I have also stood watching Peelajee. He, too, is a gardener, called by
his own people a _Malee_, and by us, familiarly, a _Molly_. He sits in
an attitude not easy to describe, but familiar to all who have resided in
the otiose East. You will get at it by sitting on your own heels and
putting your knees into your armpits. In this position Peelajee can
spend the day with much comfort, which is a wonderful provision of
nature. At the present moment he also is engaged in the operation of
weeding. In his right hand is a small species of sickle called a
_koorpee_, with which he investigates the root of each weed as a snipe
feels in the mud for worms; then with his left hand he pulls it out,
gently shakes the earth off it, and contributes it to a small heap beside
him. When he has cleared a little space round him, he moves on like a
toad, without lifting himself. He enlivens his toil by exchanging
remarks upon the weather as affecting the price of grain, the infirmity
of my temper and other topics of personal interest, with an assistant,
whom he persuaded me to engage by the day, pleading the laborious nature
of this work of weeding. When two or three square yards have been
cleared, they both go away, and return in half an hour with a very small
basket, which one holds while the other fills it with the weeds. Then
the assistant balances it on his head, and sets out at one mile an hour
for the garden gate, where he empties it on the roadside. Then he
returns at the same rate, with the empty basket on his head, to Peelajee,
who is occupied sitting waiting for him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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