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farm. The value of these dispossessed lands might amount to about 60,000 Rupees.

Few of the great landholders of Oude are of the Mahommedan faith. The greater part of these belong to the Military or Rajpoot castes, which are here distinct from those in other Indian provinces. The members of this very numerous class are subdivided into hundreds of different castes, each fancying himself a shade higher or lower than his neighbour-a Rajpoot of perhaps a different origin; and a member of one Rajpoot family often pays many thousands, sometimes several lakhs of Rupees, for the honor of an alliance with a son or daughter belonging to a class perhaps only a degree higher.

We shall name a few of the principal tribes of this class. The Rajkoomar Rajpoots living in Birsingpoor and Dehra are considered of the very highest rank, and hold many rich estates in Oude. The Gurgbunsee Rajpoots in Sehypore are also powerful feudal barons, and the Chehodwaras of the Gonda Bayraitch are much dreaded from their power. They are descended from the Kulhun tribe of Rajpoots, formerly residing in Korassa in the Gonda district which is now covered by the Surjoo. There is a strange legend attached to this family. One of the Brahmins living on the estate was, in spite of the oaths of the landholder to protect him, dispossessed of all he had. The holy man, therefore, invoked the anger of the deity presiding over the Surjoo against him, who made the river rise, separated him from the rest of mankind, and caused him to die of starvation. The Rajah's wife fled and gave birth to a son, but her descendants had each a blind child in the family. A handmaid of the Rajah Agul Sing was the mother of the Chehodwaras, who even to this day worship the bones of the Brahmin Pande as a saint, revere his memory, and invoke his blessing.

There are many other castes of this military class, but to enumerate them would be tedious. To them is confined the custom of female infanticide, a crime which is perpetrated less on account of religious prejudices, than from motives of avarice and pride, since to marry their daughters into a higher family costs money, and to unite them with a lower class is, in their idea, degradation. Many of the Rajpoot mothers of our own territories go to Oude to be confined. They return alone if their offspring be a daughter, for only sons are allowed to recross the frontier. The priests who grant them absolution for the crime which has been perpetrated are abhorred by all other classes but Rajpoots; and this of itself is a proof how little infanticide can be deemed a religious sacrifice.

The Rajpoots are not such able and industrious cultivators as the lower classes of Hindoos, such as Koormees, Kachees, JUNE, 1856,

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Ladhees, Aheers and others; and the Brahmins inhabiting Oude are seldom agriculturists. The Kanoojees alone of the priestly class hold their own ploughs and condescend to till the land.

There is one race peculiar to Oude, and it differs much from both Hindoos and Mahommedans in both cast of countenance and frame of body. The following notice of them is copied from an article on Oude, published in an Indian periodical in 1852.

"The Pasees live chiefly in the Banghor district in the northern part of this Kingdom. They are generally short, square shouldered, and well built. They are brave, active, and strong, and characterised -paradoxical as it may appear as much by their honesty as for their extreme cunning and deceitfulness. They seldom till the soil: agriculture is not their forte. They are professional thieves, and steal every thing they can lay a hand on, from a horse down to a pair of old shoes. In fighting, they make use of bows and arrows, and through their practice and strength, with unerring aim. Their bow has generally a double curve, and is made of horn. When using it, they support it on the ground and bend it with their toe and right hand. But their mode of warfare is chiefly a guerilla system. In the Banghor districts, the report of a gun brings together thousands of those brave little fellows, for by a mutual compact they are bound to assist any Zemindar, who may choose to declare himself against the King's Chuckladar. They are often employed as watchmen and chowkedars, and as such, prove remarkably faithful and honest. A man may send them with any sum of money, however large, without fear of their appropriating the least part of it; but when they are not held responsible, they rob and steal to their heart's content. There are two large Ragpugseas, or chiefs of the Pasee caste, but a very large proportion serve under Talookdars as armed retainers. Their caste is a very low one in the Hindoo scale of gradation. The Rungers are of another but a similar caste. They are known to have great powers of endurance. Here is an example:-one of them, while hid under a heap of hay in a stable, where he had concealed himself to steal a fine horse, happening to disturb the animal, allowed the groom who was not aware of the thief's presence, to hammer an iron pin right through his hand, without uttering the least sound expressive of pain. He had then the intrepidity to extricate the mangled limb with his right hand, to loosen the horse, and to gallop off with it. At Bettay, where Elderton lost his life, the Pasees were the chief defenders of the fort."

The Tarae still contains some of the aborigines of India, men of a weakly frame of body, shy of others and not inclined to communicate with their more civilized neighbors. They are armed with bows and arrows like the Pasees and clothed with the skins of beasts and coarse cloth. They live entirely by hunting, and reside in villages of primitive simplicity and huts of rude construction. Most of them are affected by that purely local disease, the goitre, caused no doubt by the water as well as by the atmosphere of the place.

There is another race in Oude which likewise deserves mention, but it is rather as one of caste than as a separate tribe. The Buddhick Dacoits are of purely Hindoo origin, and of no mean degree. They are professional robbers and murderers, and carry on their horrible trade with as much nonchalance as any peaceable tradesman. We firmly believe that not one of them ever felt any qualms of conscience or the least compunction at committing any deed of blood however harrowing. This class is however almost extinct now; Colonel Sleeman-the best Resident ever accredited to the Court of Oude-did much towards exterminating a race so injurious to society. He, aided by his officers in the Oude Frontier Police, hunted them down like wild beasts, and pursued much about the same plan as he did with their fraternity, the Thugs-a set of scoundrels, who sacrificed hecatombs of victims under the cloak of religion, and were the more dangerous, because they trusted rather to subtlety and cunning, than to open violence and force, for success.

Now that we are on the subject of the inhabitants of Oude we may also notice the crowds of religious mendicants with which the country is inundated. There are whole villages of Faqeers who have their lands and their goods, their horses and their elephants, as well as any "other gentlemen at large." Some of them are brave fellows. We have an instance of this in point. A gallant Captain, dangerously wounded, was escaping from the pursuit of a native Rajah, and would have fallen a victim to his pursuers, had not a village of Gosaen-faqeers turned out with bows and arrows, and covered his retreat from Dhowrehra.

With the large landed proprietors of Oude, whether Mohammedan or Hindoo, the law of primogeniture prevails, but less as a right for according to the strict interpretation of the law of either creed every son has a claim to an equal share of the property-than as a custom hallowed by time, and carried out for consolidating the power of the family. They are in reality powerful feudal barons and being descended from a line of independent chieftains, who did not own even the nominal supremacy of a king-the law of princes prevails. They, indeed, mostly claim the titles of Rajah and Rae, the former, equivalent to that of king, and the latter, a title scarcely inferior. The land over which they rule, is called the Raj or principality. If the father should wish any other of the sons or members of the family to inherit a portion of the land, he detaches that portion from the principality, and subdivides it amongst them. In the event of the family of the possessor of an assigned portion dying out, the head of the principality reannexes it to his domains. It often happens, however, that the feudal chieftain casts a longing eye

to the portions of territory, held by members of his family and separated from his domains; and sometimes more than casts a longing eye at them. If a strong-willed energetic man, not inconvenienced by scruples of conscience, he seizes on the estates of the weaker members of his family who might own assigned portions, and by purchasing the connivance of the local authorities, he is able to retain them, since none of the neighboring barons will interfere to prevent these acts of spoliation, unless they are connected by marriage with the sufferers. It is in this manner that the reconsolidation of a family estate is often effected. Numerous examples of such occurrences might be cited. We shall mention only one. The Rajah of Amitty in this manner confiscated the landed property of some younger branches of his family, that of Shabgurh with a rental of 25,000 Rs. a year, and that of Ramgurh with one of 7,000 Rs. When we state that the law of primogeniture prevails amongst all the powerful landed proprietors of Oude, we must however also remark that it is very frequently broken through,-sometimes even in the lifetime of the father; not however by the principality being parcelled out into smaller tracts divided and subdivided amongst many, but by its being usurped by the strongest. Sometimes there are several claimants to the musnud or chiefship, and then the brothers fight it out between themselves. Of course the strongest is the successor then. Most frequently the elder brother, who succeeds by right to the family possessions,-charges himself with the care of the wives and children of the other brothers, who either assist in the management of the estates of the chief, or, what is more frequent, enlist in our army.

We have said enough to show what generally unknown reources Oude possesses, how, once fairly developed this country, may become of primary importance in the Indian mercantile world; how, with a network of roads, railways and steamers throughout the length and breadth of the land it could be made to yield large profits to the speculator, and princely revenues to the Government that owns it; how its jungles could be cleared, or if allowed to stand, could be made to contribute to the ends of commerce; we have dwelt on the importance of its rivers-the resources of its trade and the character of its inhabitants, and have shewn by statistical tables how great improvements may be hoped. for. We have seen what Oude is, we have shown what it may become; we shall be glad if ought we have written shall contri-. bute to effect the change.

ART. VII.-1. Report on the Administration of the Punjab for the years 1849-50, and 1850-51.

2. General Report on the Administration of the Punjab Territories for the years 1851-52, and 1852-53.

WE do not propose to inflict upon the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab a doubtful benefit by repeating the often told tale of his well earned praise. Sir John the vigorous, shall not by our means be exposed to that envy of a wicked world which pursued Aristides the just; Anglo-Indians do well to honour one of the greatest men who has lately risen up among them; but this being so, let us leave well alone; there is a time to speak of Chief Commissioners, and there is a time to speak of the countries over which they are commissioned. It is the latter task which we now venture to undertake. During the last eight years, a new Presidency in all but name has been added to British India; we have heard much of its past history, much of its present political arrangements, but to us denizens of the Ditch, the land itself is yet strange; we see a constant succession of friends and acquaintance passing on, far beyond the orthodox limit of the old Mofussil, beyond distant Allahabad, beyond remote Delhi, beyond Ultima Thule of Umballa to the much-boasted Punjab; what is the country to which they go? We see them return after some years in shattered health, with complexions that tempt even us poor Bengalees to comparative selfcomplacency, with shaggy beards evincing a long disregard for the proprieties,-those neglected goddesses who still have their temples and their rigid worshippers in the precincts of Chowringhee; looking with the curious eye of incipient barbarism upon objects which are to us but the ordinary accompaniments of civilized life; how have they become so separated from us their black-coated decently-shaved comrades? what manner of life is that which thus divides a Punjabee from his fellows?

It has become a fashion in these days to describe every well known route with a minuteness, sometimes graphic, often tedious. We will not recount to Indian readers the ordinary incidents of the Grand Trunk Road. All know that the Railway goes very slowly to Burdwan, stops there a long time, goes on yet more slowly to Raneegunge, and then breaks off abruptly in the middle of the jungle. All know that the journey North Westward is continued in Palki-gharries wherein the traveller thanks heaven that the days of Palkis proper are gone by, and utters a devout wish that Dâk Bungalows may soon meet with a like doom from a progressive age, and the manes of naked Cahars and dishonest khansamas range together in a common limbo. It is confessed

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