About this time a general order was issued, ordering all officers to provide themselves with camels, and volunteering any advance of pay for the purpose. Such generosity struck us as unbounded, for as the commissariat experienced almost insurmountable difficulties in procuring camels, it was not easy to imagine how we, as individuals, were likely to be more successful. The procedure was awkward, but could not possibly relieve them of the responsibility of which they thus sought to rid themselves; but our commissariat was strikingly ineffective. As matters now stood, troops and companies had to depend for the conveyance of their stores on the capabilities of captains, who were unable to obtain carriage for their own linen; and thus their appearance at Cabool was far from promising. No sooner did a camel or tattoo appear in camp, than, after a general rush upon him, he was purchased up at almost any price, and the poorer brethren had but to sigh in resignation, and trust to Providence. I purchased five tattoos, after much trouble; one as a hack for myself for eighty rupees, or £8, and the other four for forty rupees! I certainly had no reason to grumble at their price: my hack turned out invaluable; but the others! I felt sure they had in some way originated from a large breed of rats. They, however, carried my little personal stock of kit, and my only anxiety now was for my troop.

*

The horse-keepers, camel-drivers, and camp-followers, deserted daily, and by scores; the former generally carrying away their horses' currey-combs and brushes, and the latter not only the sulitas, but very frequently the newlypurchased camels themselves. The two lost by S at Khueempoot were here recognised by their driver, who had, rather boldly, ventured to offer the lost pair again for sale; the delinquent was taken to the Resident, Col. Pottinger, for punishment.

Whatever may have been our opinions as to the awkward inefficiency of one or two of the leading departments, we certainly had no fault to find with the administration of the camp bazaar-master, whose punishments were not only just, but judicious. To mete a proper quantum of correction is easy enough, but to award a chastisement according to the nature of the delinquency is a matter of much greater difficulty; and in this the officer in question was most happy. A native of some caste, who had, in defiance of camp regulations, unpleasantly chosen to commit a nuisance under our very eyes, was awarded to carry out the disagreeable subject-matter of the nuisance with his own hands to a convenient distance from our encampment. The scene may easily be imagined; the lesson was a most salutary one, and the punishment better than any mulct or lashes that could have been inflicted.

On the 13th, Capt. Outram, of the Bheel corps, and Lieut. Eastwicke, started for Hydrabad, with terms to which the ameers were expected to subscribe. We demanded, I believe, the free navigation of the Indus (the ameers up to this period having always levied a heavy toll on all vessels navigating within their dominions); the maintenance of a British subsidiary force at Bukkur, Shikarpore, Kurrachee, and Tatta; and the payment of seventeen lakhs of rupees,‡ a part only of the arrears due to Shah Shoojah.

For the first time since leaving the transport, some of us were lucky enough to eat some bread. The weather became suddenly hot, the thermometer ranging from 80° to 85°.

On the 16th, seven hundred coolies arrived from Bombay, to be employed

Sulitas; a kind of camel-saddle, made with bags on each side, to hold the baggage in.

↑ Vide page 116.

§ A day-labourer of all work.

One hundred and seventy thousand rupees.

chiefly as camel-drivers. The occupation is not only a difficult, but an unhealthy one, there being an opinion in vogue that, owing to the powerful smell and unpleasant motion of the camel, their drivers seldom live to old age; besides, like most other Asiatic employments, it is hereditary. That our Bombay friends might live to learn their vocation was an earnest hope; pending their proficiency, we were the sufferers. On this day we had rain, and the air was cutting and chilly. The sudden changes of climate, common at this season of the year, in the Delta of the Indus, must be most trying to a European constitution-indeed, to any.

I walked into the town, to look at a specimen of Eastern punishment under an Asiatic government, as on my former visit I had missed the sad spectacle. A man of rank, and formerly of large property—all of which has, in due course, been appropriated by the ameers-twenty years ago, committed two murders, for which he has ever since been confined in an iron cage in one of the public streets, exposed to the gaze of passers-by. Government feed and clothe him: he was perfectly mad, and the fearful stench from his cage was overpowering. Heavy rain at four P.M. Another troop-horse shot.

Our stores were all sent down to the river, from whence they proceeded to Hydrabad by boat, by which means I also despatched my tent, keeping my routi only until land-carriage was more abundant. The camp was a very Babel, from the preparations making for our march, which was to be on the 23d; Sir John preceding us a day. It was further determined that, on the third day of our start, we should halt until the spirit of the ameers was finally ascertained. During the confusion attendant on our departure, I managed to purchase two camels, and to dispose of two of my tattoos.

Whilst here, some of the officers tried hawking as an amusement: as no mention was ever made of "glorious feats in the noble science of falconry," they were probably not very successful. Hawking is a favourite pastime of the people, as well as of the ameers and Beloochee chiefs. Dr. Burnes mentions a hawk in the possession of Kurm Ali, uncle to the present ameers, worth £200. According to the Deccany value, none that we saw were worth (above £1; but, as the rabble of an intruding army, we could not expect to see or receive almost priceless falcons, or with their noble highnesses examine the temper of unornamented sword-blades worth £5,000.

We here got up a sort of hunting club or association, patronized by the chief, and raised and maintained by an entrance donation, and a monthly subscription of two or three rupees. The plan, furthering as it did a never-failing and healthy amusement, at a scarcely perceptible expense, was most excellent. Of all exhilirating sports, few, if any, equal those of the field; and from the fox-hunt at home to the neat Deccany coursing trip, to me each has its enjoyments. Our hunting packs, however, on this side of India at least, are seldom very successful, owing to the country, on which the scent never lays well, and to the climate, which blunts the acuteness of scent in the hound. The offspring of dogs of the finest breed, born in this country, deteriorate sadly; and the half-bred dogs, besides being most troublesome to break in, offer no sport for a continuancy. I remember a ludicrous, though rather awkward, circumstance which once took place with a pack of this kind. The dogs had been taken out for exercise by two or three officers, when, in sauntering quietly along, they suddenly and unaccountably gave out the sound so musical to a sportsman's ear, and were soon in full cry, the scent evidently laying on well. They made straight for a nulla, and from their manner of giving tongue, it was very palpable that they had there seized their game. One of the officers dashed Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.33.No.130.

R

eagerly on, and on arriving on the banks of the ravine, to his horror and dismay, beheld them tearing at an unfortunate old woman, who seemed even powerless to cry for assistance. The cracking of whips, the eager cries of the dogs, their yells as the lash told on them, and the now horrifying screams of the old woman, rendered the scene most uproarious. The hounds were at length torn from their prey, but not until they had relieved the old lady of every rag of her scanty covering, and one of the party was fain to leave her his jacket, in some slight measure to save appearances. The poor old soul had brought with her her humble fare, and whilst tending her buffaloes and sheep, was quietly eating her rice, chillies, and asafœtida, when she was unpleasantly intruded on by the hounds. The asafoetida had been the attracting cause, the bagged game being generally so mercilessly rubbed in with this drug, that any person possessing the smallest possible particle of an olfactory organ might undertake to run them by scent. To hear that in India we consequently course, not only hares, but jackals and foxes, will scarcely, therefore, be a matter of surprise. The jackal, though slow, is very strong and steady in his pace; but over rocky country, the fox gives splendid runs and excellent sport. In Guzerat it is not often tried, owing to the plains, over which Reynard would have but little chance; but in parts of the Deccan, greyhounds do not often capture a fox, and one hoary old gentleman, I know, who defied both hounds and greyhounds for three years, and when I quitted Kerkee was still " monarch of all he surveyed." Par parenthèse, the English greyhound, from the length and tenderness of his feet, has no chance with the Arab in the Deccan, but across the wide plain the Arab cannot come near him; the Sinde dog, though coarse and devoid of beauty, combines the power of both. Sporting in India is carried almost to a passion which, in England, where the general aspect of the country is cultivated, rich and riant, would be scarcely conceivable. Officers sometimes procure a leave of weeks or months for hunting and shooting excursions, when they scour the country within the brigade or division, sometimes sleeping in the open air, exposed, as the case may be, to the close night air or pitiless storm-sometimes obtaining shelter beneath a mosque or durum sâla; their fare for weeks consisting of nought but milk, eggs, and aps, a species of large flat cake made of water and coarse badjree flour; the rifle, the gun, the spear, the greyhound, severally coming into play; and the tiger, the panther, the bear, the pig, the hare, and the fox, all forming part of their return spoil. As to the much-vaunted superiority of the British fox-hunt, even the fox and deer coursing in parts of India affords as bright prospects of death by a broken neck as your most slashing English leaps, and the hero of the boar-chase need yield to none in his experience of the "dashing pace that kills."

ANECDOTES, TRANSLATED FROM THE PERSIAN.

Galen, walking in the street, met a beautiful youth, and asked him some questions. The boy replied sullenly, and frowned; upon which the sage observed, "That is a gölden vessel, with vinegar in it."

A spunger knocked at some one's door. "Who is there?" cried the master of the house. "One," replied he, "who wished to save you the trouble of inviting him.”

ON THE BARDS OF RAJPOOTANA.

BY THE LATE LIEUTENANT-COLONEL TOD.

The twelfth century was a brilliant era in the history of Hindustan, its literature and its chivalry; but it was of that dazzling brightness which is often the prelude to dissolution :

A gilded halo hovering round decay.

It was a premature decay, however, for at the very period its kingdoms were shivered into dust, it was rejoicing in a healthy constitution. A vigorous impulse had been given from north to south. From the Himalaya to the Indian ocean, there existed contemporaneously four kingdoms, powerful in arms, and exhibiting their ancient lustre. Their period of darkness, from Vieramaditya and the transfer of permanent sovereignty in the second century from Indraprestha to Ananti (Oojein), the restoration of the former, under its new name of Delhi in the eighth, the Middle Age of these martial races, had passed away; but of the changes which had affected Hindu society we can only judge by their efforts having ceased. From the eighth century to the twelfth, the four grand kingdoms of Delhi, Canouj, Nehrwala (Puttun) and Cheetore, had been gradually resuming their ancient importance; their history, though obscure, records when the mad ambition of one man checked the growing prosperity of these Hindu states, and, extinguishing all internal resources for defence, left them prey to the ruthless invader (Shabudin), stimulated by all those incentives which religious frenzy, a thirst for gain, and the spirit of conquest can inspire.

The light which began to dawn upon their long night of darkness was eclipsed, but we can form some notion of the effulgence which it would have attained from the remnants of art which even the destroyer's hand has not utterly demolished. The genius of these Hindu races, when arrested, from the principle of exclusion which detached them from the rest of mankind, and which, though it deprived it of the advantages of foreign improvements, had made it cling with more constancy to its own primitive habits, attracted the notice of some of the most powerful of their conquerors, who had sufficient liberality of mind to honour and even cultivate and adopt the institutions, arts, and literature of their subjects. But the benevolence of an Akber and a Shah Jehan could not enable the arts of Hindustan long to survive its independence, and the wonder is that they did not at once sink under the oppressive rule of the earlier Moslem princes. But the spirit of exclusion, or separation from the rest of mankind, has a vivifying quality that cherishes a germ of regeneration, which is ever ready to blossom forth under the genial breath of encouragement.

The philosopher may speculate on this anomaly in the history of nations and of the human mind; that these races should have maintained not only their religious tenets, but in a great degree their temporal possessions, their mental and physical habits, whilst numerous dynasties of their oppressors have vanished from the face of the earth. With the exception of those who

inhaled the impure air of the Court of Delhi, the Rajpoot of the nineteenth century is as brave as his ancestor of the twelfth, with most of his high qualities.

The genius of poesy had her birth in the East, though avatars of the divinity have appeared in every clime: but it is in the regions of her origin, amongst the gorgeous objects of precocious nature, she appears to have delighted to dwell, and there she raised a numerous progeny. In the countries of the East, poetry has universal sway; the imagination riots in the changes which nature so rapidly produces, the Hindu bard having six seasons to diversify his poetic year. Winter in the East never assumes the dreary garb of the Borean season; on the contrary, her reign is as delightful as it is long, and it is with a sigh that the resident in Oriental climes sees her presence exchanged even for that of spring; and the summers of India (for two nymphs, with distinct characteristics, preside over this portion of the year) are brilliant, but the last becomes intolerable, till the descending clouds usher in another season. Then the minstrel, looking abroad, sees a verdant carpet spread on the late parched plain; all vegetation seems suddenly awakened; the deer sally from their covert; the kohil and the ring-dove send forth their plaintive notes, which fall with delicious softness upon the lover's ear, whilst crowds of pea-fowl fill up the intervals, and vary the echoes, with their monotonous notes.

This is the grateful season of the bard, whether he takes shelter with his vina (lyre) in the sylvan grove, or beneath the shade of some mighty burr (Banyan) tree, or watches, beside his mistress, in the midnight hour, the progress of the war of elements during a monsoon tempest, when the reverberating thunder and the ceaseless lightning inspire feelings of sublime awe, rather than fear; or if his fair companion should feel or feign timidity, delightful the office of assuaging such emotion in her gentle bosom ! In the days of her prosperity, Mewar, the modern Oudeypore, appears to have been the seat of the arts; almost all her eminent princes cultivated a taste for the national poetry. Accordingly, Cheetore, the capital of the Seesodia princes, was the grand resort of the bards, whether the Charun or Bardai (poet), the Bhat (genealogist), or Dholi (itinerant minstrel), who seldom aspired to composition, but sang to his lute (vina) or viol (rhithab) the local tales or traditions, or the productions of the Bardai. In this respect, the analogy, between the Trouveurs and Jongleurs of the middle or heroic ages of Europe is apparent, whilst the princely non-professional bards may be called the Troubadours of Rajasthan.

Charuns, Bhats, Burwas, Jagga, Dhom, Dholi, Kamreahs, are all designations of the minstrel tribe. The term Barad, Bardai, and Barat, seems to have been anciently applied indifferently to either Charun or Bhat, though now restricted to the first, and the Bhat is the genealogist, not poet. In earlier times the Bhat had both offices probably; he was styled Rao, or Prince. We read of rewards given to poets in early times of great value: lac pussão, cror pussao, and gifts of landed estates equal to those of the peers. Their freedom of speech was unbounded; hence their satire

chief