to be one of the most potent sorceresses in India; and, in the next, to have been exceedingly attached to her late mistress:  that they had strong grounds to believe that it was her intention to send his Majesty’s spirit after hers, that they might be united in the next world us they had been in this.  The King got angry, and said, that he had no dread of sorceresses, and would make the old lady disgorge her twenty lacs.  That very night, however, in his sleep, he saw the Kuduseea Begum enter his room, approach his bed, look upon him with a countenance still more kind and bright than in life, and then return slowly with her face still towards him, and beckoning him with her hand to follow!  As soon as he awoke he became greatly agitated and alarmed, and ordered the old sorceress to be sent forthwith across the Ganges to Cawnpoor.  She paid her five lacs, and took off about fifteen; but what became of her afterwards I have not heard.

One of the first cases that I had to decide, after taking charge of my office, was that of a claim to five Government notes of twenty thousand rupees each, left by Sultan Mahal, one of the late King, Amjud Allee Shah’s, widows.  The claimants were the reigning King, and the mother, brother, and sister of the deceased widow.  She was the daughter of a greengrocer, and, in February 1846, at the age of sixteen, she went to the palace with vegetables.  The King saw and fell in love with her; and she forthwith became one of his wives, under the name of “Sultan Mahal.”  In November, 1846, the King invested eighteen lacs and thirty thousand rupees in Government notes as a provision for his wives and other female relations.  The notes were to be made out in their names respectively; and the interest was to be paid to them and their heirs.  Of this sum, Sultan Mahal was to have one hundred thousand; and, on the 21st of November, she drew the interest, in anticipation, up to the 30th of December of that year.  The five notes for twenty thousand each, in her name, were received in the Resident’s Treasury on the 20th of April, 1847.  On the 28th of August, she sent an application for the Notes to the Resident, but died the next day.  The King, her husband, had died on the 18th February, 1847.

Nine days after, on the 6th of September, the new King, Wajid Allee Shah, sent an application to have these five notes transferred to one of his own wives; urging, that, as his father and the Sultan Mahal had both died, he alone ought to be considered as the heir.  It was decided, that the mother, sister, and brother were the rightful heirs to the Sultan Mahal; and the amount was distributed among them according to Mahommedan law.  The question was, however, submitted to Government at his Majesty’s request; and the decision of the Resident was upheld on the ground that the notes were in the lady’s name, and she had actually drawn interest on them; and, as she died intestate, they became the property of her heirs.