1 84 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS.
2 intrinsic value. Little attention is paid by the
3 chiefs or their subjects to the justice or reason-
4 ableness of a case : it is quite suflScient, accord-
5 ing to Sikh notions, that a claim be advanced
6 and presented, as something may be obtained,
7 and nothing can be lost by the reference to a
8 Punchayt, which will use its endeavours to
9 please, and harmonize its decision to the wants
10 and wishes of those by whom it has been se-
11 lected.
12 " Bloodshed between Zemindars, in a boundary
13 dispute, is sometimes atoned for by giving a
14 nata, or daughter, in marriage to a relative of
15 the deceased, or commuted to the payment of
16 150 to 200 rupees, or 125 beegahs of land. In
17 general, however, revenge is sought, and the
18 Khoon-buha, or price of blood, deemed insuffi-
19 cient satisfaction, particularly when a mother
20 has to lament the loss of a favourite child, or a
21 wife with a family, the bereavement of a husband.
22 Claims to islands, in a river flowing between
23 two manors, and to alluvions, are determined by
24 what is called the Kuchmuch, or Kishtee-bunna,
25 which practice or rule assigns the land to the
26 proprietor of the bank, or main, upon which the
27 alluvion is thrown, and from which the water has
28 receded. If the island be formed in the centre
29 of the river, and there be depth of water on each
30 side of it, sufficient for boats to ply, in this case