1 RAJAH LALL SING, AND THE SLAVE-CURL MUNGELA. 165
2 the favorite paramour of the slave-girl Mungela. He now
3 strove by every means he could devise to put a stop to the in-
4 tercourse betwixt his sister, Ranee Chunda, and Rajah Lall
5 Sing-. But his efforts were in vain, as Mungela was not so
6 much devoted to him as to favour his views in this matter ; but,
7 on the contrary, she still exercised all her art and influence
8 to promote and strengthen the intimacy. Nevertheless the oppo-
9 sition of Jewahir Sing had the effect of placing some restraint
10 on the proceedings of his sister, her lover, and their confeder-
11 ate. This of course did not tend to earn him their good will,
12 and the grudge they owed him was deepened by his refusal to
13 bestow upon them as much of the property of the state in
14 the shape of jaghires, &c.f as they coveted. Mungela, in parti-
15 cular, thought herself ill-used when her entreaties, backed by
16 those of her mistress, could not obtain for the support of herself
17 and all her family more than three thousand rupees a-year of
18 the public money. However she had contrived by various sinis-
19 ter means to collect no small amount of property entirely un-
20 known to her mistress and her paramour ; and on the death
21 of Jewahir Sing, — for which it may be supposed she was not
22 very sorry, whatever she may have appeared to the world, —
23 she became virtually sole manager and controller of all the
24 Toshakhanas, out of which she of course helped herself most
25 liberally. '
26 Thus the slave girl Mungela rose to be one of the most
27 considerable persons in the state, with wealth and power
28 almost unlimited. She had both the Ranee Chunda and Rajah
29 Lall Sing entirely at her command, and thus through them she
30 moved the wheels of the Government as best suited her
31 own views and interests.
32 Mungela had an elder brother named Mungeloo, who was
33 killed at the battle of Sabraon, and she has still a younger
34 brother by name Megraj, who at the age of seven or eight
35 years, was, by his parents, pawned or given as security for