NASIK 231 they rest for an hour or two, taking a meal and a siesta. Work is recommenced at two, and goes on until dusk, when another meal is taken. Bed time is between nine and ten. The inhabitants of the western villages, at the foot of the Sahyadri hills, are to a great extent migratory. Their poor lands seldom yield crops for more than two years at a time, and often in the hot weather —their stock of grain running low-they are compelled to retire to the forest and support themselves by felling and carrying timber, feeding on fish, berries, and even roots. Every caste, from a Brahman to a Bhíl, forms a more or less complete community. The chief hill tribes are Kolís, Bhíls, Thákurs, Wárlis, and Kathodís. The Kolís are more civilised and more generally engaged in agriculture than the rest; the Bhils are poor cultivators, subsisting chiefly by gathering and selling forest produce —- timber, honey, and lac; the Thákurs and Worlís cultivate a little, but almost entirely by the hoc. Thákodís, or catechu makers, are the worst off, and poorest-looking, of all these tribes. The Marwárís, most of whom are said to have come into the District during the last fifty or sixty years, scem gradually to drop their peculiarities, and are now scarcely to be distinguished from other Hindus. They have taken to wearing the Deccan turban and ordinary shoes, and are clean in their dress and habits; they even wear their hair as other Hindus, and speak Marathi, the common language of the District. They engross the trade of money-lending. The Musalmáns are ncarly all of foreign origin, and are for the most part settled in towns. Many of the Sunnís, who numbered (1881) 34,887, are niessengers and policemen, others are employed in weaving, agriculture, and as labourers. The Shiás, who numbered (1881) 389, are more frequently shopkeepers. Agriculture.—Agriculture supported (1881) 511,712 persons, or 6505 per cent. of the population; only 301,416 were agricultural workers. Of the total area of the District (5940 square miles), 3573 square miles were cultivated in 1881, of which 179 square miles were non-revenuepaying; the remaining 3394 square miles, together with 630 square miles, the area cultivable but unoccupied, were assessed for revenue, making a total of 4024 square miles; the uncultivable area was 1737 square miles. Total amount of Government assessment, including local rates and cesses on land, £142,585; average incidence, including local tes and cesses, Is. 2 d. per cultivated acre. Average area of cultivable and uncultivated land per agricultural worker, 8.9 acres. The land of the District may be divided in four classes-the reddish black mould along rivers ; a light black soil higher up; a brown soil, stiffer and less deep, found on the higher lands near the Gháts; and highest and lightest of all, light brown or red, often strewn with boulders, and mixed with lime. A second crop is not often raised. Manure
