Lives of the Lindsays, or, A memoir of the House of Crawford and Balcarres > Volume 4

88 ANECDOTES OF
their low-lands being under water, they were obliged to
plant them in a manner not altogether new, but seldom
practised, and to which I was frequently an eye-witness.
The work was carried on in canoes ; in one end of the
boat were deposited the rice-plants, on the other side a
heap of well-tempered tenacious clay ; the boatman,
holding two or three rice-plants in his left hand, attached
to each a lump of clay, and dropped it into the water ;
it thus became anchored in eighteen inches of water.
Many hundred acres of ground were thus cultivated,
and this furnished in due time a considerable resource^
so as to save many of the inhabitants from famine. In
the situation so described, provided the flood during the
periodical rains rises gradually, the plant will grow to
the height of twelve or fourteen feet, always keeping its
head above water ; but, if rapidly overflowed and de-
pressed under water even for one night only, it never
recovers.
Upon going to Decca a few months afterwards, I saw
many instances of men and women diving from their
canoes to tear up from the bottom roots of grass and
other vegetables as a miserable food for their famished
cattle. Nor were the sufferings of the unfortunate na-
tives yet ended ; when the new crop was nearly ready
for use, no persuasion could prevent them from satisfy-
ing their craving appetites, the frequent consequence of
which was immediate death, or diseases which occa-
sioned dropsy and dysentery, which destroyed many.