492 Roree in Khypoor. [No. 114. 



3 pys, so that including the price of bor, a poor man consumes two pence 

 a day. Labourers earned high wages in our camp and could afford to 

 purchase comforts, but they had been so little accustomed to possess 

 cash beyond their daily and pressing wants that they spent the surplus 

 improvidently. After working a few days they absented themselves, 

 without leave, for a week, and squandered their earnings on hemp juice 

 and tobacco. They returned to ask their employer's forgiveness and 

 to resume their labours, but followed again the same improvident course 

 when they amassed a little money. 



The food of a Moosulman of the better class costs about a rupee a day, 

 and consists of : 



Pys. 



1 lb. Rice, 3 



1 lb. Wheat Flour, 2| 



1 lb. Goat's Flesh, 4 



1 lb. Ghee or Clarified Butter, . . 8 



2 lb. Butter Milk, 4 



\ lb. Butasha, 4 



25| 



The family eat half about sunrise and the other half at noon, and a third 

 meal, consisting of the same quantity, at the first watch of the night. 

 A Zumeendar of Sukhur of my acquaintance, spends f of a rupee a day 

 on food, and his servants eat what is left. Hindoos live more frugally. 



Poor people eat with their food a large quantity of chillies which they 

 pound in a mortar with an equal quantity of coarse salt,- and add some 

 oil to diminish their fiery taste. Three pys weight of whole chillies 

 are sold for a copper pys, and half the quantity pounded for use. Fish 

 is dressed with linseed oil and a variety of spices, and the lower orders 

 grill the entrails on wood ashes and eat them with salt. 



There is little in Sindian cookery to tempt an epicure who has tasted 

 the delicacies of a Parisien restaurateur, or the royal kitchens of Dilhee 

 and Lucknow. I shall give the reader an idea of their cookery by des- 

 cribing a banquet at Sukhur in 1839 to which about two hundred guests 

 were invited. Sher Moohummud, a great savant of Roree, gave the 

 dinner to the principal tax gatherer of Khyrpoor, who sent a nuzzur, 

 exceeding the expense of the entertainment, which cost about eighty or 

 ninety rupees. He and she goats were cut in pieces and stewed to rags 

 in large copper cauldrons; and salt, garlic, turmeric, blackpepper, 

 cocoanuts, onions, and the seeds of black cummin, coriander, and anise 



