1840.] Account of Khyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur. 1097 



ass is introduced in Sind into mai*i*iage processions, and carries the bride 

 and bridegroom. A great many Bliattees enter the service of government, 

 and fill some of the most important and trust-worthy offices. They are 

 treated with respect and consideration, but obliged, as the price of 

 servitude, to conceal their caste, to wear beards, and adopt the dress 

 and manners of their rulers. They fasten the collar of their chola, or 

 shirt, on the left instead of the right side, which is the only difference 

 in the costume of the rival sects. The mechanical arts and manufac- 

 tures are conducted entirely by Moosulmans; but shopkeepers, and 

 by far the greater part of the mercantile class are Hindoos, and 

 cordially detest the Belooch. They are frugal, temperate, and industrious ; 

 their thoughts are directed exclusively to the acquisition of wealth, and 

 I am inclined to think the exactions of their rulers not quite so burthen- 

 some as they represent. They are a great deal the richest members of 

 the community, and contribute largely to the revenues of the country. 

 Meer Roostum, it is said, makes scarcely any distinction between his Hindoo 

 and Moosulman subjects, and is in this respect more tolerant than his 

 father Sohrab Khan, who sought opportunities to convert them to Islam. 

 During his reign, if a Hindoo was heard to speak lightly of the Moosulman 

 creed, or to deny his own faith in jest, he was immediately circumcised. 

 The law forbidding the Hindoo to exercise his religion should be abrogated ; 

 but in censuring the Talpoorees, we must not forget how recently the Jew 

 was persecuted in the most civilized states of Europe, and that in the 

 Punjab, and some Hindoo cities of western India, the Moosulman is not 

 permitted to build mosques and call his brethren to prayer. 



The government of Khyrpoor is a military despotism, and if the Ameers 

 persist in their present arbitrary mode of raising revenue, they will shortly 

 reduce the country to a desert. Moosulman and Hindoo are subject equal- 

 ly to extortion, though the last is, from the nature of his vocation, more 

 frequently the sufferer. In their eagerness for wealth, the princes have 

 permitted the forts and public works that rose under former rulers 

 to fall into ruin, and trade and manufactures languish. The few who 

 have wealth carefully conceal it, and assume an exterior of penury, to 

 escape extortion. An irregular cess is levied from grain-dealers and 

 shopkeepers, according to the means each is supposed to have of paying, 

 and they are confined in the stocks and flogged if they withhold their 

 quota. A sum varying from two to thirty rupees a shop was extorted 

 in October 1839 from the grain-dealers at Sukhur, not a mile from the 

 British camp. Before the arrival of our troops the dealers never exposed 

 a quantity of grain on their counters, for fear it should be seized or 

 plundered by the armed followers of the prince. They conducted business 



