258 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



anything ; and the difficulty thus arising was met, 

 up to a very recent date, by the custom of female 

 infanticide ; but this latter custom has now been put 

 an end to as an open custom owing to the efforts of 

 the British Government, though it may still exist to 

 some extent in a secret way. Probably it is not now 

 practised to an appreciable extent ; for the possessions 

 of land which the Kathis had secured in an unsettled, 

 turbulent state of the country, and which were of 

 little value in that state of affairs, have turned out 

 of great value to them now that the country is in a 

 peaceful, settled state. As polygamy exists among 

 them, and they can now afford to take more wives 

 than one (or even than two, which was their former 

 practice), there is not much temptation for them to 

 have recourse to the barbarous expedient of female 

 infanticide. Colonel Walker said : " The women of 

 the Kathis are proverbially beautiful and graceful. 

 The Kathis are much under the authority of these 

 women, who often incline their husbands to moderate 

 the harsh treatment which they sometimes pursue to 

 their captives, in order to extract from them large 

 ransoms." I should say the Kathi women were 

 rather large, powerful, and handsome, than specially 

 beautiful or graceful, though they are not altogether 

 wanting in the latter characteristic. As the men 

 have now no overt opportunity of holding prisoners 

 to ransom, the women have little to do, in that 

 respect, in ameliorating the cruelty of their lords, 



