1 106 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAUB.
2 sons being all cut down in the gateway after a
3 gallant defence.
4 To revert to the subject of civil government.
5 The revenue arising from the land is assessed, in
6 the case of the grain lands, by appraisement or
7 the division of the produce in the field; the
8 former is often settled by collusion between the
9 chief and the party called in to appraise it, and
10 the latter is regulated by the caprice, power,
11 necessity, or despotism of the chiefs; some of
12 whom claim one-half, others two-fifths, and some
13 have been known to appropriate as much as
14 three-fourths of the whole. The lands of most
15 towns and villages are parcelled out amongst the
16 Zemindars, who, as already stated, are answer-
17 able for the share of the sovereign. Every chief
18 exercises the privilege, by prescription, of taxing
19 trade; yet the duties, though levied at every ten
20 or twenty miles, are light. To save themselves
21 the trouble of constantly recurring paymert, the
22 merchants generally contract for the conveyance
23 of a caravan of their goods from one point of the
24 country to another, the party who takes charge of
25 them paying all duties through the states which
26 they pass; should any chief, however, impose a
27 vexatious tax, the conductor of the caravan has
28 the power of changing the route, and conveying
29 the goods through the possessions of one who
30 has the power to protect, and the inclination to