1 258 THE LORDS OF THE HILLS ; —
2 He would be all tilings to all men, and displayed a readiness
3 to adapt himself to the circumstances even of the humblest
4 of his subjects that would have won all hearts, had not the
5 tiger-nature that crouched beneath this fair-seeming exterior
6 rendered him an object of distrust and terror. His character
7 is thus sketched by the rude but vigorous hand of one who
8 knew him well :
9 " He is an eater of opium, he tells long stories, keeps irregular
10 hours, sleeps little, has a mind unsettled, offers little, promises
11 less, but gives his word ; of good memory ; free, humorous
12 and intimate even with the lowest and poorest classes of his
13 subjects. The partaker and often the companion of their
14 toils and labour, seeming or acting their very diligent, careful
15 and instructing father, their sorrowful and heart-broken mother,
16 their very intimate and laborious village brother, their free, jocose
17 and humorous neighbour, their kind and continual visitor, — yet
18 with all this, in reality a very leech, sucking their life's blood,
19 the shameless slave-trader of their sons and daughters, brothers'
20 sisters, wives and families. The would-be great merchant
21 of the east ; the very jack of all trades, the usurer, the turn-
22 penny, the briber and the bribed. The Jew shopkeeper of both
23 old and new shoes, cloths, &c. The very pawnbroker, the very
24 purchaser and retaker of his own alms."
25 In explanation of this last trait, it may be necessary to state,
26 that it is the custom of Hindoos of all ranks and castes to
27 bestow alms, according to their ability, on certain classes of
28 Brahmins on stated occasions. Now in the dominions of
29 Goolaub Sing this source of profit was in a great measure
30 monopolized by the Rajah, for whom, in reality, the Brah-
31 mins were collectors of revenue, holding in farm from him
32 the right of collecting alms. Thus the alms which he himself
33 gave in accordance with custom, came back into the hands
34 of the donor.