1 88 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOBC8.
2 tion, to draw the water to the level and in places
3 where the banks are comparatively low, it will
4 only be requisite to dig the rool, or cut, for the
5 reception and carriage of the water deeper, and
6 to raise it in the cut by sluice-boards. ' The
7 churras or leathern bags, in common use at wells,
8 with a relief of bullocks, might also be service-
9 able in other spots. All these expedients, how-
10 ever, fall very short of the utility and cheapness
11 of the dams when water requires to be conveyed
12 many 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