Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/401

 LUC 393 violence. Master-masons capable of building a house or temple get only 5 annas per day on the average, ordinary masons 3 annas, hodmen 13 anpas, women 1apnas. Wages have fallen, and the price of materials too, with the general decay of Lucknow. Native pattern bricks for instance are now to be had at Rs. 75 per lakh, or 12 annas per thousand, delivered within a moderate distance; the Nawabi price was Rs. 123. This of course is due to the fact that so many old buildings in the depopulated city are being demolished and the materials sold. Wages in all other occupations have similarly declined. Embroiderers, lace workers, and leather workers similarly have to content themselves with reduced wages, in the face of increased dearness of provisions; the remuneration of skilled labour seems, indeed, to oscillate about 2 annas per day, sometimes less, sometimes more, according to temporary demand. The exception to this rule is in the case of arts still patronized by the State or supported by English capital, such as masonry, printing, lithography, arů metal work on the railway. A good mason gets 4 annas, a printer 8 to 12 annas, a lithogra- pher 6 annas to 1 rupee, a smith, brazier or platelayer 8 annas to 1 rupee 8 aonas. The point of interest is that a worker in iron will get four times the pay of a worker in gold, because the latter can only supply as a rule purely native needs, and is not patronized by the State. Working jewellers are generally paid by a percentage on the gold or silver bullion they work up, in no case exceeding four annas in the rupee for silver, and one rupee a tola for gold. If the work is of a povel or peculiar kind, men are paid by the day at 4 to 6 annas; the most noted artists not getting more than 12 annas a day. Weaving is job work; those employed seldom earning more than 2 annas per day, except on the finest muslins. Women are so numerous in Luck- now that all kinds of embroidery and sewing are under-paid. The com- petition for wages is so much greater than the competition for the pro- ducts of their toil that hard work at embroidery or chicken work does not fetch more than 1 rupee a month ; such is the statement of the seam- stresses. By contract work, on the public works, a powerful cooly can earn 5 annas per day even at earth-work. Mechanics and plate-layers on the railway get from Rs. 10 to 30 per month. Amusements. - The principal amusements of Lucknow are wrestling, cock-fighting, kite-flying, quail-fighting, gambling, dancing, 'singing, and theatrical displays. Gambling, dancing, and singing, alone are practised throughout the entire year. Wrestling is only followed during the rains; it is not clear why this is so, because in other parts of Oudh this amusement is parsued during the whole year. There is an annual tournament at which from 100 to 120 pairs of champions conterd; generally about one-third of these come from Muttra, and are Chaube Brahmans of Brindaban who never eat meat; one third are Punjabis (generally Musalmans) from Umballa, Lahore, Amritsar, Siálkot, the rest come from Baroda, Alwar, Cawapore, and a very few infe- rior wrestlers from Lucknow itself. The Mirzapur wrestling has died out. The rules do not differ very much from those of Cornish wrestling, but no