220 



Statistical Beport on the Xorlhern and [No. 38, 



a monthly salary of Seventy rupees a month, the Usufruct of one or 

 more villages, with fines on marriages, right and left handed of Maho- 

 medan?. The other receives no salary, but has a village or two, 



The Moollah where he exists, has a monthly stipend of some seventy 

 rupees, but is rather an Assessor of the Cazee's than an independent 

 officer. It might be supposed that men in such receipts, and two of 

 them hereditary Officers would exercise their functions with some 

 degree of independence, but in truth it is not so, they are the veriest 

 thralls of the Naib or his principal, with as little real independence as 

 a Sebundee on three rupees a month, and it could not well be other- 

 wise, as no cause can be brought before the Cazee without the Naib's 

 consent, and no decree put in execution, unless it suits him to do so. 

 Nay more — the Naib may, without the least apprehension of the 

 consequences, give judgment in every criminal and civil case. As 

 to the Neriki, he is a mere cypher. A Committee of Bunnyahs in 

 the interest of the Naib settle the average prices of grain. There 

 are few mosques to look after, and these he neglects, and as to false 

 weights and measures, nothing rejoices a Naib more, than the detec- 

 tion of a Buunyah or other trader, who practises such frauds. A 

 good round sum in the shape of a bribe, or fine which more frequent- 

 ly finds its w f ay into his pocket than into the Coffers of the state, is 

 sure to reward him for his judgment. The Neriki is often found a 

 stupid, sensual, besotted Mahomedan lout. The Cazee however af- 

 fects some knowledge of the Mahomedan law, and of the works of the 

 commentators, and his head is muddled with distinctions without dif- 

 ferences, ingenious sophistry, and subtle casuistry, which he finds 

 written by these great Law-Doctors, all intended to make law easy, 

 but which do little else than bewilder him. If the cause be conduct- 

 ed before the Cazee or Moollah, by aVakeel, a fee is paid to the plead- 

 er, who is usually a Brahmin, by the successful party — but most fre- 

 quently the litigants are their own lawyers. The Cazee's establish- 

 ment consists of a Persian Moonshee, and a Telinghee Mootsuddee, 

 with four peons all paid by Government. By the Mahomedan law 

 wilful murder of which there are several varieties, is punished by 

 death, but punishments of that severe nature are very rarely put in 

 execution. The Cazee may condemn to death, but before it can be 

 inflicted there must be a reference to Hydrabad : if the convict 

 can bribe the authorities he gets off with imprisonment for a longer 

 or shorter period, and if he be a very poor man and any kind of ex- 



