Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/37

 KHAN ZADAS. (347)

HIS striking and effective group of Khan Zadas evidently belongs to the agricultural class, as the wooden plough in the foreground, with its gear attached, plainly denotes. Two of the men are sitting upon a charpae or bedstead, one of whom has a small hookah in his hand. The tall man on the right leans upon the wooden yoke of the oxen, and both he and the person standing next to him appear to be speaking to the sitting figure, who may be master. The plough is solid, formed from a natural bend in the wood, which is generally acacia or mimosa, though any other hard tough wood answers. It is hewn roughly into shape by the village carpenter, but the projecting piece has always an inclination of a few degrees towards the earth. The coulter is a strong square bar of iron, which projects somewhat beyond the end of the wood, and is fastened in by stout staples. The transverse piece is the pole, to which the bullocks are attached for shaft. It goes through the head of the plough, and is retained by a stout peg behind, and a wedge which passes through, which can be tightened or slackened at wilL Hanging on the beam is the rope gear, which is most frequently of green hide, and necessarily very strong. In appearance the Indian plough, which varies in no locality of the country, is a rude instrument; but it is nevertheless very effective. The time for ploughing is the hot or dry season, and the earth is broken into clods and turned over. On the first fall of rain these clods crumble and break, and form a very level surface, over which the drill plough easily passes. The action of the plough breaks and tears up by the roots all deeply rooted grasses and weeds, which a sharper instrument would only cut, and they are then dried and killed by the heat of the sun, and generally gathered together and burned, the ashes being spread over the ground as manure. A small plough like that represented is used for a light loamy soil, and requires two bullocks; but for heavier and more adhesive soils, larger implements, employing from four to twelve and fourteen oxen, are necessary.