Not a grain would be obtained by the whole village, but luckily it is only a luxury, not a necessity of life.

The rain was the signal for ploughing to begin, in order to sow rice on all the flat lands between us and the town.

The plough used is a rude wooden instrument with a very short single handle, a tolerably well-shaped coulter, and the point formed of a piece of hard palm-wood fastened in with wedges.

One or two buffaloes draw it at a very slow pace.

The seed is sown broadcast, and a rude wooden harrow is used to smooth the surface.
By the beginning of December the regular wet season had set in.