“And why is this, my old friend?” I asked.  “Cultivators are abundant in Oude, and glad always to till lands on which they are protected and encouraged by moderate rents and a little occasional aid in seed, grain, and stock, and you are now in circumstances to afford them both.”

“True, sir,” said the old subadar, “but the great refractory landholder, my neighbour, has a large force, and he threatens to bring it down upon me, and my cultivators are afraid that they and their families will all be cut up some dark night if they stay with me.”

“But what has your great neighbour to do with your village?  Why do you not make friends with him?”

“Make friends with him, sir!” replied the subadar; “the thing is impossible.”

“And why, subadar sahib?”

“Sir, it was from him that the village was taken by the orders of the Durbar, through the interposition of the Resident, to be made over to me, and he vows that he will take it back, whatever number of lives it may cost him to do so.”

“And how long may he and his family have held it?”

“Only thirty or thirty-five years, sir.”

“And neither you nor your family have ever held possession of it for that time?”

“Never, sir; but we always hoped that the favour of the British Government would some day get it for us.”

“And in urging your claim to the village, did you ever tell the Resident that you had been so long out of possession?”

“No, sir, we said nothing about time”

“You know, subadar sahib, that in all countries a limit is prescribed in such cases, and at the Residency that limit is six years; and had the Resident known that your claim was of so old a date he would never have interposed in your favour, more especially when his doing so involved the risk of the loss of so many lives, first in obtaining possession for you, and then keeping you in it.”  Cases of this kind are very numerous.

The estate of Rampoor which we lately passed through belonged to the grandfather of Rajah Hunmunt Sing.  His eldest son, Sungram Sing, died without issue, and the estate devolved on his second son, Bhow Sing, the father of Rajah Hunmunt Sing.  The third brother separated from the family stock during the life of his father, and got, as his share, Sursae, Kuttra Bulleepoor, and other villages.  He had five sons:  first, Lokee Sing; second, Dirguj Sing; third, Hul Sing; fourth, Dill Sing; and fifth, Bul Sing, and the estate was, on his death, subdivided among them.  Kuttra Bulleepoor devolved on Lokee Sing, the eldest, who died without issue; and the village was subdivided among his four brothers or their descendants.  But Davey Buksh, the grandson, by adoption of the second brother, Dirguj Sing, unknown to the others, assigned, in lieu of a debt, the whole village to a Brahmin named Bhyroo Tewaree, who forthwith got it transferred to Hozoor Tehseel, through Matadeen, a