cSG
DEFICIENCY OF FOOD
because both become unmanageable then, from an unwonted state of prosperity.
In most provinces those who cultivate rice do not eat it, hut sell it to pay their taxes. During the four months the < suk / ia kala lasts, they live on the pulse and millet which they cultivate in their fields. During the rest of the year their only daily sustenance, in almost all cases, consists of
a plateful of millet, seasoned with a little pounded salt and chillies. When after paying their taxes and debts they come to the end of their store of grain, supposing there has been any remnant, they are reduced to living from hand to mouth. Some of them borrow grain, which they promise to repay with interest after the next harvest; others explore the woods and the banks of rivers and tanks in search of leaves, bamboo shoots, wild fruits, roots, and
other substances which help them to exist, or rather, prevent them from dying of hunger.
Thus for about three months of the year almost threequarters of the inhabitants of the Peninsula are on the verge of starvation. In the south these three months are July, August, and September; and the saying is that those who have grain to eat then are as happy as princes. The scarcity begins to be less felt by October, for then several of the smaller species of grain are ready for harvesting, and the rains have brought out in the fields quantities of edible herbs, which suffice to allay the pangs of hunger.
Nor are men alone exposed to want during a great part of the year; domestic animals have to bear the same privations. Most families own cattle, and each hamlet possesses considerable herds which can only graze within the narrow limits assigned to them. The small amount of straw which the crops produce does not last long, and the animals are then reduced to nibbling at the few plants scattered here and there in the barren fields. During the three or four months when the sun is especially hot, all
vegetable life is scorched up, and the wretched animals
can scarcely find enough fodder for their daily sustenance.
They may then be seen searching for clayey soil, impregnated with salt, which they proceed to lick with avidity, and that, together with the water they drink, comprises almost all their food. This is why, throughout the hot