248 



Slatisiical Beport on the 



[No. 85, 



tax-gatherers came to the house of a dhobee who was absent, and 

 proceeded to execute their orders on his wife who had remained at 

 home. The woman, indignant at the treatment she met with, 

 dashed out her infant's brain against the washing stone, and then 

 slew herself, after she had cui'sed the Eajah and imprecated deso- 

 lation on liis house. The city became a wilderness, and the wick- 

 ed Eajah's family was destroyed, and to this day may be seen the 

 blood and brains of the child on the margin of a tank. 



Patell. — In very many villages of this circar this office has be- 

 come extinct, yet in the Surdeshmookh's districts they are still to be 

 found ; their rights are mostly in the hands of the Zemindars and 

 Dorwa (the Teloogoo word for Mugadum) and their functions per- 

 formed by them. 



The nature of the'^office of Dorwa or Mugadum and his rights 

 will be fully imderstood by the sunnud in the Appendix. 



Putwarree. — This functionary has withstood all vicissitudes — 

 and he, not the patell, may be regarded as the real key-stone of 

 the \allage community. He is invariably a Brahmin, and must 

 be capable of reading and writing. His grain hug has been noted, 

 his meeras land varies much in extent, but may be taken at two 

 beegas of rice ground and two beegas for dry grain, but he is com- 

 monly the richest man in the village — tilling much more land than 

 his original gift, which he, being of the Khooshbash, obtains at a 

 more favorable rate than the mere ryot. In Kusbas he gets a por- 

 tion of the garden produce called i^oorjee, also a smaU fee from 

 each shop when fairs take place. He has a share too of the pro- 

 duce of fruit and palm trees. A very good understanding usually 

 exists between him and the Zemindar who favors him in aU dis- 

 putes, and if differences between them spring up, they are of the 

 nature of lovers' quarrels ; indeed the cunning of both leads them 

 to affect animosities to give them faciKties for cheating the reve- 

 nue officer. 



It may be here mentioned that the meeras lands of this and of 

 the other district and village functionaries may, through miscon- 

 duct, or from incapacity of their possessor, be taken from them by 

 G-ovemment, which in this case bestows them on a member of the 

 family m-ore loyal or more capable. Meeras lands are seldom sold, 

 indeed it is questionable if any such sale is legal, but they may 



