s paid in what
is called the beega arhaeya, or two seers and half of grain from
every beega. From a pucka beega they get pucka two and half seers;
and from a kutcha beega, a kutcha two and half seers."* "Your crops,
my friends, are finer than I have ever before seen them in Oude."
"Yes, sir, they are very fine; but how we shall gather them God only
knows, with such gangs of desperate robbers all around us. The alarm
is sounded every night, and we have no rest. The Government
authorities are too weak to protect us, or too indifferent to our
sufferings; and we cannot afford to provide the means to protect
ourselves."

[* The kutcha measure bears the same relation to the pucka in weight
as in land measurement.]

As we went on, I asked the Amil what had become of Ahburun Sing, of
Kyampore, the landholder who murdered his father to get possession of
his estate, as mentioned in the early part of this Diary. "Ahburun
Sing, sir, is still in possession of his estate of Kyampore, and
manages it exceedingly well." "I thought he had taken to the jungles
with his gang, like the rest of his class after such a crime, in
order to reduce you to terms?" "It was his father, sir, Aman Sing,
that was doing this. He was the terror of the country; neither road
nor village was safe from him. He murdered many people, and plundered
and burnt down many villages; and all my efforts to put him down were
vain. At last I came to an understanding with his eldest son, who
remained at home in the management of the estate, and was on bad
terms with his father. He had confidential persons always about his
father for his own safety; and when he was one night off his guard,
he went at the head of a small band of resolute men, and seized him.
He kept him in prison for six months, and told me that while so much
plunder was going on around, he did not feel secure of keeping his
father a single night; that many of his old followers wanted him back
as their leader, and would certainly rescue him if he was not
disposed of; that he could not put him to death, lest he should be
detested by his clan as a parricide; but if I would make a feigned
attack on the fort, he would kill him, and make it appear that he had
lost his life in the defence of it. I moved with all the force I had
against the fort, discharged many guns against the walls, made a
feigned attempt at escalade; and in the midst of the confusion _Aman
Sing was killed_. As soon as this was done, I retur