416 



power, or influence, from a territorial property which he could not 

 bequeath lo his successor. 



Thus it is in Hindostan: the lands appropriated to each village 

 belong to the government; the ryots or peasants, who cultivate the 

 fields, under the orders and inspection of the patell, or superior of 

 the village, are in a manner attached to the spot. The cattle for 

 the plough, and other services of husbandry, are sometimes the 

 common stock of the village, oftener the property of individuals. 

 The patell provides seed and implements of agriculture, takes 

 care that such as are able cultivate the land, and at the lime of 

 settling the jummabunda, or harvest-agreement, with the collector 

 of the revenue, allots to each family their portion of grain, or 

 a share of the money for which it has been sold; according to 

 the number of the family, the quantity of their cattle, and the ex- 

 tent of the land they have cultivated. Some particular fields, called 

 pysita and vajcessa lands, arc set apart in each village for public 

 purposes; varying, perhaps, as to the mode of application, in dif- 

 ferent districts; but in most the produce of these lands is appro- 

 priated to the maintenance of the brahmins, the cazee, washerman, 

 smith, barber, and the lame, blind, and helpless; as also to the 

 support of a few vertunnees, or armed men, who are kept for the 

 defence of the village, and to conduct travellers in safety from 

 one village to another. An English reader may perhaps be sur- 

 prized to see the barber in the list of pensioners: there is seldom 

 more than one in each village; he shaves the inhabitants gratis; 

 and as he has no exercise in the day, it is his province at night to 

 carry a mussaul, or torch, to light travellers on the road, or for 



