even into bhoor, in proportion as the sand abounds;
but generally the soil is the fine muteear, and very fertile. The
whole plain is said to have been in cultivation thirty years ago,
when Hakeem Mehndee held the contract; but the tillage has been
falling off ever since, under the bad or oppressive management of
successive contractors.

The estate through which we have been passing is called Bharwara, and
contains the sites of nine hundred and eighty-nine villages, about
one-tenth of which are now occupied. The landholders are all of the
Ahbun Rajpoot tribe; but a great part of them have become Musulmans.
They live together, however, though of different creeds, in tolerable
harmony; and eat together on occasions of ceremony, though not from
the same dishes. No member of the tribe ever forfeited his
inheritance by changing his creed. Nor did any one of them, I
believe, ever change his creed, except to retain his inheritance,
liberty, or life, threatened by despotic and unscrupulous rulers.
They dine on the same floor, but there is a line marked off to
separate those of the party who are Hindoos from those who are
Musulmans. The Musulmans have Mahommedan names, and the Hindoos
Hindoo names; but both still go by the common patronymic name of
Ahbuns. The Musulmans marry into Musulman families, and the Hindoos
into Hindoo families of the highest castes, Chouhans, Rathores,
Rykwars, Janwars, &c. Of course all the children are of the same
religion and caste as their parents. They tell me that the conversion
of their ancestors was effected by force, under a prince or chief
called "Kala Pahar." This must have been Mahommed Firmally, _alias_
Kala Pahar--to whom his uncle Bheilole, King of Delhi, left the
district of Bahraetch as a separate inheritance a short time before
his death, which took place A.D. 1488. This conversion seems to have
had the effect of doing away with the murder of female infants in the
Ahbun families who are still Hindoos; for they could not get the
Musulman portion of the tribe to associate with them if they
continued it.

The estate of Bharwara is divided into four parts, Hydrabad,
Hurunpoor, Aleegunge, and Sekunderabad. Each division is subdivided
into parts, each held by a separate branch of the family; and the
subdivision of these parts is still going on, as the heads of the
several branches of the family die, and leave more than one son. The
present head of the Ahbun family is Mahommed Hussan Khan,