8 The District of Dera Ismail Khan, Trans-Indus. [No. 1, 
its quota of yokes of oxen. The implement employed is a kind of 
harrow drawn by two oxen, and with this the earth is scraped up 
and thrown together. The whole organisation of society is modi¬ 
fied by this system of irrigation ; the respective rights of the 1 sa- 
roba,’ or man higher up the stream, and the ‘pain,’ or man lower 
down, are among the most important provisions of the lex loci; 
and the innumerable difficulties which necessarily arise were tho 
cause of endless wars in native rule, and are the source of endless 
disputes now. 
The crops of the district are chiefly wheat, indian corn, bajra, 
and jowar. Cotton is grown to some extent; but the nature of the 
soil, and its irrigation are not suited to gram, sugar-cane, or indigo, 
nor,—except in some isolated localities,—to rice. Dates, mangoes, 
oranges, and pomegranates are grown, but the fruit of the country 
par excellence is the musk melon, which attains perfection in the 
plains skirting the Sulaiman range. 
Before quitting this part of my subject, I give the local table of 
measures which are more popular than weights by maund and ser. 
Division of crops by batdi is universal. 
Measures of quantity. 
4 
pans 
make 
one 
paropi. 
4 
paropis 
tt 
tt 
topa. 
4 
topas 
tt 
tt 
pai. 
4 
pais 
tt 
tt 
chot. 
16 
cliots 
tt 
tt 
path. 
The ordinary weight of a 1 path’ of wheat would be about 25 
Government maunds, but the measure is variable. The local maund 
and ser are heavier than the Government standard, and Kulachi 
weights of the same denomination are heavier than those of Dera. 
History , Sfc. 
There are ruins all along the frontier, to which the common term 
Kafir Kot, or ‘ infidel fort,’ is applied. Generally, they are mere 
mounds, more or less extensive, from which coins and images may 
be dug. One of the largest of them is at A'kra in the Bannu district. 
There are two or three similar mounds in the neighbourhood of 
Tank, a town in the extreme north-west of the Dera jurisdiction. 
