OUDE. 
133 
CHAPTER XII. 
The district oyer which the present King of Onde 
presides is one of the smallest provinces of Hin- 
dostan Proper. The principal rivers passing through 
it are the Goggra, the Goomty, and the Sye. It sup- 
plies seven thousand six hundred and sixty cavalry, 
a hundred and sixty-eight thousand infantry, and 
fifty-nine elephants, and is divided into five districts — 
Oude, Gorucpoor, Baraitche, Khyrabad, and Lucknow. 
The country is well watered and extremely productive, 
hut the soil is badly tilled. Lapis lazuli is a produc- 
tion of this province ; the colour procured from which 
sells in England at about nine guineas the ounce. 
The Hindoo inhabitants of Oude are a superior 
race of men to those of Bengal generally, being of 
loftier stature, and possessing much higher quali- 
ties both moral and intellectual. The military class 
among them, who are Rajpoots, are not only taller, 
but more robust, and superior in symmetry to 
Europeans. They are a noble race of men, dis- 
tinguished no less for their indomitable courage and 
impatience under wrong, than for their address in 
war and their extraordinary capability of endurance. 
Among this class the custom of infanticide* still pre- 
vails, though, I believe, to a comparatively limited ex- 
* They only destroy their female children. 
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