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ducement to money-lenders to advance money to land- 

 holders or cultivators of any degree, still less was it 

 their interest to tempt those to take money, which 

 they really did not want, in order to make an extra 

 display at a wedding or a durbar. 



They lent money, but only at enormous rates of in- 

 terest ; but this was not unfair, as they never hoped 

 even to recover the principal, while for such interest 

 as they were to get (a widely different thing to what 

 was written in the bond) they were dependent on the 

 good will of their debtor, or the rare, paternal inter- 

 ference of some superior, who, appealed to with suit- 

 able presents, would say, '' Come, Rambuksh, you owe 

 the Sahoo Sahib a lot of money, and you have paid 

 him nothing for two years; you just satisfy him by 

 some proper payment on account, or it will not be well 

 for you." 



And even such interference was rarely needed, for 

 the people are naturally very honest ; the creditor had 

 no object in cheating, because he could, as a rule, 

 only expect to get what he could convince his debtor 

 was justly due, while as for the debtor, though he had 

 no intention of paying off his creditor, whose debt 

 was perhaps six generations old, and who moreover 

 never expected this, still neither had he any objection 

 to make, from year to year, such payments on account 

 as he could afford and as according to custom (every- 

 thing was custom in those days) were fair and right. 



It was a point of honour with him, and the natives 

 of India had a very keen sense of honour ; they saw 

 many things from a different point of view to what 

 we do, but they kept, I think, as a whole, closer to 



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