 12 ánnás or 1s. 6d., and a small cloth called gámchá, which he puts on his head when it is hot. It is kept wet to cool his body, and used for a variety of purposes like a kerchief. For occasions of ceremony he generally posseses a chádar, but this article does not form a part of the everyday dress of the cultivating class.

DWELLINGS. Shopkeepers sometimes live in brick houses, cemented with mud or lime, and containing two rooms each. Attached to the dwelling is a mat house (báhir mahál) to receive visitors, a cow-shed, and a cooking shed, which is also used as an

eating room. The mat dwelling of a smaller shopkeeper usually contains a sleeping room for each married couple, and the same number of out-houses as are found attached to a brick building ; sometimes, however, there is no báhir mahál. The walls of these buildings are composed of mats, supported by timber, and thatched with san grass. Mud huts, so common elsewhere, are quite unknown in Pábná; and when a mud wall was wanted for the Government distillery, there was no one able to superintend its construction or show how it was to be made. The rayat lives in a dwelling similar in construction to that of the shopkeeper, but smaller in size.

FURNITURE.-The furniture of a Bengalí shopkeeper is the same as that of a cultivator. Two brass lotás, two brass plates, three stone or earthen cups, a few mats, a wrapper (lep or kánthá) to sleep in, two ráng or earthen vessels for dry rice and bhát (boiled rice), three cooking vessels, respectively for dál (pulses), curry, and rice; a jháru or sweeper's brush, and a huká to smoke, are to be found in every household. The classes more comfortably off have also a morá or cane stool, a chair (máchiá), a hand punkah, a bed (khát), and a small looking-glass.

LIVING EXPENSES.-It is difficult to estimate, by a money standard, the household expenses of an ordinary cultivator. He grows his own rice, tobacco, and, in some cases, also the cotton for his clothes, the cloth being woven by the females of the house. He has only to buy salt, and to pay the rent of his house and land. The following approximate estimate of the monthly expenses of a cultivator's household was furnished by the Collector in 1870-Rice, Rs. 5 or 10s.; salt, 8 ánnás or 1s.; oil, 8 ánnás or is.; spices, 6 ánnás or 9d.; fish, 8 ánnás or is.; total expenses for food, Rs. 6. 14. 0 or 13s. 9d. In addition to this amount, R. 1 or 2s. must be added for the cost of clothes, 6 ánnás or 9d. for tobacco, 2 ánnás or 3d. for rent, and 1 ánná or 1d. as a contribution to the village watchman, thus bringing up the total household expenses to Rs. 8. 7. o or 16s. 10d. per month.

The wages of an unskilled labourer are about Rs. 5 or 10s. per month; but this sum alone would not support a family of five persons. It is usually supplemented by some other resources, such as a garden, and the home labour of the women of the family. A well-to-do shopkeeper spends about Rs. 12 or £1, 4s. od. per month on his food, Rs. 2 or 4s. on his dress, and another Rs. 2 or 4s. for

miscellaneous expenses; but the country shopkeepers do not live in better style, or on better food, than the ordinary cultivator.

AGRICULTURE: RICE.-There are four distinct kinds of paddy grown in Pábná District, viz.-(1) Aus, (2) áman, (3) jálí, and (4) boro. Of these, áus is usually grown on high lands; and áman, jálí, and boro on low lands. Aman and áus, however, are sometimes grown on the same description of land. Both these crops are sown in the month of Baisákh (April-May). The áus or early harvest takes place in Bhadra (August-September), before the country is inundated; while the áman or winter rice is left to grow and ripen in the standing water, and is not reaped till the months of Agraháyan and Paush (November-January).

The names of the chief varieties of áman rice grown in the District are—(1) Soná ájul, (2) digá, (3) jankarái, (4) kálá-digá, (5) bháuládigá, (6) kálájirá, (7) jhul, (8) nalas, (9) bánsiráj, (10) kachuá, (11) rájpal, (12) árániá, (13) kákuá. The varieties of áus rice are-(1) kálagoriá, (2) kádnas, (3) muktáhár, (4) báliábakri, (5) nayáchur.

The boro rice or spring crop is chiefly grown on the edges of jhils or marshes, and on chars or low-lying alluvial lands. It is sown in the month of Mágh (January-February), and reaped in Chaitra and Baisakh (March-May). The jali (or wet-land) rice is sown and reaped at the same time as the preceding.

The following are the names given to rice at the various stages of its growth :-At the time of sowing it is called bunáni; when just sprouting, ankurit; while the plants are small, chárá; when the ears appear, thor; when it is ripe, pakká; and after it has been cut, dhán. The operation of thrashing is called malan; that of separating the chaff from the grain, jhárá; boiling is called siddhakará. The operation of drying is called sukhán; and husking, nishtushkará.

THE DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS OF RICE include the following:Chirá consists of paddy, boiled, fried, pressed, and husked; it is sold at the rate of 1 ánná per ser, or d. per pound. Chirá bhájá is chirá fried after husking; sold at 2 ánnás 3 pies per ser, or 1d. per pound. Khai is paddy fried and husked; sold at 1 ánná 9 pies per ser, or 1d. per pound. Hurum or muri is rice roasted on hot sand and sifted; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per pound. Chául bhájá is rice roasted; sold at 1 ánná 9 pies per ser, or 14d. per pound. Chául pithá are rice cakes; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per pound. Chául rúti is rice bread; sold at 2 ánnás per ser, or 1d. per

pound. Moyá is khai sweetened, pressed, and made into balls ; sold at 2 ánnás 6 pies per ser, or 17d. per pound. Pachwái, or cheap rice beer, is drunk by the palanquin-bearers and low castes. Amáni, the imperfectly fermented liquid in which boiled rice, changed daily, has been standing for two or three days, is prepared by people for their own use, but is not sold.

THE OTHER CEREALS grown in the District are—wheat and barley, both sown in Kártik and Agraháyan (October-December), and reaped in Chaitra (March-April); Indian corn, sown in Baisákh (April-May), at the same time as both the áus and áman rice crops, but reaped even before the áus, in Ashár (June-July); káun and bhurá, both sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Srában (July-August).

THE GREEN CROPS are gram, peas, kalái, khesárí, musuri, múg, all sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Chaitra (March-April); arhar, sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Phálgun (February-March); linseed, rái, and mustard, all three sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Mágh (January-February); til (Sesamum) of two kinds, the one sown in Bhadra (August-September), and reaped in Paush (December-January), the other sown in Phálgun (February-March), and reaped in Jaishtha and Ashár (May-July); chiná, sown in Paush (December-January), and reaped in Phálgun (FebruaryMarch).

THE FIBRES COMprise jute and flax, both generally sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Ashár and Srában (June-August); and two kinds of hemp, one of which is sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Phálgun and Chaitra (February-April); the other is sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Ashár and Srában (June-August).

THE MISCELLANEOUS CROPS are indigo, sown in Aswin and Kártik (September-November), and reaped in Jaishtha and Ashár (MayJuly); pán or betel-leaf, sown in Phálgun and Chaitra (FebruaryApril), and cut at all seasons; haldi or turmeric, sown in Baisákh (April-May), and reaped in Paush and Mágh (December-February); ikshu or sugar-cane, sown in Phálgun (February-March), and reaped in Paush and Mágh (December-February); tobacco, sown in Kártik (October-November), and reaped in Mágh and Phálgun (January-March); onions, sown in Mágh (JanuaryFebruary), and reaped in Jaishtha (May-June). Besides the fore

going staple crops, the District also produces ginger, mangoes, pineapples, the castor-oil plant, báigun, potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, wood-apples, limes, beans, coriander seed, pomegranate, plantains, jack-fruit, dates, plums, chillies, lichis, cocoa-nuts, karelá, guavas, garlic, nuts, water-melons, and tamarinds.

JUTE CULTIVATION.-The jute plant (Corchorus capsularis), known to the natives as koshtá and pát, has been cultivated in the District of Pábná from time immemorial. Hemp is only used for making fishermen's nets and tow-ropes, while jute supplies its place for all other purposes. Every house is built with mats and bamboos fastened together by jute; every cow is tethered by a jute rope. The average annual consumption of jute by a Pábná household, according to the Subdivisional Officer of Sirájganj, may be estimated at half a maund (41 lbs.). Until about the year 1865, no more jute was grown than was necessary to satisfy this local demand. The steady rise, however, since that date in the price of the fibre has induced the rayats to cultivate it for export; and when in 1870-71 the rate rose to Rs. 5. 8. o per maund, or 14s. 11 d. per hundredweight, the profits made were so large that considerable additions were at once made to the area under jute cultivation. The Collector estimates that during the year 1872, 192 square miles, or 104 of the District area, was given up to jute. But the cultivation of the fibre could not be maintained to this extent, except at the abnormally high rates of 1871; and the subsequent fall in the price of jute led to a great reduction in the area under cultivation during 1873 and the following year.

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'In Pábná,' the Collector reports, as in other Districts, jute grows best on land just above the flood level, where there is always moisture, but seldom any accumulation of water. Such land is of the quality known to Revenue officers as awal, the highest assessed.' A moist season is the best suited to the cultivation. The growth of the plant is greatly stimulated by frequent showers, but floods or very violent rains injure the stems, the portion of the plant under water becoming hardened. Jute is an exhausting crop, and pulses cannot be sown in the cold season on jute land. Jute cannot be profitably grown for two years in succession on the same land; and it is, therefore, usually sown in rotation with til (Sesamum) and áman rice. Jute land in Pábná District is too valuable to be allowed to lie fallow in order that it may recover its strength.

The following account of the mode of cultivation and the prepara