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BASIM.

i86

They do not allow the hair on the face to be cut. If a male Hatkar die of wounds received in battle or the chase, his corpse is burned with his feet to the east, otherwise he is buried sitting crosslegged with a small piece of gold in the mouth. Women who die in childbirth are burned, others are buried. Widows can contract a pat marriage a man can only have one lagan, but several pat wives. Hatkars will not eat the flesh of the cow or the pig. Their god is The Naiks of this District are principally Hatkars. called Khandoba. Their power was broken by Brigadier Sutherland, under whose orders offenders failing to surrender themselves by a given date were hanged. families.

•,

The

principal

Agriculture.

—

towns

are

Piisad,

5047; and Mangriil

Umarkhed, 5959;

—The

Basim,

-

population

staple crops are cotton

neither of which requires

much

The

rain.

and earliest kind. Considerable grown on unirrigated land, which has

and jodr

cotton

to

are estimated to cover

the spring crops,

and

spring,

supplied the



banni, or the are

for the crop.

thorough ploughing more than once

land does not require a

autumn crops

11,576;

(great millet),

is all

be manured

In the Basim taluk

every seventh year, inferior land every third year. the

(i88i)

4900.

quantities of coarse rice

best

Good

Pir,

of the cultivated area

the estimate for the Piisad taluk

The country about

is,

for

autumn,

Mangriil Pir and Pusad formerly

Haidarabad Contingent with horses



but since Arab

horses have been substituted, the stock has not been kept up, and at present there are not 100 horses in the District

fit

The

for troopers.

on ordinary carts, pack-bullocks, buffaloes, and camels to the cotton emporiums on the railway. In 1880-81, 1,150,091 acres were under cultivation. The most important crops were jodr, 385,691 acres; bdjrd, 3084; linseed, of the District, chiefly cotton

traffic

and

grain,

is

carried

27,042; pulses, 6187; kurdi, 12,071; cotton, 235,383; 179,254; gram, 41,774; HI, 15.384; hemp or flax, 2295; rice, 10,141 ; tobacco, 2711 ; castor-oil plant, 1862; sugar-cane, 1491 The average produce and other products, 108,538. lac, 25,355 17,642;

tur,

wheat,





per acre in pounds jodr,

for cotton,

is,

478; tobacco, 198;

rice,

108 for wheat, 634 ; 488; and gram, 366.

oil-seeds,

The

169

uncer-

tainty of reaching water at all, or of its being fit for use if reached, There are renders the construction of wells hazardous and costly. about 4000 wells in the District, of which nearly half are out of repair.

Under Muhammadan all

rule, the

revenue was generally farmed out, and

proprietary rights were vested in the sovereign, though no doubt

minor prescriptive privileges were acknowledged. The Bombay system It of survey and settlement has now been introduced into Berar. revenue-payer, registered the rights on proprietary absolute confers on certain conditions and the assessment is only subject to enhancement after the expiry of the agreed term, and not then unless upon