an the usual returns, that is when it yields twenty
instead of the usual return of ten, gives the whole in charity, lest
evil overtake him from his unusual good luck and inordinate
exultation."

I asked the Brahmin cultivator why all these offerings were required
to be made by cultivators in particular? He replied, "There is, sir,
no species of tillage in which the lives of numerous insects are not
sacrificed, and it is to atone for these numerous murders, and the
ingratitude to Bhurt, that cultivators, in particular, are required
to make so many offerings;" and, he added, "much sin, sir, is no
doubt brought upon the land by the murder of so many female infants.
I believe, sir, that all the tribes of Rajpoots murder them; and I do
not think than one in ten is suffered to live. If the family or
village priest did not consent to eat with the parents after the
murder, no such murders could take place, sir; for none, even of
their nearest relatives, will ever eat with them till the Brahmin has
done so."

The bearers of the tonjohn in which I sat, said, "We do not believe,
sir, that one girl in twenty among the Rajpoots is preserved. Davey
Buksh, the Gonda Rajah, is, we believe, the only one of the Biseyn
Rajpoot tribe who preserves his daughters;* his father did the same,
and his sister, who was married to the Bhudoreea Rajah of Mynpooree,
came to see him lately on the occasion of a pilgrimage to Ajoodheea,
on the death of her husband; of the six Kulhuns families of
Chehdwara, two only preserve their daughters--Surnam Sing of Arta,
and Jeskurn of Kumeear; but whether their sons or successors in the
estates will do the same is uncertain." These bearers are residents
of that district.

[* There are a great many families of the Biseyn Rajpoots who never
destroy their infant daughters.]

I may here remark, that oak-trees in the hills of the Himmelah chain
are disfigured in the same manner, and for the same purpose, as the
peepul and banyan trees are here; their small branches and leaves are
torn off to supply fodder for bullocks and other animals. The ilex of
the hills has not, however, in its nakedness the majesty of the
peepul and banyan of the plains, though neither of them can be said
to be "when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most."

_January_ 31, 1850.--Puchgowa, north-east, twelve miles over a plain
of doomuteea soil, a good deal of which is out of tillage at present.
On the road we came through several neat villages, the