RAINY SESASON IN BENGAL

Shannon News, 27 November 1928, Page 4

RAINY SESASON IN BENGAL

In the'rainy to October —the vast alluvial plains of Bengal -present a ’wonderful spectacle. In Eastern Bengal the whole land is under water— but water from which spring amazing crops of jute and rice tinting the whole‘world with vivid green. Villages appear as small islands in an emerald.sea, the houses, buried in dense clumps of Shady’trees—tamarind, mm, mango, pipal, jack, banana, palm, and bamboo—being built on sites raised artificially a foot or two above the normal level of the monsoon'floods. The great expanses of the rivers are covered with flotillas of boats with sails of white, brown, .and blue. Creeks, on; the: placid surfaces of which children may often be ;seen<paddling themselves; about in circular pots of black clay, eat their way into'the village sites. Often *a • curious phenomenon may be witnessed,-a boat sailing across what appears to be a t field of jute or rice. Both crops grow in varying depths of water, usually a few >feet. But there are-parts of the land where shallow depressions in the surface give the flood a greater depth—up to fifteen feet and more. -(The existence of these deeps is only-to be detected by the particular variety of rice showing above the surface of the water. One would hardly expect td find crops growing in fifteen feet of water. 'Nevertheless there they are, thick crops of a curious long-stem-med paddy which; has so adapted itself to environment that on a rising flood it is capable of growing as much as a; foot in twelve hours.

Such crops arc reaped from boats; but ordinarily the man of Eastern Bengal 'Spends the day waist deep 5 or more in v water. In a world in which the cultivated-land is under water for as much-as five months in the year, and. that at the time- of the growing, and i in the case of jute the harvesting of the chief crops, man necessarily becomes >an amphibian. Yet, oddly enough, he-seems to. dislike .getting his. head/wet, > and it is a common sight to sOe a man clad only in a modest loin cloth, standing up to his armpits, in water and wearing a large cicujlar hat of plaited bamboo to keep off the rain.

In Eastern Bengal the rivers are the highways, and. in the monsoon ■ season smaller channels innumerable take the place of country lanes. This is the most convenient season for travel —one can then move freely where one. wills, for water,' the medium of travel, is universal. And the scene through which one' passes, though in a sense monotonous, has an undoubted attraction, for seldom will one see elsewhero so glorious a mingling of sb many dif-ferent-shades -of./green. The- lighter or darker tones predominate, according to the extent of- cultivation. Where crops are extensive' the jungle of palms, plantains,; and other- trees resembles a series of small islands in a vast bright;green seaiof rice and jute. -Where the jungle is mote -aggressive and widespread the tables- aye turned, and the stretches of rice and jute resemble bays and fiords pushing - their way -into a sombre shore. Little is; to -be seen at first sight of the dwellings of man, the jungle that surrounds them is so thick. But as one, pushes through it in an'atmosphere close and .heavy almost beyond belief, one comes upon unexpectedly large numbers of-houses,; frail and unimpressive certainly, so far -as - appearance goes,. but surprisingly commodious and clean. A cultivator’s house—or bari —consists often enough of a number of semi-detached sheds of wattle built round and 1 opening on to a courtyard. The - big man of -the village may have a more substantial residence of brick. —The Earl of Ronaldshay, in ‘?lndia; a Bird’s Eye View.”