448 
DISOBEDIENCE TO THE RACKAM. 
Some months after the former affair, he was nominated 
mehmandar to a khan of high distinction, travelling to the south ; 
but who, on arriving at this village, and demanding the tribute 
due to the royal rackam, was, in like manner with myself, 
peremptorily refused. His purveyor hinted to the nobleman, 
the expediency of repeating the coercive arguments he had used 
before; but the khan was of a mild and generous nature, and, 
forbidding all attempts at force, caused it to be intimated to the 
people, that he, here, waived the privilege with which he had 
been honoured by his sovereign, and would purchase every thing 
he might require ; plenty was then produced, and the bringers 
amply repaid. The old mehmandar, vexed to the heart at this 
passiveness of his charge, determined to revenge himself on the 
villagers, and to make the khan himself the instrument. Ac¬ 
cordingly, he managed to have that munificent nobleman’s 
trunks broken open during the night, and left in a pillaged state. 
In the morning, when they were discovered, the outrage was 
represented to the owner as having been done by the people he 
had paid so liberally: “ You now see,” cried the mehmandar, 
u why these disobedient villagers would neither send their 
Ketkhoda, nor come near themselves, when we first arrived; 
they had laid a plan of robbing you, and, notwithstanding your 
ill-placed generosity, you see they have fulfilled their intentions.” 
The khan could not suspect his own followers, nor his highly 
respectable guide, nor yet doubt his eyes; and, enraged at the 
ingratitude of the wretches he had saved from the mehmandar’s 
threatened enforcement, he reported their conduct to govern¬ 
ment ; and the consequence was, the unfortunate village of 
Mayar was condemned to pay three thousand pounds of cotton, 
in penalty for their disobedience and dishonesty. Meanwhile, 
