The groves and
fine solitary trees, on the lands we have to-day passed through, are
more numerous than usual; and the country being undulating and well
cultivated, the scenery is beautiful; but, as everywhere else, it is
devoid of all architectural beauty in works of ornament or utility--
not even a comfortable habitation is anywhere to be seen. The great
landholders live at a distance from the road, and in forts or
strongholds. These are generally surrounded by fences of living
bamboos, which are carefully kept up as the best possible defence
against attacks. The forts are all of mud, and when the walls are
exposed to view they look ugly. The houses of the peasants in the
villages are, for the most part, covered with mud, from which the
water is carried off, by tubes of wood or baked clay, about two feet
long. There are parapets around the roof a foot or two high, so that
it cannot be seen, and a village appears to be a mass of dead mud
walls, which have been robbed of their thatched or tiled roofs. Most
of the tubes used for carrying off the water from the roofs, are the
simple branches of the palm-tree, without their leaves.
Among the peasantry we saw a great many sipahees, from our Native
Infantry Regiments, who have come home on furlough to their families.
From the estate of Rajah Hunmunt Sing, in the Banoda district, there
are one thousand sipahees in our service.
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