Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/376

HOLEYA former being the old hereditary serfs attached to Mūli wargs (estates), and the latter labourers bound to their masters' service by being in debt to them. Nowadays, however, there is a little difference between the two classes. Neither are much given to changing masters, and, though a Mūlada Holeya is no longer a slave, he is usually as much in debt as a Sālada Holeya, and can only change when his new master takes the debt over. To these labourers cash payments are unknown, except occasionally in the case of Sālada Holeyas, where there is a nominal annual payment to be set off against interest on the debt. In other cases interest is foregone, one or other of the perquisites being sometimes docked as an equivalent. The grain wage consists of rice or paddy (unhusked rice), and the local seer is, on the average, as nearly as possible one of 80 tolas. The daily rice payments to men, women, and children vary as follows: — Men. . from 1 seer to 2 seers.Women. . ⅔ seer to 2 ,Children. ⅜ seer to 1 seer.

"In addition to the daily wages, and the midday meal of boiled rice which Is given in almost all parts, there are annual perquisites or privileges. Except on the coast of the Mangalore tāluk and in the Coondapoor tāluk, every Holeya is allowed rent free from ⅛ to ⅓ acre of land, and one or two cocoanut or palmyra trees, with sometimes a jack or mango tree in addition. The money-value of the produce of this little allotment is variously estimated at from 1 to 5 rupees per annum. Throughout the whole district, cloths are given every year to each labourer, the money value being estimated at i rupee per adult, and 6 annas for a child. It is also customary to give a cumbly (blanket) in the neighbourhood of the ghauts, where the damp and cold render a warm covering necessary. On