Very few people in I city or large town today would think of making a journey in a bullock cart. Bui although motor buses and cars travel all over the country in this great land of India, you may still see the bullock cart put to many uses.

We all know a bullock cart by sight. There are no springs to it, and it goes bumping over the roughest ground safely. The big carts drawn by a pair of bulls are used by the farmers for carrying grain to town, and by villagers for carrying wood. Potters load carts with earthenware of all shapes and sizes for market. It is a wonder how a cart loaded with grass or straw, slowly winding its way through a very narrow village street with its bulging sides nearly brushing the cottages, does not meet with any accident. Nothing worse seems to happen than a few tufts of grass being pulled out and eaten by the pair of bulls of the following cart.

Generally these carts travel in strings of a dozen or so from the grassy hills. At night, as you go along a lonely village road, you may see them with the shafts propped up and the bulls comfortably resting. The drivers will be cooking their evening meal, or lying curled up asleep under their carts.

The poor villagers use their carts as conveyances for their families. A wedding journey is a gay sight. The cart is decked and the bulls garlanded with bells, while inside ride the bride and her family in their gala robes. You see bright saris of gold and green or deep crimson, and the pale little bride is adorned with jewels and flowers. They are all packed tight, and every one is laughing and talking as merrily as can be, while the bells go jingle-jangle, and the cart wheel sings its own wedding hymn, crawling along the way that lies between the bride’s old home and her new one.