104 Report on the District of Azimgurh. [Feb. 



case as they aver. They have no idea that an arrangement of this 

 sort enables them more effectually to conceal the real resources of the 

 village, and would be more effective in resisting the inroads or power 

 of an auction purchaser, if any one were to attempt to take then- 

 estate at a sale for arrears of revenue. It is certain that many 

 under-let their Seer, and do not cultivate at their own risk. All aver 

 that they give portions of their Seer in payment of service to their 

 ploughmen, herdsmen, and other agricultural labourers. The Putwaree 

 however does not enter these appropriations of the Seer in his accounts : 

 their all appears as Seer, his papers merely showing the extent of 

 each man's Seer, and the portion assessed on him for payment of the 

 Jumma and village expenses. An exception to this may perhaps be 

 said to exist in what are called in Deogaon, Muzhooree Ryots ; but these 

 are only persons to whom the village community have made over 

 shares which have lapsed, or are in abeyance from any cause, so that 

 the land may not be waste and leave a heavier burden on the rest 

 of the village. Where the whole of the land is Seer, in these cases 

 the custom which regulates the payments is called bhahinsee, in other 

 places it is called beegah dam ; in both, the practice is the same. 

 The payments of the early kists are made according to a low esta- 

 blished rate on the Seer land, and towards the close of the year the 

 whole community assemble to audit the accounts. The village ex- 

 penses are added to the Government Jumma, and from the total is 

 deducted the payment of the Ryots, if there are any. The remainder 

 is distributed according to the bachji upon the owners of the Seer 

 land. 



59th. This audit of accounts (or boojharut, as it is called) is a most 

 important process to the whole of the community. The right of 

 admission to the audit is the criterion of proprietary right. It may so 

 happen that a proprietor has lost his Seer, either from poverty or its 

 accidental appropriation or destruction. Still he has a voice in the 

 audit, and can claim a scrutiny of the Putwaree's papers. It may so 

 happen that the force or fraud of a part of the community or of an 

 individual in it, has for a course of years kept some of [the community 

 from the audit. Such exclusion is fatal to the possession of the party. 

 He is considered as dispossessed. 



60th. In a community it must always happen that there are some 

 members of superior intelligence or wealth who obtain a prepon- 

 derance in the brotherhood. Where so much respectis attached to 

 hereditary right, this influence often descends from father to son, 

 although the descendant may not be distinguished by personal worth. 

 The engagements with Government run in the names of these indivi-, 



