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Jugeanor in the mountains of Sirinagur.

No. XVI. JUGCANOR, IN THE MOUNTAINS OF SERINAGUR.

In this view also the Koah Nullah makes its appearance: on the banks of which, raised above the reach of casual floods, stands the pleasant village of Jugcanor. It is a small irregular place; the zemindar, or chief landholder of the neighbourhood, like the village squires of other countries, is lodged more sumptuously than his inferiors ; his mansion is tolerably built of stone, covered with slates, and consists of two stories, the upper one accommodating the chief and his family, the lower affording shelter to his cattle.

The husbandmen were here employed in reaping their corn, which was an abundant crop of very excellent wheat; a grain preferred by the mountaineers to rice; although their wheat was despised by the rice-eaters of Bengal, who chiefly composed the author's party of attendants, during his mountainous excursion. These low-landers gave also another example of the force of prejudice in their great aversion to the beautiful transparent water every where flowing through the hilly country; their stagnant reservoirs, and even the turbid waters of the Hoogley at Calcutta, appeared to them much more inviting.