Note 126 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Occupation. 12. Some are non-occupancy tenants; many are hired ploughmen (halwâha). The usual wages are two-and-a-half sers of grain in the local weight per diem, and a special ration (sîdha) on holidays. They work, as in Bihâr, at fishing, well sinking, building mud walls, mat and basket-making, preparing saltpetre, doing earthwork on tanks and roads, watching fields and villages. But in some places they have an indifferent reputation, particularly in Gorakhpur.126