The principal cultivation is rice of which there are numerous kinds. If a single grain of each kind were collected, they would fill a large vase. It is sown and reaped three times a year on the same piece of land with little injury to the crop. As fast as the water rises, the stalks grow, so that the ear is never immersed, inasmuch as those experienced in such matters have taken the measure of a single night's growth at sixty cubits.* The people are submissive and pay their rents duly. The demands of each year are paid by instalments in eight months, they themselves bringing mohurs and rupees to the appointed place for the receipt of revenue, as the division of grain between the government and the husbandman is not here customary. The harvests are always abundant, measurement is not insisted upon, and the revenue demands are determined by estimate of the crop. His Majesty in his goodness has confirmed this custom. Their staple food is rice and fish; wheat, barley and the like not being esteemed wholesome. Men and women for the most part go naked wearing only a cloth about the loins. The chief public transactions* fall to the lot of the women. Their houses are made of bamboos, some of which are so constructed that the cost of a single one will be five thousand rupees or more and they last a long time. Travelling is by boat, especially in the rains, and they make them of different kinds for purposes of war, carriage or swift sailing. For a siege they are so adapted that when run ashore, they overtop the fort and facilitate its capture. For land travel they employ the Sukhásan. This is a crescent-shaped litter covered with camlet or scarlet cloth and the like, the two sides of which have fastenings* of various metals and a pole supporting it is attached by means of iron hooks. It is conveniently adapted for sitting in, lying at full length or sleeping during travel. As a protection against sun and rain they provide a commodious covering which is removable at pleasure. Some enjoy the luxury of riding on elephants but they rarely take to horseback. The mats made here often resemble woven silk. Tria* inde genera eunuchorum veniunt, quos San­dalos, Bádámos et Káfúros nuncupant. Priores, partibus genitalibus radicaliter exsectis, Aṭlíses etiam nominant. Bádámis pars solum penis relinquitur. Káfuros adhuc tenerœ ætatis, testes vel compressi conficiuntur vel exsecantur: tamen notatum est, castrationem, quæ pervicaciam cæteris omnibus animalibus tollit, hominibus solis excitare. Salt is in great demand and is brought from long distances. Diamonds, emeralds, pearls, cornelians and agates are imported. Flowers and fruit are in plenty. The betel-nut is of a kind that stains of a red colour the lips of those who chew it.

Jannatábád is an ancient city: for a time, it was the capital of Bengal and was widely known as Lakhnauti and for a while as Gaur. His Majesty the late Emperor Humáyún distinguished it by this title of Jannatábád.* It has a fine fort and to the eastward of it is a lake called Chhatiápatiá* in which are many islands. Were the dam that confines it to break, the city would be under water. About a kós to the north of the fort, is a large building and a reservoir, monuments of great antiquity. From time immemorial, its water has been considered to be of a poisonous character. The place was called Piyásbári,* and criminals condemned to death, were there confined who in a short time perished from the effects of this brackish water. At present in the blessed reign of His Majesty, this practice has been discontinued.

Maḥmúdábád.—The marshes around the fort have added to its impregnability. The ruler of this district, at the time of its conquest by Sher Khán, let some of his elephants loose in its forests from which time they have abounded. Long pepper* grows in this tract.

The Sarkár of Khalífatábád is well wooded and holds wild elephants. The Sarkár of Baglá* extends along the sea shore. The fort is sur­rounded by woods. On the first day of the new moon the sea steadily rises until the fourteenth, and from the fifteenth till the end of the month as gradually falls. In the 29th year of the Divine Era, a terrible inundation occurred at three o'clock in the afternoon, which swept over the whole Sarkár. The Rájah held an entertainment at the time. He at once embarked on board a boat, while his son Parmánand Ráe with some others climbed to the top of a temple and a merchant took refuge in a high loft. For four hours and a half the sea raged amid thunder and a hurricane of wind. Houses and boats were engulfed but no damage occurred to the temple or the loft. Nearly two hundred thousand living creatures perished in this flood.

In the Sarkár of Ghoraghát,* silk is produced and a kind of sackcloth. Numbers of eunuchs are here and hill ponies in plenty are procurable. There are many kinds of indigenous fruits, especially one called Latkan.* It is the size of a walnut with the taste of a pomegranate and contains three seeds.

The Sarkár of Bárbakábád produces a fine cloth called Gangajal (Ganges water), and a great abundance of oranges.

In the Sarkár of Bázohá are extensive forests which furnish long and thick timbers of which masts are made. There are also iron mines.

The Sarkár of Sonárgáoṇ* produces a species of muslin very fine and in great quantity. In the township of Kiyára* Sundar is a large reservoir which gives a peculiar whiteness to the cloths that are washed in it.

In the Sarkár of Sylhet there are nine* ranges of hills. It furnishes many eunuchs.

There is a fruit called Súntarah* in colour like an orange but large and very sweet. The China root* is produced in plenty. In ancient times it had not been discovered until some scientific travellers from European Turkey introduced it to universal notice. Aloes-wood is abundant in these mountains. At the end of the rains they fell the trees to the ground, and after a certain time they give them various names according to their greenness or maturity.

The Bhangráj* is a bird of a black colour, with red eyes and a long tail. Two of the feathers extend to a length of a gaz. They are snared and tamed. It catches the note of any animal that it hears, and eats flesh. The Shérganj is of the same kind but its beak and legs are red; in imitating sounds, it matches the other and pursues sparrows and the like and eats them.

Cháṭgáoṇ (Chittagong) is a large city situated by the sea and belted by woods. It is considered an excellent port and is the resort of Christian and other merchants.

In the Sarkár of Sharífábád is a beautiful species of cattle, white in colour, and of a fine build: like camels they are laden kneeling down and carry fifteen man weight. It is noted for the Barbary goat and for fighting cocks.

In the Sarkár of Sátgáon,* there are two ports at a distance of half a kos from each other; the one is Sátgáon, the other Hugli: the latter the chief; both are in the possession of the Europeans. Fine pomegranates grow here.

In the Sarkár of Madáran is a place called Harpah in which there is a diamond mine producing chiefly very small stones.