The dwellers in villages are loyal and submissive to their rulers, and unlike the Zemindars and tenants of other provinces of Hindūstān, they do not fight with their rulers. They pay in the land revenue of each year in eight instalments in eight months, and the tenants personally pay their rents at the Kacheris. The appraisement of each crop is based on nasaq*— and nasaq is a document which remains with the muharir* and the patwari* and the Karkun,* with the seal of amil. But in affairs relating to bargains of giving and taking and purchases and sales and other worldly matters, no race in all the four quarters of the globe is equal to the Bengalis in wickedness, duplicity, knavery and villainy. They do not consider loans repayable, and the promises which they pledge to perform in one day, they do not fulfil in one year. And the food of the natives of that kingdom, from the high to the low, are fish, rice, mustard oil and curd and fruits and sweetmeats. They also eat plenty of red chilly and salt. In some parts of this country, salt is scarce. The natives of this country are of shabby tastes, shabby habits and shabby modes of dress. They do not eat breads of wheat and barley at all. Meat of goats and fowls and clarified-butter do not agree with their system. And there are many amongst them who, if they eat the same, cannot digest them, and vomit them out. The dress of both males and females, of both the upper and lower classes, consists of one strip of cloth just sufficient to cover the private parts. The males wear one white strip of cloth, called generally a dhoti, which is tied from below the navel down to the leg, and a small turban about two or three cubits long is tied on the side of the head, so that the whole skull of the head and the hair are visible. And the females wear one strip of cloth called a sari, half of it is wrapped round from below the navel to the leg, and the other half being drawn across a side is thrown down the neck. They are bareheaded, and do not wear any other cloth; nor do they wear shoes and stockings. Both males and females daily rub mustard oil over their bodies, and bathe in tanks and rivers. The Bengalī females do not observe pardah, and go out of their houses for the performance of evacuations and other household duties. And the wildness and habitation of this country are similar, in that the people erect huts of thatch, made up of bamboos and straw. Their utensils are generally earthen, and few are of copper. Whenever quitting one place they migrate to another, straightway they erect a thatched hut, similar to their former one, and collect earthen utensils. Most of their habitations are in jungles and forests, so that their huts are encircled with trees. And in case one of the huts catches fire, all the huts are burnt down, and after the con­flagration they get no trace of their habitations, except through trees which surrounded their huts. Most of them travel by water, especially in the rainy season, in which season they keep boats, small and large, for journeys and for going to and fro. For travelling by land, they have conveyances, such as singhasan* and palki and jowalah. Elephants are captured in some parts of the country; good horses are not procurable, and, if had, they cost much. A curious sort of boat is made in this country for capturing forts. And it is in this wise: the boat is large, and the prow of it, which is called in the dialect of the country galhi, is made so high that when it is placed alongside the wall of a fort, people from the boat can get on to the wall from it, and enter the fort. And a kind of carpet is manufactured from the linseed plant, which is very pretty and much liked. And precious stones, pearls, jasper, and ruby do not exist in this country. From other countries these are imported into the ports of this Sūbah. And the best fruit of this country is mango, which in some parts is large, sweet, and without strigns, and tasty, and has a small stone. And the tree of three years’ growth— of the height of a man— bears fruit. And large oranges, which are called kaunla, and small oranges, which are called nārangī, grow well in this country. And varieties of citrons are available. And lemons, pineapples, cocoa­nuts, betelnuts, palm-fruits, jack-fruits and plantains have no end. And grapes and melons, &c., do not grow here; though the seeds of melons and grafts of vines have been often planted in this country, they have never thrived. Sugarcanes, good, delicate and sweet, red, white and black in colour, grow here in abundance; ginger and pepper in some parts grow abundantly, and betel leaves also grow in abundance, and silk is also produced well and in abundance here. Good silk-stuffs are manufactured in this country, and cotton-fabrics of good quality are turned out here. Rivers, small and large, are plenty in this country, and the prac­tice of digging tanks is very common. People in this country seldom drink the water of wells, because everywhere the water of tanks and rivers is found in abundance. And generally the water of wells is salt, but with a little digging of the soil water comes out.

And the best of rivers is the Ganges (Gang), which rises from the northern mountains of Hindūstān at the point called Goumukhāh, flows through the provinces of Hindūstān, Farrakhā­bād, Alāhābād, and Behār into Bengal, and in Bengal at a place called Qāzihātā,* within the Sarkār of Bārbakābād, it is named Paddā. From this place, a branch of the Ganges separates, flows down Murshidābād, and at Nadiāh joins the Jalangi river, and then flows into the sea. This branch is called Bhāgrīatī, and it goes towards Chittagong, flowing through the sea. The Ganges at Alāhābād joins the rivers Joun (or Jamnā) and Sūrsatī, and near Hājīpūr it unites also with the Gandak, the Sarū and the Son, and becomes very broad. And the place where the three rivers unite is called Tirbīnī by Hindus, and its sanctity in the eye of the Hindus is immeasurable. And the Ganges, Sūrsatī, and Joun or (Jamnā), in flowing towards Chittagong and the sea, branch off in a thousand rivulets. And Hindus have written volumes on the sanctity of these rivers. Considering the water of these rivers sacred, they fancy that bathing there washes off the sins of a lifetime; especially bathing at certain ghāts of the Ganges, such as Benāras, Alāhābād, and Hardwār, is regarded as very sacred. The rich amongst the Hindūs, getting their supplies of the Ganges water from long distances, take particular care of it, and on certain auspicious days, worship the same. The truth of the matter is, that the water of the Ganges, in sweetness, lightness, and tasteness has no equal, and the water of this river, however long kept, does not stink. There is no river bigger than it in Bengal.

And another of the big rivers of Bengal is the Brahmaputrā, which flows from the regions of Khatā towards Koch, and thence by the way of Bāzūhā flows down into the sea. In the environs of Chittagong, it is called the Megna. The smaller rivers are countless. On both banks of most of the rivers, paddy is culti­vated. Another feature of this country, unlike that of other coun­tries of Hindūstān, is that they cut grafts of mango and lemon-trees, and plant them, and these, in the very first year, bear fruit.