leave for two or
three days. The weather is unsettled, and the sun increasing in power
daily. The new Soobahs left to-day for their appointments, with the
exception of the Dewangur one. Pigs are here fed on boiled nettle
leaves: old ladies may be seen occasionally busily employed in picking
the leaves for this purpose, and which they do by means of bamboo pincers
or tweezers. A few plantains may be met with here, but in a wretched
state. Rice may be seen 500 feet above this, on the north of the castle,
the slope of a hill being appropriated to its cultivation; the terraces
above, owing to the inclination, are very narrow, and from the paucity of
straw, the crops must, I should infer, be very poor.

_March 22nd_.--To-day we took our leave of the Pillo, who received us
in a room to the south of the castle. He was friendly enough, but begged
for presents unconscionably. He was surrounded by a considerable number
of more mean-looking persons than ordinary. On the previous meeting he
talked openly of being at enmity with the present Deb Rajah, but on this
occasion he said little on the subject.

The castle is an ill-built, and worse arranged building, the windows and
loopholes being so placed as to afford every facility for shooting into
the air. In a court-yard, several tiger skins brought from the plains,
are suspended.

It now appears that this Pillo, who said previously that the new Deb was
never installed, is himself an usurper, previously handing the old Deb
from the throne. This latter personage appears to be by far the more
popular of the two. The Pillo must now have great influence, as all the
posts in his division, are either held by his own sons, or by his more
influential servants. The sons by the bye are, so long as they remain in
the presence, treated like ordinary servants. Joongar is held by one of
his sons, a lad of about eighteen, of plain but pleasing appearance and
of good manners. He visited us yesterday, and his newly acquired rank
sat easily on him. The old Pillo no doubt owes his rank to his having
been the father of the lad chosen to be Dhurma Rajah, he is himself very
evidently low-born and low-bred, and compared with the former one, so
poor a specimen, that the greater popularity of the former is not to be
wondered at. From all we have heard, they are contemptible rulers, as
they appear to do nothing but intrigue for power among themselves.
Changes are hence excessively frequent,