ere the surface of the ground is hard and smooth; the oxen and
their drivers trample in a continued circuit over the whole mass, until
the corn is not only threshed from the husks, but the straw broken into
fine chaff. They winnow it with their coarse blankets, or chuddahs[22]
(the usual wrapper of a Native, resembling a coarse sheet), and house the
separate articles in pits, dug in the earth, close to their habitations.
Such things as barns, granaries, or stacks, are never seen to mark the
abode of the Native farmers as in Europe.

An invading party could never discover the deposits of corn, whilst the
Natives chose to keep their own secret. This method of depositing the corn
and chaff in the earth, is the only secure way of preserving these
valuable articles from the encroachment of white ants, whose visits to the
grain are nearly as destructive, and quite as much dreaded, as the flights
of locusts to the green blades.

The corn in general use for horses, sheep, and cattle, in called gram;[23]
the flavour resembles our field pea much more than grain. It is produced
on creepers, with pods; and bears a pretty lilac blossom, not unlike peas,
or rather vetches, but smaller; the grain, however, is as large as a pea,
irregularly shaped, of a dark brown skin, and pale yellow within. There
are several other kinds of grain in use amongst the Natives for the use of
cattle; one called moat,[24] of an olive green colour. It is considered
very cooling in its nature, at certain seasons of the year, and is greatly
preferred both for young horses and for cows giving milk.

Horses are subject to an infectious disease, which generally makes its
appearance in the rainy season, and therefore called burrhsaatie.[25] Once
in the stable, the disorder prevails through the stud, unless timely
precautions are taken to prevent them being infected--removal from the
stable is the most usual mode adopted--so easy is the infection conveyed
from one animal to the other, that if the groom of the sick horse enters
the stable of the healthy they rarely escape contagion. It is a tedious
and painful disorder and in nine cases out of ten the infected animal
either dies, or is rendered useless for the saddle. The legs break out in
ulcers, and, I am informed, without the greatest care on the part of the
groom, he is also liable to imbibe the corruption; if he has any cut or
scratch on his hands, the disease may be received as by inoculation.

The Natives