JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. PART II-PHYSICAL SCIENCE. No. II.-1867. On the Jungle products used as articles of food by the Inhabitants of the districts of Manbhoom and Hazaribagh. By V. Ball, Esq. B. A. It is perhaps not generally known that throughout Manbhoom and Hazaribagh, as well as in many of the adjoining districts a considerable number of the poorer classes of the people depend solely upon the jungle to supply them with the means of subsistence for from two to three months of every year. In time of famine the number so dependent is of course greatly increased. In some of the more jungly parts of these districts, where the cultivation round the villages is very limited and deficient, nearly the whole of the inhabitants who have survived the past famine, can have had little else but the roots and fruits of the surrounding jungle upon, which to subsist. While passing through some of these villages last season, I was told that but few deaths had occurred in them. On the whole I am inclined to believe that people living in such villages are more independent and less affected in every way by famine than those, who residing in the centre of cultivation, have no jungle readily accessible. Were a census to be taken, it would probably be 1 |