after the 29th, and persuaded them that the order had been fabricated, or altered, by the malice of their Hindoo deputy, to insult their religious feelings.  They were taken out accordingly, and having to pass the house of Subsookh Rae, when their excitement, or spirit of religious fervour, had reached the highest pitch, they there put them down, broke open the doors, entered in a crowd, and plundered it of all the property they could find, amounting to above seventy thousand rupees.  Subsookh Rae was obliged to get out, with his family, at a back door, and run for his life.  He went to Shajehanpoor, in our territory, and put himself under the protection of the magistrate.  Not content with all this, they built a small miniature mosque at the door with some loose bricks, so that no one could go either out or in without the risk of knocking it down, or so injuring this mock mosque as to rouse, or enable the evil-minded to rouse, the whole Mahommedan population against the offender.  Poor Subsookh Rae has been utterly ruined, and ever since seeking in vain for redress.  The Government is neither disposed nor able to afford it, and the poor boy who has now succeeded his learned father in the contract is helpless.  The little mock mosque, of uncemented bricks, still stands as a monument of the insolence of the Mahommedan population, and the weakness and apathy of the Oude Government.

CHAPTER II.

Infanticide—­Nekomee Rajpoots—­Fallows in Oude created by disorders—­ Their cause and effect—­Tillage goes on in the midst of sanguinary conflicts—­Runjeet Sing, of Kutteearee—­Mahomdee district—­White Ants—­Traditional decrease in the fertility of the Oude soil—­Risks to which cultivators are exposed—­Obligations which these risks impose upon them—­Infanticide—­The Amil of Mahomdee’s narrow escape—­ An infant disinterred and preserved by the father after having been buried alive—­Insecurity of life and property—­Beauty of the surface of the country, and richness of its foliage—­Mahomdee district—­State and recent history of—­Relative fertility of British and Oude soil—­ Native notions of our laws and their administration—­Of the value of evidence in our Courts—­Infanticide—­Boys only saved—­Girls destroyed in Oude—­The priests who give absolution for the crime abhorred by the people of all other classes—­Lands in our districts becoming more and more exhausted from over-cropping—­Probable consequences to the Government and people of India—­Political and social error of considering land private property—­Hakeem Mehndee and subsequent managers of Mahomdee—­Frauds on the King in charges for the keep of animals—­Kunojee Brahmins—­Unsuccessful attempt to appropriate the lands of weaker neighbours—­Gokurnath, on the border of the Tarae—­ The sakhoo or saul trees of the forest.