wed to attend a woman in her confinement till a heavy
tax has been paid to Ranjit Singh for the infant; and in England, a
man cannot let the light of heaven into his house till he has paid a
tax for the window.'[13]

'Nor keep a dog, nor shoot a partridge in the jungle, I am told,'
said the Nawab.

'Quite true, Nawab Sahib.'

'Hindustan, sir,' said he, 'is, after all, the best country in the
world; the only thing wanted is a little more (_rozgar_) employment
for the educated classes under Government.'

'True, Nawab Sahib, we might, no doubt, greatly multiply this
employment to the advantage of those who got the places, but we
should have to multiply at the same time the taxes, to the great
disadvantage of those who did not get them.'

'True, very true, sir,' said my old friend.

Notes:

1. January, 1836.

2. Faridpur is a mistake for Faridabad, a small town sixteen miles
from Delhi, founded in 1607 by Shaikh Farid, treasurer of Jahangir,
to protect the high road between Agra and Delhi.

3. The beds are dry in the cold season, but the streams, which flow
from the hills to the south of Delhi, are torrents in the rainy
season.

4. But the education in such schools is of very little value, being
commonly confined to the committing of the Koran to memory by boys
ignorant of Arabic.

5. In modern India the British buildings are far more varied, and
many aspire to some architectural merit.

6. Muhammad is said to have received these communications in all
situations; sometimes when riding along the road on his camel, he
became suddenly red in the face, and greatly agitated; he made his
camel sit down immediately, and called for some one to write. His
rhapsodies were all written at the time on leaves and thrown into a
box. Gabriel is believed to have made him repeat over the whole once
every year during the month of Ramazan. In the year he died Muhammad
told his followers that the angel had made him repeat them over twice
that year, and that he was sure he would not live to receive another
visit. [W. H. S.]

7. The Muhammadan year consists of twelve lunar months of 30 and 29
days alternately. The common year, therefore, consists of only 354
days. But, when intercalary days in certain years are allowed for,
the mean year consists of 354 11/30 days. Inasmuch as a solar year
consists of about 365 1/4 days, the difference amounts to nearly 11
days, and any given month in the Muhammadan year consequently goes
th