Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/119

BEL TIN(; TO INDIA is broken only by ?he vill?e e lumps and by ?hs ?wo s?rips of land which mark ?he course of winding s?reams; in ?he o?her [our months large par?s dry up and enable crops ?o be grown upon ?hem." Such are some o! ?he features o! ?his district. Mr. Jack ?hen goes on to describe. ?he homestead, wi?h i?s separate hu?s, buil? o! bamboo and mat, round a common courtyard. diagrams showing these, and also of the uses and o! the construction He gives a number of numy interesting derre/Is of the huts. A large number of the cultivators roof their huts with corrugated iron, especially along the railway and steamer routes. The furniture is scanty and generally the rooma are absolutely ham, without attemp? to paint or decorate with pictures. There are no windows of glass. "In truth the absence of internal decoration and of furniture is not a question of money, but a question of taste. The wealthiest Bengali who is untouched by foreign influences keeps as bare a house as his poorer neighbouts and asehews ceilings, pain? walls and furniture as eomple?tely as they do." From a description of the homestreads' he goes on to a description .of their occupations. "The life of the cultivator in Eastern Bengal is in many ways a .very happy one. Nature is bountiful to him, the soil of his little farm yields in such abundance that he is able to meet all his des/res without excessive work." "In those parts of the country in which jute is grown he works at two seasons of the year, growing rice on one portion of his land and jute on an- other; but many of the cultivators content themselves with the winter rice crop and so put all their labor into the months of March, April and May.... The time table of the cultivator, therefore, when his land is unfit for jute, shows three month's hard work and nine months idleness; H he grows jute as well as rice, he will have an additional six weeks' work in July and August. These are not conditions of which he can reasonably complain." The amusement? of a peasant in the slack season are fishing, gossiping, and visiting his friends in other villages. "But the chief amuse. ment ... is to attend the neighbouring markets. Probably ton or twelve such markets will be within walking or booting distance of his homestead, all of which he will attend in turn, even in hi? busiest ?mon fmdin? time to go to two mrkets & week and durin 8 the winter and the rains, when