Gazetteer of the Kangra Distric

· 1899 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Social and Reli-

2ai

332 CHAP. Ill.—THE PEOPLE.

4the forest and he cuts it up in the forest alone or with the

5help of some friends; other friends help to carry or drag it

6thence to the village and their only recompense is their food

7Village sites ang When so employed and similar assistance for themselves from the

8house-boilder when they require it. ‘The only labourer who

9receives acash wage in addition to his board is the mason or

10thar: and he is generally content with a fee of- Rs. 15 or

11Rs. 20, Honses sell at prices varying from Rs. 100 to Ra, 300,

12In upper Kaln the villages are few and large: in SarAj they

13are smaller and more numerous. The higher ‘sites in a village

14used to be appropriated by the higher-caste residents, but this

15custom is not now at all universally observed.

16The daily meals of the Kalu people are during the greater

17part of the year two in number only, breakfast (/uldr : kulari)

18ator Wam. and supper fbigali, baili) at sunset. In the

19summer when the days are. long a light mid-day meal of

20wheat or barley bread (dupuru) is eaten in addition. Tho

21staple food of the people consista of cakes or chapattiy mada

22of barley flour in the summer and of maize or kodra or buck-

23wheat flour in the winter, according as the elevation permits

24the cultivation of the better kinds of grain or not. Wheat

25flour is also eaten, but is considered as rather a luxury, and

26most of the wheat is sold to pay therevenue, Poppy-seed is

27sometimes added to the cakes to flavoor them. They are eaten

28with curds (chhas) both atthe morning and atthe evening

29meal. Curds almost entirely take the place of ghi, which is

30manonfactored only for sale. The curds are churned in an

31earthern vessel and once made are kept going without the

32vessel being ever cleaned out; the new milk morning and

33evening is poured into it and churned up along with the old

34curds. Saridra is made into a thin sort of porridge. Rice is a

35common article of food in the Kothis in which there is much

36irrigated land; elsewhere its place is taken as hhat bychintand

37rangni, the former of whichis nearly equal to it in quality ; the

38bhaé boiled with water and curds is called sidiu. Peasemenl made

39from mash or kulth is kneaded into balls, which are cooked by

40being steamed over a vesselof boiling water. A favourite dish

41at harvest time is parched Indian corn or wheat, sometimes

42mixed with hemp-sced. Meat isseldom eaten except at great

43festivals and once a month or so ina well-to-do family, In

44places where much hemp is grown for fibre the seed is eaten.

45The density of population in Inner Saréj has already been

46noticed, and there the grain produced is scarcely sufficient to

47supply food forthe people. None iseold, anda considerable

48quantity is annusllyimported from Kulu. Money to procure it

49is obtained by the sale of opium andin other ways which will be

50noted hereafter. At the beginning and again“at the end of the

51winter numbers of Sardjis may be met on their way home with

52loads of grain bought in Kulu on their backs. They come from

53outer as well as from Inner Saraj for thig purpose, but those