Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/347

LUC 339 life and property of the inhabitants; but only some 2,000 of these are so occupied and officially recognized. Their pay usually consists in an assignment of from two to three acres of land, called a jágir, and held rent-free; but they receive also small perquisites of grain, called basauni bisár, from the cultivators (basauni, from basna, to inhabit; bisár, from biswa, one-twentieth part). Sometimes it is a bandful of grain, some- times a small patch of corn left standing in the corner of the field. Originally the Gorait had the care of the crops and the fields, and the bisár was meant for him. But some say that these fees are the remains of the Pasis' old proprietary right in the soil . It is calculated that there is about one chaukidar for every forty-five houses. The table shows 797 mahájans. These deserve a word. There is more than one professional money-lender to every two villages. The general interest charged is from two to three per cent. per mensem, A very com- mon interest upon seed-grain or money borrowed for the purchase of seed is deorha, one-half as much again as to seed borrowed, on repayment at harvest, and a panseri, or five sers kachcha (equal to 24 sers pakka), on every rupee per mensem. This latter interest is called up. In some cases the interest is one anna and half an anna per rupee per mensem, equal to 75 and 37 per cent. The latter is common, the former is rare, though it was a well known rate during the Nawabi. It is said that of late years interest is getting everywhere reduced. But the gains of mahájans must be very great, and a license to lend would be a fair tax on them. The Ahírs number 1,930. These are probably for the most part em- ployed in grazing and tending the zamindars' cows and stock. They get three sers for a cow and six sers for a buffalo at the kharif and rabi harvests. Sometimes they are capitalists, and have their own cows, These herdsmen do not seem to be well off in the world, and their cattle seem worse. There are said to be 79,537 cows and 29,287 she buffaloes in the district: they are all in miserable condition. There are no actual grazing at all. The best time for the cattle is after the rains, when vegetation is thick ; and sometimes at the bájra and juár harvests they get the stalks of these crops cut up; but for the rest they are driven out into jungles to eat dry dhấk leaves, when there are any, or anything else they can find where there are no leaves. The milk of a cow is poor and thin, that of a buffalo is better. The farmers reckon that the cow yields half a ser a day, and the buffalo from one to one and a half ser; and while it takes from twenty to thirty sers of cow's milk to make one ser of ghi, it only takes twenty sers of buffalo's milk; but if fed they would yield from six to ten sers. What the cows might be may be judged from some of the draught cattle; but the farmer is satisfied if his bare wants are supplied : and his wants are small. The draught, oxen are well tended and well fed, and attain to a great size. They get from a ser to four sers of gram, according to their work, a day, and sáni, a mixture of chaff and oilcakes, as much as they can eat.