POSTAL SYSTEM. 139 



Letters for despatch, on being sent to the Kot- 

 wallee, were placed in a box, which in the 

 absence of the Moonshee was under charge of 

 a Chokeydar. About 5 p. m. the letters were 

 taken out by the Moonshee, tied together by 

 a bit of string, without bag or envelope, and 

 taken to the stable where the Dawk contract- 

 or's horses were kept ; there the packet was 

 placed upon a particular beam, as agreed on with 

 the Dawk Sowar, who generally arrived about 

 sunset, and who, whilst a fresh horse was being 

 brouglit out, took down the packet, and, placing 

 it in his wallet, galloped on to the Government 

 post-office at Roree. It may readily be sup- 

 posed that such a system was not a very secure 

 one ; and I at any rate can answer for that, as 

 on one occasion I jDOsted two letters for Bom- 

 bay, one of which contained a hoondee, or 

 native draft, for eight hundred rupees. On 

 the following morning the Moonshee came to 

 me, looking much alarmed, and on inquiry I 

 found that he had on the preceding evening 

 laid down the packet of letters on a bundle of 

 grass in the stable yard, and forgetting it 

 whilst he spoke to a friend, a hungry calf had 

 seized upon and half eaten the packet, the re- 



