[* Mucka the tailor, to whom these buildings belong, is the person mentioned in the account of the death of the King, Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, and the confinement of Ghalib Jung.]

The town of Khyrabad has still a good many inhabitants; but the number is fast decreasing.  It was the residence of the families of a good many public officers in our service and that of Oude; and the local authorities of the district used to reside here.  They do so no longer; and the families of public officers have almost all gone to reside at other places.  Life and property have become exceedingly insecure, and attacks by gang-robbers so frequent that no man thinks his house and family safe for a single night.  Government officers are entirely occupied in the collection of revenue, and they disregard altogether the sufferings and risks to which the people of towns are exposed.  The ground around the place is low, and the climate is inferior to that of Seetapoor.  Salt and saltpetre are ’made from the soil immediately round the town.

I have mentioned that Moomtaz-od Dowla might now have been King of Oude had his father not died before his father.  The Mohammedan law excludes for ever the children of any person who dies before the person to whom he or she is the next heir from all right in the inheritance.  Under the operation of this law, the sons of the eldest son of the reigning King are excluded from the succession if he dies before his father, and the crown devolves on the second son, or on the brother of the King, if he leaves no other son.  The sons of all the sons who die, while their father lives, are mahjoob-ol-irs, that is, excluded from inheritance.  In the same manner, if the next brother of the King dies before him, his sons are excluded from the succession, which devolves on the third brother, and so on through all the brothers.  For instance, on the death, without any recognised issue, of Nuseer-od Been Hyder, son of Ghazee-od Deen, he was succeeded on the throne by Mahommed Allee Shah, the third brother of Ghazee-od Deen, though four sons of the second brother, Shums-od Dowla, still lived.  On the death of Mahommed Allee Shah, he was succeeded by his second son, Amjud Allee Shah, though Moomtaz-od Dowla, the son of his eldest son, Asgur Allee Khan, still lived.  Shums-od Dowla died before his elder brother, Ghazee-od Deen; and Asgur Allee Khan before his father, Mahommed Allee Shah:  and the sons of both became, in consequence, mahjoob-ol-irs, excluded from succession.  The same rule guides the succession among the Delhi sovereigns.  This exclusion extends to all kinds of property, as well as to sovereignty.