le to go
on.[5] I got out at a small village to give him a little rest and
food; and sat down, under the shade of one old tree, upon the trunk
of another that the storm had blown down, while my groom, the only
servant I had with me, rubbed down and baited my horse. I called for
some parched gram from the same shop which supplied my horse, and got
a draught of good water, drawn from the well by an old woman in a
brass jug lent to me for the purpose by the shopkeeper.[6]

While I sat contentedly and happily stripping my parched gram of its
shell, and eating it grain by grain, the farmer, or head landholder
of the village, a sturdy old Rajput, came up and sat himself, without
any ceremony, down by my side, to have a little conversation. To one
of the dignitaries of the land, in whose presence the aristocracy are
alone entitled to chairs, this easy familiarity on the part of a poor
farmer seems at first somewhat strange and unaccountable; he is
afraid that the man intends to offer him some indignity, or, what is
still worse, mistakes him for something less than the dignitary. The
following dialogue took place.

'You are a Rajput, and a "zamindar"?' (landholder).

'Yes; I am the head landholder of this village.'

'Can you tell me how that village in the distance is elevated above
the ground? Is it from the debris of old villages, or from a rock
underneath?'

'It is from the debris of old villages. That is the original seat of
all the Rajputs around; we all trace our descent from the founders of
that village who built and peopled it many centuries ago.'

'And you have gone on subdividing your inheritances here, as
elsewhere, no doubt, till you have hardly any of you anything to
eat?'

'True, we have hardy any of us enough to eat; but that is the fault
of the Government, that does not leave us enough, that takes from us
as much when the season is bad as when it is good.'[7]

'But your assessment has not been increased, has it?' 'No, we have
concluded a settlement for twenty years upon the same footing as
formerly.'

'And if the sky were to shower down upon you pearls and diamonds,
instead of water, the Government would never demand more from you
than the rate fixed upon?'

'No.'

'Then why should you expect remissions in the bad seasons?'

'It cannot be disputed that the "barkat" (blessing from above) is
less under you than it used to be formerly, and that the lands yield
less to our labour.'

'True, my old