1 124 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS.
2 the water to the level, and in places where the
3 banks are comparatively low, it will only be
4 requisite to dig the rool, or cut, for the reception
5 and carriage of the water deeper, and to raise it
6 in the cut by sluice-boards. The charras or
7 leathern bags, in common use at wells, with a
8 relief of bullocks, might also be serviceable in
9 other spots. All these expedients, however, fall
10 very short of the utility and cheapness of the
11 dams when water requires to be conveyed many
12 miles, and every rool is a canal in miniature. |
13 ‘“‘ Nuptial contracts are made in early youth by
14 the parents or nearest of kin, who in too many
15 cases are influenced more by pecuniary and sor-
16 did motives than by the welfare of the children.
17 Disagreements are very common relative to be-
18 trothments (mungnee), and to breaches of promise
19 of marriage (nata or nisbut), amongst all classes of
20 the inhabitants. In some instances real or ima-
21 ginary diseases, or bodily defects, will be alleged
22 by one of the contracting parties as a reason why
23 the bargain should be annulled; in others a flaw
24 in the caste; and in most a discovery that the
25 girl had been promised to two, three, or four
26 different families, from all of which the needy
27 parents or guardians had received money, orna-
28 ments, or clothes. If both parties be the subjects
29 of one chief, they appear before him, and either
30 he or his officers satisfies them, or refers the