1837.] Lodiana to Mithankot by the Satlaj river. 173 



Their women share in the lahour of the field, and perform all the 

 menial and laborious offices about the house. They fetch water from 

 the wells, prepare the cakes of cow- dung (opla) for fuel, and cleanse 

 and plaister their mud hovels and chabutras, while the husbands are 

 smoking their pipes, or employed in making rope of the munjh grass 

 and repairing their implements of husbandry. Disputes among them 

 are referred to apanch or council of theChaudries (elders of the village), 

 or to arbitrators chosen by the parties. The men are addicted to the 

 use of bhang : are turbulent, quarrelsome, revengeful, and careless of 

 the shedding of blood. Their prevailing vice is petty thieving. 

 Female infanticide is practised, but is not very common among 

 these tribes. 



After the decline of the Dehli empire, the whole tract of country 

 from Ropur down to Mamdot on the left bank of the Satlaj, fell a 

 prey to Rai Ahmad Munj, one of the numerous adventurers who 

 rose to a temporary consequence in those days. When Ranji't Singh 

 crossed the Satlaj in 1808, and took Jagraon, the portion of this 

 extensive territory which still remained in the possession of Rai 

 Ahmad's family was subjected to that conqueror, and Jagraon and 

 its dependencies were bestowed by him in jaghir on Sirdar Fatteh 

 Singh Alawalla, under whose rule they still continue. His terri- 

 tory joins that of the Jhind raja near Lodiana, and reaches with few 

 interruptions to within a short distance of Firozpur. It is ill culti- 

 vated and almost destitute of wood, which is no where used for fuel 

 by the villagers. Jagraon, the Ddr-ul amal, is about 10 miles inland 

 from Bhundri. 



On the 11th we left Bhundri. For two miles beyond this place 

 the left bank of the river is excessively high ; the deep channel runs 

 rapidly under it, undermining large fragments of the soil, which con- 

 tinued falling as we passed, and raised large waves on the river. 

 After passing the villages of Khdt and Gursian, the deep channel 

 crosses over to the right bank, leaving the villages of Talwdra and 

 Sheikh Chishti far away to the left, at the extremity of a wide tract of 

 sand. Further on, at the same distance from us, we passed Bhamdl 

 and Sdlampur, when the river again doubled round a point, and the 

 deep channel brought us under the village of Sidhuan on the left 

 bank. 



To-day the river was devious and winding in its course, much 

 intersected with sand- banks, which from a distance appeared to stretch 

 quite across the channel and threaten a serious obstacle to further 

 progress. The shoals were numerous, appearing to cross each other 



