56 WESTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



tion and intolerancy, confirm and heighten the zeal for the old 

 religion of their country, added to a pride of defccnt, and 

 the boaft of being formed from the arms of the great deity 

 Brahma. They are called Kehteree, or Kbatre\ they are en- 

 joined the performance of thirteen great duties *. The pro- 

 te<Slion of religion and the art of war are two, and thofe they 

 obferve to the fulleft extent. Thev feem like our knicrht- 

 errant, performing all the duties of chivalry. BouUaye la Gguz 

 gives a good figure of a Raipoot Chevalier on his 234th page. 



They were once a powerful people, but notwithftanding 

 they are now rhuch reduced, they ftill are feared and refpecflcd 

 by all Hindoojlan. They frequently hire themfelves to other 

 ftates. Under the emperor Akbar, they received the blow which 



Their Capi- put an end to their greatnefs. In 1567, he marched to the ca- 

 ' "°^ pital, Cbeilor, flrongly fituated in a lofty mountain, and garri- 

 foned by the Raja with eight thoufand chofen Raipoots, and 

 headed by a general of tried valour. Akbar effecSled a breach, 

 but by fpringing a mine loft numbers of his own men. Unfor- 

 tunately for the befieged, the emperor faw the governor bufied 

 in giving orders for filling up the breaches : when, calling for a 

 fufil, he (hot the faithful commander through the head. The 



Its sad Fate, garrifon funk under the lofs. In defpair they determined on the 

 horrid ceremony of the Joar. They put to the fword all their 

 wives and children, and burned their bodies, with that of their 

 governor, on a prodigious funeral pile. The citizens of Sagun- 

 tum illamfide^ et <^ru7?inis inclytam\, 530 years before Christ, 

 like them driven to defpair, performed the fame dreadful rites. 



* Ayeen, iii. 82. 



f Mela, lib. ii. c, 8. Li vv, lib. iii. lib. xxi. c. 7. Florus, lib. vii. c.6. 



Bv 



