848 Observations upon the past and present [Oct. 



dirty people, wearing usually colored drawers, which they seldom 

 wash, and do not change till they fall off in rags. Their houses 

 seemed certainly neat, and a tiffin of which I partook at the mulla's 

 was served up in the European fashion, in very clean-looking dishes, 

 but the narrow and sometimes covered streets of their wards teem 

 with every sort of filth. In this last respect they but copy their 

 fellow-citizens of Oujein, than which I have rarely met a dirtier city : 

 even in the dry weather mud a foot deep covers most of the streets, 

 and disgusting sights and smells offend at every corner. 



I must not omit to notice that a fine of 20 cowries (rich and poor 

 pay equally) punishes the non-attendance of a bohra at the daily 

 prayers. A larger sum is exacted for remissness during the Ramzan, 

 and it is said that the dread of this small loss operates powerfully upon 

 a class of men who are particularly penny-wise. The money collected 

 thus is transmitted by the Oujein mulla to his chief at Surat*, 

 who devotes it to religious purposes, such as repairing or building 

 mosques, assisting the needy of his subjects, and the like. Several other 

 offences have the same characteristic punishment, such as fornication, 

 drunkenness, &c. But the cunning bohras elude many of the fines, 

 and daily indulge in practices not sanctioned by their creed ; thus in 

 their shops pictures and figures may be purchased, though it is against 

 the commandments to sell the likeness of any living thing. I cannot 

 learn how the chief mulla is supported, but I am told that the 

 heavenly passport he was supposed to furnish, is an idle fable, and 

 every bohra to whom you speak on the subject begins to curse and to 

 swear, and to exclaim that it is a lie. 



An excellent bird's eye view of Oujein is obtained from the Goga- 

 shehi'd, an isolated hill in the south-east quarter of the city. The name 

 has its origin in one of the numerous versions of the tale of the throne 

 of Vikramaditya being discovered by Raja Bhoj. A case, which, 

 to use the words of the Indian narrator, had made the raja bite his 

 nails, was at once decided by a shepherd boy who was playing with 

 his companions at the game of king, seated on a mimic throne on the 

 top of the hill. The raja sent for the young lawyer who refused to 

 stir from his judgment seat, and an armed party attempting to bring 

 him by force, he defended himself gallantly, and at last overpowered 

 with numbers and wounds fell lifeless on his throne of earthf. The 



* The chief priests have of late years lived at Surat, but, their place of 

 residence is in their own option and has been often changed. 



t Hunter misled by the word Shehid mistakes Goga for a Musalman saint, 

 or perhaps he confounded him with Ramasseh Pi'r, also called Goga Pi'r, who 

 was killed near Poshkar. See Malcolm's Central India, 2 : 177. 



