1841.] Eoree in Khypoor. 491 



at Bukur without reference to their tonnage, and tolls at Kurdehee and 

 Thatta. They were searched at Hydurabad, Sehwan, Chilka on the 

 Arrut, Khyrpoor on the Nuhra, and at Roree. An attempt to conceal 

 goods not entered in the bill of lading, condemned the cargo to confisca- 

 tion and the owner to fine and imprisonment. He must exhibit the 

 merchant's accounts of whom he purchased the goods and a certificate of 

 the custom house officer of the place where they were embarked, without 

 which they are stopped. Grain landed at Roree is charged about 4£ per 

 cent, duty regulated by the price current of the town. 



The natives of Sind, with the exception of a few high caste Hindoos who 

 abstain from fish, subsist on fish, milk, and wheat or joowara, or rice where 

 it is cultivated, and a variety of vegetables which grow in plenty, From 

 motives of economy they eat wheat during the rubbee or spring harvest 

 and Joowara or maize in the Khureef or autumnal harvest. The price 

 of rice has risen considerably since 1838, and is now beyond the means 

 of the lower orders except in districts where it is the staple. Rice is the 

 red kind and people clean it by pounding it in large wooden mortars with 

 salt in the proportion of one part salt to six of rice. It is sifted from the 

 salt and something less than a pound of wheat flour added to bleach it. 

 Every boat on the Indus is provided with a deep wooden mortar formed 

 of the hollow trunk of a tree. The boatmen buy grain in the husk 

 because it is cheap and beat it in the mortar with a club to separate the 

 chaff. 



Meer Roostum obliged the milkmen of Roree to dispose of milk at 

 2| pys a seer, but on their threatening to go over to our camp, allowed 

 them to sell it at 3 pys. At Sukhur the price formerly was 2 pys a seer, 

 and doubled in 1839. Curds ( Duhee) continued at the old rate of 2 

 pys. Ox and Cow beef sold formerly at 2 pys a seer in Roree, and 

 latterly at 9f , and goat's flesh rose from 5 to 6 pys. The beef and mutton 

 killed in camp for the troops, was extremely lean and tough, and hardly 

 eatable, when cooked in a common way, nor was this surprising as the 

 Sind butchers feed their sheep and cattle on the refuse of stables, and 

 do not give them grain and very rarely Kurbee (the stalk of joowara 

 and bujra.) 



Labourers and other poor people, eat twice a day, in the morning and 

 evening, and consume § of a seer of wheat or joowara flour, and one pys 

 worth of bor, a condiment made of fish, spinach, or pulse. To prepare 

 bor the fish is cut in pieces and thrown into boiling water, and onions, 

 black pepper, coriander seed, turmeric, and pomegranate seeds, are added 

 as seasoning. At present (1839) % of a seer of wheat ox joowara flour costs 



3 Q 



