OF KAMAON. 203 



estate. The nature and dues of the above office have already been described : 

 the small parcels of land attached to it, are particularly specified in the lease 

 as Hek Padhanchdri ; the total of such lands in Kamaon proper amounts to 

 about 5000 standard B'lsis^ being recorded at t970 nominal Bisis. In Gerkwal, 

 no public allowance of this nature exists, but a similar arrangement has always 

 been made by the joint proprietors of the estate in favor of the Padhdn. 



It now only remains to be considered how far the rents paid by the actual 

 cultivators correspond with the public demand. A large portion of the pro- 

 vince, not less, probably, than three-fourths of the villages, are wholly cul- 

 tivated by the actual proprietors of the land, from whom, of course, nothing can 

 be demanded beyond their respective quotas of the village assessment. In 

 these cases, the settlement is, literally speaking, Ryatwara, although the lease 

 is issued only in the name of one, or at most of two sharers in the estate. 

 The remaining part of the province may be comprised under two descrip- 

 tions of estates : First; Those villages in which the right of property is recogniz- 

 ed in the heirs of former grantees, while the right of cultivation remains with 

 the descendants of the original occupants. In these, the rents are commonly 

 paid in " Kut" or kind, at an invariable rate, as fixed at the period of the 

 grant. Secondly ; All villages in which the right, botli of property and oc- 

 cupancy, have become vested in one and the same individual. In these, the 

 Mdlguzdr has necessarily the discretion of demanding the full extent of the 

 *' Malik Hissa," or government share, supposing no fixed agreement to have 

 been made between him and his tenants ; but such improvidence on the part 

 of the latter rarely occurs, and the great competition which exists for cultiva- 

 tors, in consequence of the contracted state of the labouring population as 

 compared with the extent of the arable land, will long secure favourable terms 

 and treatment to this important class of the community. Under this descrip- 

 tion of villages are included those newly brought into cultivation, and the 

 Paekasht lands j of the first, the proprietary right is always granted to the 



