198 , STATISTICAL SKETCH 



exception, the whole labor of the agricultural and domestic economy is left to 

 tliem, while food and clothing are dealt out to them with a sparing hand. 

 Suicide is never committed by males, except in cases of leprosy, when, as in 



, other parts of India, the leper sometimes buries himself alive. Deaths from 

 wild beasts are very frequent j they probably do not fall short of one hundred 

 .; annually. Complaints against individuals for sorcery and witchcraft are very 

 common indeed ; an infatuated belief in the existence of such power, pervading 

 the whole body of the inhabitants of this province. All cases of unusual or 

 sudden sickness and mortality, are immediately ascribed to witchcraft, and 



' individuals are sometimes murdered, on suspicion of having occasioned such 

 calamities. -Applications to the court on the subject of caste are numerous: 

 these are invariably referred to the Pundit of the court, whose decree de- 

 livered to the party concerned, is always conclusive. These references are, no 

 doubt, a consequence of the practice established under the former govern- 

 ments, by which the cognizance of cases involving deprivation of caste, was 

 confined to the Government Court. The public at large still appear to con- 

 sider such reference as the only eifectual means for obtaining restoration and 

 absolution. 



The management of the Police in the interior, is entrusted to the Tah- 

 sildars, and the only establishments exclusively devoted to this duty, are the 

 Thanas at Almora, and at the five principal Ghats, towards the plains, namely, 

 Kotdwara, Dhikuli, Kota, Bhamomi and Timli. The expence of these estab- 

 lishments amounts to three thousand and sixty-two rupees per mensem ; the 

 charges under the same head, on the 1st May, 1816, stood at eight hundred 

 and seventy-two rupees per mensem. 



The provincial battalion is also available for police duties, and during 

 the healthy season, from November to April inclusive, a line of guards, ex- 

 tending along the frontier of Rohilkhandj are stationed for the protection of 



