78 COLONEL T. HOLBEIN HENDLEY, C.I.E., ON RESEMBLANCES 
people. The Jew was no exception to this rule, nor is the 
Hindu. “ Zan, zer, zamin ” is a Panjab proverb which means 
that from “Women, gold, and land ” arise all evils. The order 
of the words should perhaps more correctly be “ land, gold, and 
women.” The love of the Eajput for his Bhum, his earth, his 
heritage, is not confined to him, but is shared by all classes. 
Even the shopkeeper clings to his shop and his home. Many 
years ago, when passing through the town of Sojat in Marwar 
or Jodhpur, I noticed a number of substantial stone shops and 
dwellings which were securely fastened up. I was told that 
some years before, their owners, at the time of a great famine, 
had gone south into Malwa or Central India in search of food, 
and that no one would dream of touching their property, because 
it was certain that, if alive, they would return, or, if not, that 
news would come of them or proof of death which would 
enable some near relative to claim the heritage. We are thus 
reminded of the beautiful story of Boaz and Ruth, and of the 
right of Elimelich, the father-in-law of the latter, who was 
driven by famine into Moab, where he and his sons died, yet 
the right of their heirs to the ownership of the field in 
Bethlehem was recognized after many years. Hereditary lands 
and rights are highly prized in India. A Hindu zemindar or 
landholder, in presence of all his tribe, said to Sir John 
Malcolm that it preceded his sense of religion. He added, “ I 
would turn Mohamedan twenty times before I would sell my 
‘ Wattan,’ or native right,” yet it was held to be meritorious to 
give land in perpetuity to priests, and this was done in such a 
way that it could not be resumed, for priestcraft is even more 
powerful in the east than in the west. Villages have been 
overwhelmed in the savage wars which have prevailed in India, 
particularly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or have 
been abandoned, or the population decimated by famine or 
disease, yet, even after long periods, have revived once more 
because the people loved them. I was much struck, when record- 
ing the names of a number of unfortunate pilgrims who had been 
taken out of a train at Jeypore, on account of cholera, which 
had attacked them at the famous holy lake of Pushkar, near 
Ajmere, to be told, time after time, that such an one had come 
from such a village where his forefathers had lived for a 
thousand years, or, as the lawyers say, beyond the memory of 
man. 
Just outside my garden wall there was a little shrine with a 
rude figure inside it, before which, night and day, burned a 
small oil lamp, which was kept alive by the villagers who dwelt 
