nd here the family of
a murdered man, if poor, is maintained by the guilty party or else
relieved by royal munificence, as the case may require. Acts of oppression
may sometimes occur in Native States without the knowledge even, and much
less by the command, of the Sovereign ruler, since the good order of the
government mainly depends on the disposition of the Prime Minister for the
time being. There is no check placed in the constitution of a Native
government between the Prime Minister and his natural passions. If cruel,
ambitious, or crafty, he practises all his art to keep his master in
ignorance of his daily enormities; if the Prime Minister be a
virtuous-minded person, he is subjected to innumerable trials, from the
wiles of the designing and the ambitious, who strive by intrigue to root
him from the favour and confidence of his sovereign, under the hope of
acquiring for themselves the power they covet by his removal from office.

[1] When, a boy is born, the midwife, in order to avert the Evil Eye and
evil spirits, says: 'It is only a girl blind of one eye!' If a girl is
born, the fact is stated, because she excites no jealousy, and is thus
protected from spirit attacks.

[2] This is intended to scare evil spirits, but has become a mere form of
announcing the joyful event.

[3] After the first bath pieces of black thread are tied round the child's
wrist and ankle as protection.

[4] _Amaltas, Cassia fistula_

[5] The purgative draught (_guthl_) is usually made of aniseed,
myro-bolans, dried red rose leaves, senna, and the droppings of mice
or goats.--_Bombay Gazetteer_, ix, part ii, 153.

[6] _Gudri_.

[7] _Ta'awiz_.

[8] Among the Khojahs of Bombay a stool is placed near the mother's bed,
and as each, of the female relatives comes in she strews a little rice
on the stool, lays on the ground a gold or silver anklet as a gift for
the child, and bending over mother and baby, passes her hands over
them, and cracks her finger-joints against her own temples, in order
to take all their ill luck upon herself.--_Bombay Gazetteer_, ix, part
ii, 45.

[9] _Duli_: see p. 184.

[10] _Salgirah_ or _barasganth_, 'year-knot'.

[11] _Gardani_.

[12] P. 36.

[13] The Mahomedans are very keen on breeding pigeons in large numbers;
they make them fly all together, calling out, whistling, and waving
with a cloth fastened to the end of a stick, running and m