pe of a rich booty, they permitted him to take the empty elephant
to the new Amil at Mahomdee. News of all this reached my camp last
night.

I omitted to mention that, at Busora on the 27th, a Rajpoot
landholder of the Sombunsie tribe, came to my camp with a petition
regarding a mortgage, and mentioned that he had a daughter, now two
years of age; that when she was born he was out in his fields, and
the females of the family put her into an earthen pot, buried her in
the floor of the apartment, where the mother lay, and lit a fire over
the grave; that he made all haste home as soon as he heard of the
birth of a daughter, removed the fire and earth from the pot, and
took out his child. She was still living, but two of her fingers
which had not been sufficiently covered were a good deal burnt. He
had all possible care taken of her, and she still lives, and both he
and his wife are very fond of her. Finding that his tale interested
me, he went home for the child; but his village was far off, and he
has not been able to overtake me. He had given no orders to have her
preserved, as his wife was confined sooner than he expected; but the
family took it for granted that she was to be destroyed, and in
running home to preserve her he acted on the impulse of the moment.
The practice of destroying female infants is so general among this
tribe, that a family commonly destroys the daughter as soon as born,
when the father is from home, and has given no special orders about
it, taking it to be his wish as a matter of course.

Several respectable landholders of the Chouhan, Nikomee, and other
tribe of Rajpoots, were talking to me yesterday evening, and as they
were connected by marriage with Rajpoot families of the same and
higher clans in the British territories, I asked them whether some
plan could not be devised to suppress the evil in Oude, as it had
been suppressed there; for the disorders which prevailed seemed to me
to be only a visitation from above for such an all-pervading sin.
They told me that there would be little difficulty in putting down
this system under an honest and strong Government that would secure
rights, enforce duties, and protect life and property, as in the
British territories. Atrocious and cruel as this crime is in Oude, it
is hardly more so than that which not long ago prevailed in France
and other nations of Europe, of burying their daughters alive in
nunneries in order to gratify the same family pride