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notes to the chieftains, and promulgated by a crier to the army 

 the preceding night. About four o'clock on the ensuing morning, 

 the signal for moving is given by the great nabut, or drum; on the 

 second beating, the beenee walla, an officer corresponding in some 

 measure with our quarter-master-general, sets out with the peshwa's, 

 or principal chieftain's flag, escorted by his own corps, occa- 

 sionally strengthened, as circumstances may require. With him, or 

 a little before, proceed parties from all the different chieftains, with 

 their respective flags, bazars, followers, infantry and artillery, 

 forming a mass called beheer or boongha : these proceed promis- 

 cuously in vast multitudes, and without the smallest order, until 

 they see the peshwa's d hall-flag, which is erected at the option of the 

 beenee walla, always in a spot in which the convenience of water 

 is the principal consideration, without regard to rough or even 

 ground, defensible situation or otherwise. By this flag the erection 

 of all others in the army (and every chief has one) is regulated: 

 for although, except in the line of the bazar, which generally forms 

 a fine street in front of the chief's tents, there is not the smallest 

 internal regularity in the pitching of a Mahratta camp, yet, with 

 respect to head-quarlers, all the chiefs have their relative stations 

 to the right and left, from which a deviation is by no means allow- 

 able. If a particular chief is stationed next to head-quarters, no 

 other officer must come between them, nor must this general ar- 

 rangement be infringed upon. Although this has the semblance 

 of a regular line, yet as no distances are marked out, and no 

 chief's numbers are definitively known, the whole exhibits an ap- 

 pearance of utter confusion: for if the camp is on a fordable river, 



