These houses have a
wretched appearance.
The Amil has twelve guns with him; but the bullocks are all so much
out of condition from want of food that they can scarcely walk; and
the Amil was obliged to hire a few plough-bullocks from the
cultivators, to draw out two guns to my camp to fire the salute. They
get no grain, and there is little or no grass anywhere on the fallow
and waste lands, from the want of rain during June, July, and August.
The Amil told me, that he had no stores or ammunition for the guns;
and that their carriages were all gone, or going, to pieces, and had
received no repairs whatever for the last twelve years. I had in the
evening a visit from Rajah Murdun Sing, of _Dharawun_, a stout and
fat man, who bears a fair character. He is of the Tilokchundee Bys
clan, who cannot intermarry with each other, as they are all of the
sama gote or family. It would, according to their notions, be
incestuous.
_January_ 19, 1850.--Hutteeah Hurrun, thirteen miles. The plain level
as usual, and of the loose doomuteea soil, fertile in natural powers
everywhere, and well tilled around the villages, which are more
numerous than in any other part that we have passed over. The water
is everywhere near the surface, and wells are made at little cost. A
well is dug at a cost of from five to ten rupees; and in the muteear,
or argillaceous soil, will last for irrigation for forty years.
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