HIS LIKING FOR FIELD SPOETS. 167 



bed by nine o'clock. Field sports alone are 

 his object, and His Highness, I really think, 

 never sees dog or gun without coveting them. 



This, however, was not a feeling peculiar alone 

 to Meer Ali Moorad, it was the feeling at large 

 of the entire Talpoor race. " Their preserves 

 were so strictly guarded," says Captain Post- 

 ans, "that it would have been easier to have 

 gained access to their harems ! " I really think 

 too that the crime of a poacher captured in the 

 latter description of preserve would hardly 

 have experienced a more severe punishment 

 than in the former! In the treaty of 1839 it 

 was expressly stipulated by the Ameers that 

 a clause should be introduced into the treaties 

 with the British Government, providing for 

 the inviolability of their shikargahs. '' We 

 value them," said the chief addi^essing the 

 British rej^resentative at their Court, '' as much 

 as our wives and childi-en." With them, how- 

 ever, the love of the chase was but a passion ; 

 with Meer Ali Moorad it is an absolute mania, 

 holding exclusive possession of his mind. It 

 is, indeed, an unfortunate passion both for him- 

 self and his people, at least, the cultivating 

 class, who arc unwillingly forced away from 



