a smaller quantity, rent-
free, in their own village, for the widow of Girdharee. The collector
gave them twenty-five beeghas, or ten acres, in Poknapoor; and this
land Teekaram still holds, and out of the produce supports the poor
widow. A razenamah, or pardon, was given by the family, and Hindoo
Sing has ever since lived in peace upon his estate, The lease of the
village was restored to the Brahmin family, at the reduced rate of
two hundred and fifty, but soon after raised to four hundred, and
again reduced to two hundred and fifty, after the devastation of
Bahadur Sing and Bhoder Sing.

These industrious and unoffending Brahmins say that since these
Rajpoot landholders came among them, many generations ago, there has
never been any peace in the district, except during the time that
Hakeem Mehndee held the contract, when the whole plain that now lies
waste became a beautiful _chummun_ (parterre); that since his
removal, as before his appointment, all has been confusion; that the
Rajpoot landholders are always quarrelling either among themselves or
with the local Government authorities; and, whatever be the nature or
the cause of quarrel, they always plunder and murder,
indiscriminately, the unoffending communities of the villages around,
in order to reduce these authorities to their terms; that when these
Rajpoot landholders leave them in peace, the contractors seize the
opportunity to increase the Government demand, and bring among them
the King's troops, who plunder them just as much as the rebel
landholders, though they do not often murder them in the same
reckless manner. They told me that the hundreds of their relatives
who had gone off during the disorders and taken lands, or found
employment in our bordering districts, would be glad to return to
their own lands, groves, and trees, in Oude, if they saw the
slightest chance of protection, and the country would soon become
again the beautiful parterre which Hakeem Mehndee left it thirty
years ago, instead of the wilderness in which they were now so
wretched; that they ventured to cultivate small patches here and
there, not far from each other, but were obliged to raise small
platforms, upon high poles, in every field, and sit upon them all
night, calling out to each other, in a loud voice, to keep up their
spirits, and frighten off the deer which swarmed upon the grass
plain, and would destroy the whole of the crops in one night, if left
unprotected; that they