A EUX THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 261 



gestion of his attendants. Various stories were afloat 

 regarding the conduct of his lady- mother ; and another 

 child, of somebody else, was afterwards brought for- 

 ward in claim to the chiefship, giving rise to a great 

 lawsuit, which, I think, was finally decided in favour 

 of my little acquaintance. What between their old 

 methods of settling such matters, uncertain British 

 justice, and improvements in the administration of 

 British justice, the Kathis must have a tine field for 

 intrigue, corruption, and gambling. Especially trying 

 must be the position of a young or elderly widow 

 who is left with one child as an heir to the chief- 

 ship. Dining, after my visit to the Thakor, or 

 Thakoor, with Captain l^utt, one of the political 

 agents in Kathiawar, who happened to be pass- 

 ing through Gondul with his wife, I had the op- 

 portunity of talking over this and similar matters 

 with a sensible officer well acquainted with the 

 country. 



Soon after I reached Rajkot, which is the centre 

 of the British agency in Kathiawar, and of the troops 

 which are required to support British authority. The 

 Eajktimar College with its staff, a postmaster-general 

 (for the province), one or two missionaries, and a few 

 Parsi shopkeepers, aid in making this place something 

 like an ordinary Indian station. It has a small genial 

 society of English bachelors and widowers. I do not 

 mean to say that it might not, possibly, have been 

 still more genial if there had been more English maids 



