Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/338



A native plough is not worthy of the name. They are of two kinds, one designed to be drawn by a single buffalo, and the other by a yoke of oxen. The difference between them is mainly in the length of the beam. The plough for a single buffalo has a beam only about four feet long; but the beam for a yoke of oxen is from 10 to 12 feet in length, proceeding forward from the handle with an upward curve, then downward, and then again upward to a slender and graceful point which is seen above the heads of the oxen, and 18 or 20 inches ahead of them. This long beam saves the necessity of having any rope or chain to draw the plough. The yoke is attached to it by means of a rope passing through an auger hole in it and around wooden pins in the plough beam some three feet [rom its anterior end. The end where it curves above the heads of the oxen serves an important purpose aside from mere fancy. Cords passing from the nostrils of each ox is made fast to it, with sufficient tightness to keep the heads of the cattle quite elevated, making them, it is said, much more manageable than without sueh an expedient. But for it, they could not be kept in the track marked out for them, as they lose all recollection of duty in their hunting for something to eat as they plod along. Such appears not to be the weakness of the buffalo, and consequently needing no