4 7
in the village of Peepuria, close above Raestal, there wore 7 deaths.
At Koosgaon, a mile lower down, 12 deaths occurred. These villages do
not appear in the Police returns, and I cannot give the exact population, but
they apparently vary from 20Ü to 500 persons, consisting chiefly of Gonds and
Aheers, occupied in keeping cattle.
Pavía,—a village on the Kyr, two miles above its junction with the Hirun;
reports to the Kuttunghee station-house ; the population is returned at 441.
There were 10 deaths from cholera. The first case was a Gond living outside the
village ; he was attacked one evening, and died the next day ; there were 4 or 5
more people living in the same house, but none suifered. The same evening a
woman living in the village was attacked. The epidemic continued only four
days. The first death was reported on the 10th August, and it is probable that
the other villages in the locality were visited about the same time, or a little
earlier. No register of rain-fall in this locality is kept, but the people say that
scarcely any rain fell for the whole season. At Sehora, 15 miles distant, there
were frequent showers, but no heavy fall of rain after the 22nd July.
166. South of Mujhowlee a road leads through hill and jungle for 8 miles
to the town of Indrana, on the Hirun. Dunwahi, a small village among the
hills, and surrounded by jungle, lost 3 persons,—2 women and a man, from cholera.
The walcr-supply was from a well 60 feet deep through latérite, with, only
2 feet of water. The brick work was broken, and a number of pigeons were
allowed to roost in it; two birds were sitting on their eggs when I examined the
well.
Indrana,—an old town, the population of which is 2,100, situated close under
hills, on the Hirun; the soil red laterite; water-supply partly from wells and
partly from the river; the wells are 40 feet deep, but few had more than 1 foot
of water. There were 45 deaths from cholera, chiefly among low castes,—Rungrez
and Koshtees (dyers and weavers), whose occupation employs them much in
the river.
Mooraree,—a village near Indrana, and on the Hirun; population about 250.
Deaths from cholera 10 ; water-supply from two wells, and also from the river.
167. This completes the inspection of the Sehora tehseel ; it is of very
wide extent, and includes tracts of country of which the physical characteristics
vary greatly ; and as the statistics of these different tracts cannot well be separated
their value is much diminished. Out of 396 villages included within the circle
82 or 20 per cent were visited by cholera. The total population of these villages
may be estimated at 24,504, of which 630 or 2 . 6 per cent died. From many of
the villages, however, only one death was reported. Of the 82 villages visited by
cholera, 27 were on the Hirun and its affluents,—the Kyr, Sohar and Hagna.
168. East of Sehora lies the pergunnah of Koombhi, covering an area of
613 square miles, and comprising 378 villages; it is a roadless tract; the centre
is all hill and jungle, intersected by numerous streams; there are, however, some
open tracts of extensive area, as the valleys of the Mahanuddee and the Hirun.
In the northern portion also some open and well cultivated tracts occur. The
geological formation is chiefly metamorphic, and the soil sandy and poor. Several
villages in the south-eastern portion of this pergunnah along the Hirun and
one of its chief affluents, the Belowa, suffered late in July and August, and
about the same time a few villages were attacked in the northern portion, in the
open tract of country bordered by the Mahanuddee and Dutila rivers ; but the
pergunnah altogether suffered slightly, reports of deaths from cholera having
been received from 28 villages only.