you know, requires a great
deal of moisture, especially in the early days of its growth;
consequently the ground upon which the rice-crop is to be sown must be
_level_, so that the water with which the fields are covered may flow
equally over the whole surface. The water is kept in by little dikes,
or "bunds," as they are called, which surround each field, or the part
of it to be irrigated; and as during a considerable portion of each
year these cultivated areas are under water, and are always more or
less in a boggy condition, these "bunds" form the most convenient, if
not the only, means of traversing the district. Tortuous and winding
as they are, it is not easy to decide upon your route, and you need
not be surprised if the little causeway upon which you have set out
eventually brings you back to your first starting-point, and you must
make another attempt in a different direction. I remember once being
hopelessly lost among the "bunds" in my endeavour to cross a patch of
paddy-land, and although it was not more than a mile in width, two
hours of valuable time were spent before I solved the problem of this
labyrinth, and struck the road on its farther side.

Rice cultivation begins towards the end of the monsoon, when the rains
have thoroughly saturated the soil and filled the fields with water,
often to the top of the dikes. Then ploughing begins, and the grass
with which the fields were recently covered is turned over in clods,
as we do at home, by means of a curious wooden plough shod with bronze
or iron.

These ploughs are drawn by the bullocks and buffaloes, or by elephants
when they are available, the operation being often carried out under
water. After this all the cattle in the district are driven on to the
fields in order to break up and trample down the clods, and sometimes
harrows, much like our own, are used for the same purpose.

Then the sowing begins, the rice being scattered very freely over one
or two selected portions of the whole area, for which they serve as
nursery gardens; for the rice is not sown generally over the fields,
but the young plants transferred from these small nurseries to the
larger fields. This work is done by the men and women, who, wading in
the water, plant out the young growth 5 or 6 inches apart, and one may
notice that during this operation all wear leggings or stockings of
straw as a protection against the leeches which in enormous numbers
infest the muddy water.

The