The natives throughout India have a great respect for such persons as plant _mango topes_ (or woods). These are, in general, managed with great care, the trees being set at regular distances each way, forming parallel vistas both lengthwise and breadthwise: the width of which are equal each way, and varying from twenty to forty feet. When first planted, they are well enclosed with a ditch and bank, sufficient to prevent cattle from doing mischief to the young trees, which are also watered at intervals during the dry season, generally through the means of a well, dug at the expence of the planter on one side of the _tope_. If the proprietor be rich, the well is usually large, lined with masonry, and furnished with cisterns of the same, or of hewn stone, so that cattle may be refreshed in numbers; two pillars of masonry, or of substantial wood, are erected; each supporting the end of a timber, stretching across the well at about five feet above the brink. On this timber, a shieve of wood is fixed, with one or more grooves for the reception of the cord used in drawing water.
The first-fruits of plantations are, with few exceptions, considered as appertaining to the tutelary deity of the planter, and are tendered to him as offerings on the part of the _tope_. The priests who officiate on these august occasions, commonly find means to save the sacred character of their invisible patron from any suspicion of gluttony, by taking upon themselves the troublesome office of proxy, on this and every occasion wherein mastication is needful.
On many of the great roads, such as that leading from Benares to the upper stations, we find very large wells, conveniently situated near some shelter, though, perhaps, distant from any town: occasionally, a hut or two may be erected in the vicinity, for the residence of a _bunneah_, (or kind of chandler,) or for a vender of spirits. Some of these wells are furnished with various sets of pillars and shieves, very substantial in their construction; so as to bear the weight of a leather bag, formed by stitching the edges of a whole hide, trimmed of its superfluous angles, &c., to an iron hoop of about a foot and a half in diameter: by means of two arched irons, rivetted at their crossing in the middle by a swivel and loop, the bag, or _moot_, is managed in the same way as a bucket in Europe. Many of these _moots_ are capable of containing, at least, half a hogshead. They retain the water more steadily in ascending, than any vessel whose sides are fixed and firm; and, as they are drawn into a cistern, or over a bed made hollow for their reception, above the brink of the well, no great exertion is required in emptying them; the waters discharging voluntarily when the _moot_ is suffered, by the slackening of the rope, to touch the bottom of the bed, or cistern.