420 



artful wiles; yet pysita-lands are set apart in almost every village 

 for these oppressors, who share with the industrious peasants and 

 proper pensioners, the allotments before mentioned ; and I must 

 own, when I cheerfully acquiesced in every distribution to the 

 poor, the maimed, and helpless objects of compassion, it was a 

 painful imposition to reward these wretches for their cruelty and 

 oppression. It is pleasing to reflect how similar were many of the 

 Hindoo appropriations to the charities enjoined by the Mosaical 

 law. " If there be among you a poor man within any of thy 

 gates, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thy hand from 

 thy poor brother; but shalt open thine hand wide unto him, 

 and to the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow: that the 

 Lord thy Gon may bless thee. When thou beatest thine olive- 

 tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again; when thou gatherest 

 the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shall not glean it afterwards; 

 when thou cultest down thy harvest, and hast forgotten a sheaf in 

 thy held, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; these shall be for the 

 stranger, the fatherless, and lor the widow; that the Lord thy God 

 may bless thee!" 



In different districts of Guzerat are different modes of cultiva- 

 tion, collecting the revenues, and distributing the crop. Those 

 that I have alluded to were usual in the purgunnas under my 

 management. In some parts of Hincloslan, exclusive of the 

 larger jaghires to princes and great officers, whole villages with all 

 the lands belonging to them, are appropriated to favorites of the 

 reigning sovereign, to dancing-girls, or celebrated devotees. One 

 of the most beautiful and flourishing villages I ever saw, had, with 

 its surrounding districts, been given to a set of dancing-girls; 



