The Korwar Rajah, Madhoo Persaud, a young man of about twenty-two years of age, came in the evening, and confirmed what his relative, Jydut, had told me of the rule which required that his lands should remain undivided with his eldest son, while those which are held by Jydut, and his other relatives, should be subdivided among all the sons of the holder.  This rule is more necessary in Oude than elsewhere, to preserve a family and its estate from the grasp of its neighbours and Government officers.  When there happens to be no heir left to the portion of the estate which has been cut off, it is re-annexed to the estate; and the head of the family frequently anticipates the event, by murdering or imprisoning the heir or incumbent, and seizing upon the lands.  Another Rajah, of the same name, Mahdoo Persaud, of Amethee, in Salone, has lately seized upon the estate of Shahgur, worth twenty thousand rupees a-year, which had been cut off from the Amethee estate, and enjoyed by a collateral branch of the family for several generations.  He holds the proprietor, Bulwunt Sing, in prison, in irons, and would soon make away with him were the Oude Government to think it worth while to inquire after him.  He has seized upon another portion, Ramgur, held by another branch of the family, worth six thousand rupees a-year, and crushed all the proprietors.  This is the way in which estates, once broken up, are reconsolidated in Oude, under energetic and unscrupulous men.  Of course when they think it worth while to do so, they purchase the collusion of the local authorities of the day, by promising to pay the revenues, which the old proprietors paid during their tenure of office.  The other barons do not interfere, unless they happen to be connected by marriage with the ousted proprietors, or otherwise specially bound, by interest and honour, to defend them against the grasp of the head of their family.  Many struggles of this kind are taking place every season in Oude.

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CHAPTER IV.

Recross the Goomtee river—­Sultanpoor Cantonments—­Number of persons begging redress of wrongs, and difficulty of obtaining it in Oude—­ Apathy of the Sovereign—­Incompetence and unfitness of his Officers—­ Sultanpoor, healthy and well suited for Troops—­Chandour, twelve miles distant, no less so—­lands of their weaker neighbours absorbed by the family of Rajah Dursun Sing, by fraud, violence, and collusion; but greatly improved—­Difficulty attending attempt to restore old Proprietors—­Same absorptions have been going on in all parts of Oude—­and the same difficulty to be everywhere encountered—­ Soils in the district, mutteear, doomutteea, bhoor, oosur—­ Risk at which lands are tilled under Landlords opposed to their Government—­Climate of Oude more invigorating than that of Malwa—­ Captain Magness’s Regiment—­Repair of artillery guns—­Supply of grain to its bullocks—­Civil establishment of the Nazim—­Wolves—­Dread of killing them among Hindoos—­Children preserved by them in their dens, and nurtured.