MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



471 



race are not accused (and I be- 

 lieve with justice) of committing 

 in the most open and shameful 

 manner. 



The Sikhs are almost all horse- 

 men, and they take great delight 

 in riding. Their horses were a 

 few years ago, famous ; and those 

 bred in the Lak'hi Jungle, and 

 other parts of their territory, were 

 justly celebrated for their strength, 

 temper, and activity : but the in- 

 ternal distractions of these territo- 

 ries has been unfavourable to the 

 encouragement of the breed, which 

 has consequently declined; and 

 the Sikhs now are in no respect 

 better mounted than the Mah- 

 ratas. From a hundred of their 

 cavalry it would be difficult to se- 

 lect ten horses that would be ad- 

 mitted as fit to mount native 

 troopers in the English service. 



Their horsemen use swords and 

 spears, and most of them now 

 carry matchlocks, though some still 

 use the bow and arrow ; a species 

 of arms, for excellence in the use 

 of which their forefathers were ce- 

 lebrated, and which their descend- 

 ants appear to abandon with great 

 reluctance. 



The education of the Sikhs ren- 

 ders them hardy, and capable of 

 great fatigue ; and the condition of 

 the society in which they live, 

 affords constant exercise to that 

 restless spirit of activity and enter- 

 prise which their religion has ge- 

 nerated. Such a race cannot be 

 epicures : they appear, indeed, 

 generally to despise luxury of diet, 

 and pride themselves in their coarse 

 fare. Their dress is also plain, not 

 unlike that of the Hindus, equally 

 light and divested of ornament. 

 Some of the chiefs wear gold 

 bangles ; but this is rare ; and the 



general characteristic of their dress 

 and mode of living, is simplicity. 



The principal leaders among the 

 Sikhs affect to.be familiar and easy 

 of intercourse with their inferiors, 

 and to despise the pomp and state 

 of the Muhammedan chiefs : but 

 their pride often counteracts this 

 disposition ; and they appeared to 

 me to have, in proportion to their 

 rank and consequence, more state, 

 and to maintain equal, if not more, 

 reserve and dignity with their fol- 

 lowers, than is usual with the 

 Mahrata chiefs. 



It would be difficult, if not im- 

 practicable, to ascertain the amount 

 of the population of the Sikh ter- 

 ritories, or even to compute the 

 number of the armies which they 

 could bring into action. They boast 

 that they can raise more than a 

 hundred thousand horse : and, if 

 it were possible to assemble every 

 Sikh horseman, this statement 

 might not be an exaggeration : but 

 there is, perhaps, no chief among 

 them, except Ranjit Singh, of La- 

 hore, that could bring an effective 

 body of four thousand men into the 

 field. The force of Ranjit Singh 

 did not, in 1805, amount to eight 

 thousand ; and part of that was 

 under chiefs who had been subdued 

 from a state of independence, and 

 whose turbulent minds ill-brooked 

 an usurpation which they deemed 

 subversive of the constitution of 

 their commonwealth. His army is 

 now more numerous than it was, 

 but it is composed of materials 

 which have no natural cohesion, 

 and the first serious check which it 

 meets, will probably cause its dis- 

 solution. 



There is no branch of this 

 sketch which is more curious and 

 important, or that offers more dif- 



