ywhere studded with the same
fine groves and single trees, and requires only tillage to become a
garden. From the belt of jungle to our camp at Gokurnath, seven
miles, the road runs over an open grass plain, with here and there a
field of corn. The sites of villages are numerous, but few of them
are occupied at present. All are said to have been in a flourishing
state, and filled by a happy peasantry, when Hakeem Mehndee lost the
government. Since that time these villages and hamlets have
diminished by degrees, in proportion as the rapacity of the
contractors and the turbulence of the Rajpoot landholders have
increased.

The first village we passed through, after emerging from the belt of
jungle, was Pureylee, which is held and occupied by a large family of
cultivating proprietors of the Koormee caste. Up to the year 1847, it
had for many years been in a good condition, and paid a revenue of
two thousand rupees a-year to Government. In that year Ahmud Allee,
the collector, demanded a thousand more. They could not pay this, and
he sold all their bullocks and other stock to make up the demand; the
lands became waste as usual; and Lonee Sing, of Mitholee, offered the
next contractor one thousand rupees a-year for the lease, and got it.
The village has now been permanently absorbed in his estate, in the
usual way; and, as the Koormees are a peaceful body, they have
quietly acquiesced in the arrangement, and get all the aid they
require from their new landlord. Before this time they had held their
lands, as proprietors, directly under Government. From allodial*
proprietors they are become feudal tenants under a powerful Rajpoot
chief.

[* By allodial, I mean, lands held in proprietary right, immediately
under the crown, but liable to the land-tax.]

CHAPTER III.

Lonee Sing, of the Ahbun Rajpoot tribe--Dispute between Rajah
Bukhtawar Sing, and a servant of one of his relatives--Cultivation
along the border of the Tarae forest--Subdivision of land among the
Ahbun families--Rapacity of the king's troops, and establishments of
all kinds--Climate near the Tarae--Goitres--Not one-tenth of the
cultivable lands cultivated, nor one-tenth of the villages peopled--
Criterion of good tillage--Ratoon crops--Manure available--Khyrabad
district better peopled and cultivated than that of Mahomdee, but the
soil over-cropped--Blight--Rajah Ajeet Sing and his estate of
Khymara--Ousted by collusion and bribery--Anrod Sing of Oel, a