pliments and
welcome, with a present of a tame antelope, and some fruit and sugar;
and I wrote him a reply in the usual terms. His name is Shah Puna
Ata, and his character is held in high esteem by all classes of the
people, of whatever creed, caste, or grade.

The Bhuderee family give their daughters in marriage to the Bugheela
Rajahs of Rewa and the Powar Rajahs of Ocheyra, who are considered to
be a shade higher in caste than they are among the Rajpoots. Not long
ago they gave one hundred thousand rupees, with one daughter, to the
only son of the Rewa Rajah, as the only condition on which he would
take her. Golab Sing, the brother of Seoruttun Sing, of Pertabghur,
by caste a Sombunsee, is said to have given lately fifty thousand
rupees, with another daughter, to the same person. Rajah Hunmunt
Sing, of Dharoopoor, who is by caste a Beseyn Rajpoot, the year
before last went to Rewa, accompanied by some fifty Brahmins, to
propose an union between his daughter and the same son of the Rewa
Rajah. A large sum was demanded, but he pleaded poverty, and at last
got the Rajah to consent to take fifty thousand rupees down, and
seventy-five thousand at the last ceremony of the barat, or fetching
home of the bride. When all had been prepared for this last ceremony,
the Rajah of Rewa pleaded the heat of the weather, and his son would
not come to complete it, and take away his bride. Hunmunt Sing
collected one hundred _resolute Brahmins_, and proceeded with them to
Rewa, where they sat _dhurna_ at the Rajah's door, without tasting
food, and declared that they would all die there unless the marriage
were completed.

The Rajah did all he could, or could make his people do, to get rid
of them; but at last, afraid that some of the Brahmins would really
die, he consented that his son should go and fetch his bride, if
Hunmunt Sing would pay down twenty-five thousand rupees more, to
defray the cost of the procession, in addition to the seventy-five
thousand. He did so, and his daughter was taken off in due form. He
has another daughter to dispose of in the same way. The Rewa Rajah
has thus taken five or six wives for his son, from families a shade
lower in caste; but the whole that he has got with them will not be
enough to pay one of the Rajpoot families, a shade higher in caste
than he is, in Rajpootana, to take one daughter from him. It costs
him ten or twelve lacs of rupees to induce the Rajah of Oudeepoor,
Joudhpoor, or Jypoor, to