r,--"zemindar,"--who
holds under rental to the government, and the better half of his gross
income generally goes to the zemindar, the priest (Brahmin) and the
usurer, in the form of rent, presents, offerings and interest, and if
he can net ten cents a day by his hard and hopeless labor, that will
suffice for the most pressing wants of his household. His home is a
mud, or bamboo-hut, his property a pair of small bullocks, a few cows,
calves and goats, a wooden cart, and a few brass and earthen pots, in
all worth about fifty dollars, and his implements and tools are of the
rudest kind, such as his ancestors used a thousand years ago; and yet
he is making some progress under British rule, and finds his wants
increasing, and at the same time better outlets for his produce and
better recompense for his labor, and on the whole, is so independent
on ten cents a day, that he will eat or store his wheat rather than
sell it below a certain price. Of course he does not employ machinery
in farming, but plows his land with a crooked piece of iron-pointed
wood, harrows it with an instrument resembling a common ladder laid
flat on the ground and dragged by little bullocks crossways over the
field; he sows by hand, reaps with a rude sickle, carries the sheaves
home on his back or in the bullock cart, threshes them with a wooden
club, or lets the cattle tramp out the grain, and cleans it by
hand-winnowing.

[Illustration: LABORERS AT THE INDIGO PRESS.]

India of course yields a great number of other kinds of agricultural
products, especially the indigo plant, from which the renowned
dye-stuff is made; rape, mustard and other species of seeds from which
oils are pressed, the opium plant, etc.

In the cities and towns the people devote themselves to trades and
handicrafts, in some of which they attain greater perfection than any
other people. Their beautiful carvings in wood and ivory, their
exquisite embroideries, their textiles and yarns exceed everything in
that line. But their ability is not due to any genius or ingenuity, but
to close observation and patient application. According to their
religious tenets the sons must learn the trade of their father, and they
begin to work at his side as soon as they can handle a needle, chisel,
or other tool, and continue the practice day after day, year after year,
until they also in turn, have taught their children and grandchildren
the same trade. C