Page:Gódávari.djvu/147

Rh extending the thumb and forefinger as far apart as possible. The bára is the distance between the tips of the fingers of the two hands when the arms are both stretched out horizontally to their greatest extent. In describing heights and depths above five feet or so, natives always use the terms niluvu and ara (half) niluvu. The niluvu is equivalent to the height of an average adult person. In the Agency chalaka and mancha, which (see below) are really square measures, are used to denote distances. They each represent about 70 yards. Some of these measures of length are used much more frequently than the English standards. Thus the jána and. the mura are very commonly used for measuring cloth, and the mura and bára for measuring ropes. Again the kóss and the ámada are in very common use for long distances, and the majili is not rare.

Acres and cents are only of recent introduction, and are less familiar to the natives than the English lineal feet and inches. The native table of land measures is the same throughout the district except in Tuni, Bhadráchalam, Yellavaram, Chódavaram and the wilder parts of Pólavaram, and is based on the quantity of seed required to cultivate a given area of land. Thus a mánadu is the quantity of land that can be sown with a mánika or seer of seed, and is equivalent to about two and half cents. An addedu is five cents, a kunchedu ten cents, an iddumu neresa is an acre, an yédumu two acres, a pandumu four acres, and a putti eight acres. A different and vaguer terminology is used in Tuni. There wet land is spoken of in terms of the out turn of paddy — or in 'garces'; and dry land in terms of the number of days it would take a pair of bullocks to plough it — namely in yéllu or ploughs. Thus one yéru or 'plough' of dry land is the quantity of land that a pair of bullocks can plough in one day, or about half an acre. A 'garce' of wet land is said to be about two acres.

There appears to be no precise table of land measure known in Bhadráchalam, perhaps because there is no need for one among the inhabitants of those uncivilized parts. The zamindars' accounts are said to be kept in acres and cents. In the wilder tracts of this taluk and of Pólavaram, and throughout the Agency, areas are described in terms of chalakas, manchas and kattipóu. Mancha is the raised bamboo platform put up in the middle of a field, on which the watcher sits to scare away birds and animals. The term is used to describe the amount of land which can be commanded by one watcher, or about two acres. The chalaka is the same as the mancha in extent. It literally means 'a piece.' Kattipódu has a reference to pódu cultivation, and denotes as much land as