1 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS. 85
2 it becomes the joint property of the chiefs on
3 both banks.
4 " This custom, which obtains in the Sikh states,
5 with regard to alluvion, is imiyersal, so far as my
6 knowledge in the local laws and usages of India
7 has extended, wherever lands are liable to such
8 accidents by an alteration in the course of rivers.
9 In the case of lands cast by the change of the
10 stream from one side of the river to the other,
11 though one chief gains and another loses, yet it
12 is customary to preserve the rights of the Ze-
13 mindar, if he consent to cultivate the lands.
14 " The decided enmity of two chiefs is seldom a
15 bar to an arrangement in which each finds or
16 perceives an advantage to himself, either imme-
17 diate or prospective: for streams in India are
18 so subject to change, that the land lost one
19 rainy season may be regained in the next, or
20 even in the cold weather, when the river falls
21 and the floods cease.
22 " The use and abuse of the ancient privilege of
23 the Zemindars in damming up, and turning
24 the course of a stream into artificial pools, or
25 cuts, for the purpose of irrigating the lands in
26 its vicinity, causes disputes and bloodshed ; and,
27 after much angry dissension, the result is gene-
28 rally a compromise stipulating for a reciprocal
29 enjoyment of the gifts of nature. In some in-
30 stances, and in contiguous estates, the parties will