There are several ranges of hills in Hindustān. Among these is a detached branch that runs from north to south.* It rises in the territory of Delhi, at the Jehān-numā,* a palace of Sultan Firoz Shah, which stands on a small rocky hillock. After passing this, it breaks, in the neighbourhood of Delhi, into a number of detached, scattered, small, rocky hills, that lie in different directions. When it gains the country of Mewāt,* the hills rise in height, and when it leaves Mewāt, it enters the country of Biāna.* The countries* of Sīkri,* Bāri,* and Dhūlpūr* are formed by this range, although not comprehended within it*; and the hill-country of Gwāliār,* which they also call Galiūr, is formed by a detached offset from it. The hill-country of Rantambhor, Chitūr, Māndu,* and Chanderi is formed by branches of this same range. In some places it is interrupted for seven or eight kos. This hilly tract is composed of very low, rough, rugged, stony, and jungly hills. In this range it never snows; but several of the rivers of Hindustān originate among the hills of which it is composed.
Most of the districts of Hindustān are plain and level.
Irrigation
of the
country.
Though Hindustān contains so many provinces,*
none of
them has any artificial canals for irrigation. It is watered
only by rivers, though in some places, too, there is standing
water.*
Even in those cities which are so situated as to
admit of digging a water-course, and thereby bringing water
into them, yet no water has been brought in. There may
be several reasons for this. One of them is, that water is
not absolutely requisite for the crops and gardens. The
autumnal crop is nourished by the rains of the rainy season.
It is remarkable that there is a spring crop even though no
rain falls.*
They raise water for the young trees, till they
are one or two years old, by means of a water-wheel or
buckets; after that time it is not at all necessary to water
them. Some vegetables they water.*
In Lahore,*
Debālpūr,
Sirhind, and the neighbouring districts, they water by
means of a wheel.*
They first take two ropes, of a length
suited to the depth of the well, and fasten each of them so
as to form a circle; between the two circular ropes they
insert pieces of wood connecting them, and to these they fix
water-pitchers. The ropes so prepared, with the pitchers
attached to them by means of the pieces of wood, they
throw over a wheel that is placed on the top of the well.
On the one end of the axle-tree of this wheel they place
another wheel with teeth, and to the side of this last they
apply a third, which they make with an upright axle.
When the bullocks turn this last wheel round, its teeth,
working upon those of the second wheel, turn the large
wheel on which is the circle of pitchers. They make a
trough under the place where the water is discharged by
the revolution of the pitchers, and from this trough convey
the water to whatever place it may be required. They have
another contrivance for raising water for irrigation in Agra,
Biāna, Chāndwār,*
and that quarter, by means of a bucket.*
This is very troublesome, and filthy besides. On the brink
of a well they fix in strongly two forked pieces of wood, and
between their prongs insert a roller. They then fasten
a great water-bucket to long ropes, which they bring over
the roller; one end of this rope they tie to the bullock,
and while one man drives the bullock, another is employed
to pour the water out of the bucket (when it reaches the top
of the well). Every time that the bullock raises the bucket
from the well, as it is let down again, the rope slides along
the bullock-course, is defiled with urine and dung, and in
this filthy condition falls into the well. In many instances,
where fields require to be watered, the men and women draw
water in buckets*
and irrigate them.
The country and towns of Hindustān are extremely ugly. All its towns and lands have a uniform look; its gardens have no walls; the greater part of it is a level plain. The banks of its rivers and streams, in consequence of the rushing of the torrents that descend during the rainy season, are worn deep into the channel, which makes it generally difficult and troublesome to cross them. In many places, the plain is covered by a thorny brushwood, to such a degree that the people of the pergannas, relying on these forests, take shelter in them, and, trusting to their inaccessible situation, often continue in a state of revolt, refusing to pay their taxes. In Hindustān, if you except the rivers, there is little running water.* Now and then some standing water is to be met with. All these cities and countries derive their water from wells or tanks, in which it is collected during the rainy season. In Hindustān, the populousness and decay, or total destruction of villages, nay of cities, is almost instantaneous. Large cities that have been inhabited for a series of years (if, on an alarm, the inhabitants take to flight), in a single day, or a day and a half, are so completely abandoned, that you can scarcely discover a trace or mark of population.* And if, on the other hand, they intend to settle on any particular spot, as they do not need to run water-courses, or to build flood-mounds, their crops being produced without irrigation,* and the population of Hindustān being unlimited, inhabitants swarm in every direction. They make a tank or dig a well; there is no need of building a strong house or erecting a firm wall; they have abundance of strong grass, and plenty of timber, of which they run up hovels, and a village or town is constructed in an instant.
Its quad- As for the animals peculiar to Hindustān, one is the
elephant, the Hindustānis call it Hāthi, which inhabits*
the
district of Kālpi*;
and the higher you advance from thence
The ele-
phant.
towards the east, the more do the wild elephants increase in
number. That is the tract in which the elephant is chiefly
taken. There may be thirty or forty villages in Karrah*
and
Mānikpūr*
that are occupied solely in this employment of
taking elephants.*
They account to the Government for the
elephants which they take. The elephant is an immense
animal, and of great sagacity. It understands whatever
you tell it, and does whatever it is bid. Its value is in proportion
to its size. When it arrives at a proper age*
they
sell it, and the largest brings the highest price. They say
that in some islands the elephant grows to the height of
ten gaz.*
I have never, in these countries, seen one above
four or five gaz. The elephant eats and drinks entirely by
means of his trunk. He cannot live if he loses it. On the
two sides of his trunk, in his upper jaw, he has two tusks;
it is by applying these teeth, and exerting all his force, that
he overturns walls and tears up trees; and, when he fights
or performs any operation that requires great exertion,
he makes use of these tusks, which they call āj.*
The tusks
are highly valued by the Hindus. The elephant is not
covered with hair or wool*
like other animals.*
The natives
of Hindustān place great reliance on their elephants; in
their armies, every division has invariably a certain number
with it. The elephant has some valuable qualities: it can
carry a great quantity of baggage over deep and rapid
torrents, and passes them with ease; gun-carriages, which
it takes four or five hundred men to drag, two or three*
elephants draw without difficulty. But it has a great
stomach, and a single elephant will consume the grain of
seven or fourteen*
camels.
The rhinoceros is another. This also is a huge animal. Its bulk is equal to that of three buffaloes. The opinion prevalent in our countries, that a rhinoceros can lift an elephant on its horn, is probably a mistake. It has a single horn over its nose, upwards of a span in length, but I never saw one of two spans. Out of one of the largest of these horns I had a drinking-vessel* made, and a dice-box, and about three or four fingers’ bulk of it might be left. Its hide is very thick. If it be shot at with a powerful bow, drawn up to the armpit with much force, and if the arrow pierces at all, it enters only three or four* fingers’ breadth. They say, however, that there are parts of its skin that may be pierced, and the arrows enter deep. On the sides of its two shoulder-blades, and of its two thighs, are folds that hang loose, and appear at a distance like cloth housings dangling over it. It bears more resemblance to the horse than to any other animal.* As the horse has a large stomach, so has* this; as the pastern of the horse is composed of a single bone, so also is that of the rhinoceros; as there is a gumek* in the horse’s foreleg, so is there in that of the rhinoceros. It is more ferocious than the elephant, and cannot be rendered so tame or obedient. There are numbers of them in the jungles of Pershāwer and Hashnaghar, as well as between the river Sind and Behreh in the jungles. In Hindustān, too, they abound on the banks of the river Sarū.* In the course of my expeditions into Hindustān, in the jungles of Pershāwer, and Hashnaghar,* I frequently killed the rhinoceros. It strikes powerfully with its horn, with which, in the course of these hunts, many men, and many horses, were gored. In one hunt, it tossed with its horn, a full spear’s length, the horse of a young man named Maksūd, whence he got the name of Rhinoceros Maksūd.*
Wild