32 



and rail them to Atfcock, Hassan Abdal and Hazro, where the 

 animals are sold at weekly fairs to trans-border Pathans. They 

 also supply buffaloes to all the north- western districts. But 

 their principal business consists in buying up worn out and 

 comparatively useless cattle at all fairs in the country from 

 Hissar to Lyallpur. These purchases are invariably marched 

 until they eventually strike the Grand Trunk Road, up which a 

 continuous stream of cattle may be seen driven by these Rasha 

 traders throughout the cold weather. On the march they continue 

 their trade and are perpetually selling off animals which can 

 still work for two or three years more at cheap prices, or exchang- 

 ing fairly serviceable cattle for a larger number of utterly worn 

 out animals. They sometimes include in their droves a few under- 

 sized but serviceable cattle from the breeding districts, which the 

 zamindars of the Pothwar and Dhanni tracts are glad to buy at 

 cheap rates to replace the high class animals for which they have 

 obtained large sums of money, The ultimate destination of these 

 droves by the time they arrive at Rawalpindi, or are sold at Hassan 

 Abdal and Gondal, is in most cases the hide merchant. 



Export trade to the United Provinces, which mainly consists 

 of young stock from one to two years, is largely in the hands 

 of Banjaras. They limit their operations to the old Delhi territory 

 and are not generally met with north of Ludhiana, and the line 

 of the Sutlej. They do, however, occasionally visit the Amritsar 

 fair. Their purchases at fairs, however, represent only small 

 proportion of their business, for they are constantly on the move 

 throughout che country at all times of the year, but especially 

 in June and July, buying up young stock, which they march 

 through well known grazing grounds to the districts of the United 

 Provinces, where ihey find a ready market. The stock bought 

 by the Banjaras is always younger than that bought by the 

 Aroras, and never of the same high quality. The cultivator in 

 the United Provinces appears to be less particular than his Punjabi 

 brother as to the type of animal he uses for cultivation. The 

 Banjara caste includes both Hindus and Mussalmans, the Hindu 

 is chiefly interested in the sale of the young stock for draught 

 purposes, while the Mussalman is more closely connected with 

 the Kasai. This arrangement is one of which they are not slow 

 to take advantage when it is more profitable to sell an animal to 

 Kasais than to march it across the Jamria for sale to zamindars. 

 These traders are regular visitors to the weekly fairs at Nuh, 

 Kosi, Muttra and other centres. Their business is on a smaller 

 scale than that of the Arora. They are financed by banias and 

 seldom carry with them a large amount of cash. Their sales in 



