1838.] Origin of the Ddud Putras. 27 



The heat in summer is excessive and the natives pass the hot noons 

 in the cold caves of the salt. Their lodgings which are poor cottages 

 run along the base or slope of the range. The complexion of the peo- 

 ple is pale and fever generally attacks them. Nearly half of the popula- 

 tion is subject to goitre. 



The Hindu ladies who follow the doctrine of Baba Na'nak and 

 Guru' Govind Singh, tie their hair on the top of the head, in a 

 manner hardly different from the fashion adopted by the European ladies, 

 but that combs are not used by them. 



IV. — A brief- amount of the Origin of the Ddud Putras, and of the 



power and birth of Bahawal Kha'n their Chief on the bank 



of the Ghdrd and Indus. By the same. 



I had long since intended to lay before you the account of the birth and 

 power of Muhammad Baha'wal Kha'n, the present chief of the Ddud 

 Putras, but it struck me that the authorities who have frequently naviga- 

 ted the Ghdrd might not have omitted to mention them. By the late 

 arrival of the Asiatic Journal for the month of March, which contains 

 the " Journal of Captain C. M. Wade's voyage from Lodiana to Mi- 

 thankot by the river Satlaj on his mission to Ldhor and Bahdwalpur 

 in 1832-33 by Lieutenant Mackeson, 14th Regiment, N. I." I find that 

 the latter officer has only described the country, buildings, gardens and 

 people, &c. of Bahdwalpur, and has not favored us with any biographical 

 accounts of the Ddud Putras, which I have collected from authentic 

 sources. I do not presume to say that it will meet your approbation, but 

 trust that it will not fail to give you some amusement and information. 



Da/u'd was a person of obscure origin and a weaver at Shikdrpur ; he 

 was in the habit of shooting in the suburbs. One day finding no game 

 he was returning, home with great disappointment ; perchance he hap- 

 pened to come on the brim of a ford or pond and listened to the sound as 

 if some animal were passing through the water. It was night-time and he 

 was sure that it could be no man, but some quadruped. As he had a 

 loaded gun in his hands and could see the moving of the water he fired 

 at it, which instantly created a cheerless shout saying, " You have killed 

 an innocent being. I was a man and not an animal, take care of my 

 wife and little children as they have now nobody to support them*." 



* This story resembles that of the death of Yajnadatta killed by king 

 Dasa hatha, the subject of a beautiful episode in the Ram&yana, translated 

 by the late M. Chezy ; and perhaps the poetry of it may be partly borrowed 

 thence : — 



E 2 



