The Manager. 25 



having his own pet system. Over these troublesome 

 little papers, which he must sign and confirm, the 

 manager spends a weary time, testing, inquiring, 

 doubting, believing, and sometimes, whispering soft 

 nothings into the patwarfs ear. These papers are 

 checked by a book called the kistibundi (instalment- 

 book) and the daily cash register. 1\\zjamma bundles 

 and jamma kharchas, alas ! come together ; but " the 

 wind is tempered to the shorn lamb," and they only 

 come up for searching inquiry once a year. These 

 give the total rental of the village, showing the khast 

 or holding of each tenant with its rental ; the amount 

 received in cash and that still to be collected ; the 

 impracticable lands from which no rent accrues ; the 

 tenants, real and imaginary, who have disappeared 

 from the village during the year, carrying the whole 

 year's rent with them (the patwari invariably sets 

 them down as delinquents to the full) ; the cesses for 

 which the village is liable fisheries, tanneries, etc. 

 The patwari) foul bird, has preyed the year out upon 

 the pecuniary vitals of the tenants, but now he dons 

 his brightest plumage, and it is indeed difficult to 

 detect his obscene nature ; but duty is duty, and the 

 Manager has a high and enduring sense of it. So, 

 into foepatwarfs papers not only his own, but those 

 of the out-divisions as well the Manager goes, con- 

 senting and dissenting, cutting and clipping, doubting 



^ ,. 



S^fORNJA. 



