planted and cultivated _in fields_ under a large surface of water, as
wheat or barley is on the dry plains. It is cultivated by a class of
men called Dhimars, who are everywhere fishermen and palankeen
bearers; and they keep boats for the planting, weeding, and gathering
the 'singhara'.[10] The holdings or tenements of each cultivator are
marked out carefully on the surface of the water by long bamboos
stuck up in it; and they pay so much the acre for the portion they
till. The long straws of the plants reach up to the surface of the
waters, upon which float their green leaves; and their pure white
flowers expand beautifully among them in the latter part of the
afternoon. The nut grows under the water after the flowers decay, and
is of a triangular shape, and covered with a tough brown integument
adhering strongly to the kernel, which is white, esculent, and of a
fine cartilaginous texture. The people are very fond of these nuts,
and they are carried often upon bullocks' backs two or three hundred
miles to market. They ripen in the latter end of the rains, or in
September, and are eatable till the end of November. The rent paid
for an ordinary tank by the cultivator is about one hundred rupees a
year. I have known two hundred rupees to be paid for a very large
one, and even three hundred, or thirty pounds a year.[11] But the mud
increases so rapidly from this cultivation that it soon destroys all
reservoirs in which it is permitted; and, where it is thought
desirable to keep up the tank for the sake of the water, it should be
carefully prohibited. This is done by stipulating with the renter of
the village, at the renewal of the lease, that no 'singhara' shall be
planted in the tank; otherwise, he will never forgo the advantage to
himself of the rent for the sake of the convenience, and that only
prospective, of the village community in general.

Notes:

1. Afterwards Captain H. A. Sleeman, He died in 1905.

2. Of Garha, see _ante_, Chapter 9, prior to note 10.

3. The real 'kalpa', which now stands in the garden of the god Indra
in the first heaven, was one of the fourteen varieties found at the
churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. It fell to the share of
Indra. [W. H. S.] The tree referred to in the text perhaps may be the
_Erythrina arborescens_, or coral-tree, which sheds its leaves after
the hot weather.

4. That is to say, orderlies, or 'chaprasis'.

5. Every Hindoo is thoroughly convinced that th