290 SEVENTH REPORT—1937. 
not unfrequently to that of Johesee or village astrologer. The 
-Koolkurnee, like the Pateel, has Eenam land, sometimes salary, 
fees of grain, and miscellaneous rights of butter, raw sugar, 
&c., rarely having equal rights, either in number or value, 
with the Pateel, but commonly averaging from 25 to 75 per 
cent. below. Where the villages are very small, there is only 
one Koolkurnee for several villages, as in the case of. Turruff 
Muhr Khor, Poona collectorate, where the duties of this in- 
dividual extend to one small town and eleven villages. He is 
here paid by a money rate for every 30 beegahs of land under 
cultivation ; it varies from 1 rupee the 30 beegahs to 3 rupees. 
Unlike the Deshmooks and Pateels, no instance came to my 
knowledge of shares of the office being alienated from the 
family ; the numerous sharers being all connected by ties of 
blood, who each in turn take their annual duties; and these 
sharers are sometimes so numerous, that at one town the exe- 
cution of the duties only came to the same individual after a 
lapse of 20 years. The executive duties should be confined 
to the same person. 
Mahrs Tenure.—A very important tenure in villages is that 
of the low-cast people, called Mahr by the Mahrattas, and 
Dher by the Moosulmans. ‘They have Eenam lands in all vil- 
lages, divided into Hurkee and Arowlah; the former is rent 
free, and generally bears a small proportion to the latter, 
which pays a low quit rent. The Mahrs conceive that they 
have the right to mortgage or otherwise dispose of lands held 
for the performance of specific duties to the village and the 
government, and numerous instances of mortgage came to my 
knowledge ; but whether they can wholly alienate their lands 
or not, they cannot absolve themselves and their descendants 
' from their duties: these are to cut wood and grass for go- 
vernment officers and travellers, to act as guides, as porters to 
carry baggage from village to village, and to go as messengers ; 
they have to attend strangers and see to their wants being 
supplied, and if the strangers be of consequence, they or the 
Ramooses have to look to the safety of their baggage at night. 
‘They are the guardians of all village land-marks ; they are the 
Pateel’s messengers, (something like parish beadles,) and it is 
their duty to carry the collections to the treasurer of the dis- 
trict; they have to pass on all news or information received, 
whether written or verbal, whether by sign or by token, to all 
the surrounding villages, and it is perfectly astonishing the 
rapidity with which intelligence is diffused by their means. 
It is no uncommon thing for a distant public event to be whis- 
pered about in towns before any account of it has been received 
