Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official | Page 2

I have
endeavoured to make the most of them, the time of public servants is
not their own; and that of few men has been more exclusively devoted
to the service of their masters than mine. It may be, however, that the
world, or that part of it which ventures to read these pages, will think
that it had been better had I not been left even the little leisure that has
been devoted to them.
Your ever affectionate brother,
W. H. SLEEMAN.

CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S DEDICATION
EDITOR'S PREFACES
MEMOIR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 1
Annual Fairs held on the Banks of Sacred Streams in India
CHAPTER 2
Hindoo System of Religion

CHAPTER 3
Legend of the Nerbudda River
CHAPTER 4
A Suttee on the Nerbudda
CHAPTER 5
Marriages of Trees--The Tank and the Plantain--Meteors--Rainbows
CHAPTER 6
Hindoo Marriages
CHAPTER 7
The Purveyance System
CHAPTER 8
Religious Sects--Self-government of the Castes--Chimneysweepers--
Washerwomen [1]--Elephant Drivers
CHAPTER 9
The Great Iconoclast--Troops routed by Hornets--The Rânî of
Garhâ--Hornets' Nests in India
CHAPTER 10
The Peasantry and the Land Settlement
CHAPTER 11
Witchcraft

CHAPTER 12
The Silver Tree, or 'Kalpa Briksha'--The 'Singhâra', or Trapa bispinosa,
and the Guinea-Worm
CHAPTER 13
Thugs and Poisoners
CHAPTER 14
Basaltic Cappings of the Sandstone Hills of Central India--Suspension
Bridge--Prospects of the Nerbudda Valley--Deification of a Mortal
CHAPTER 15
Legend of the Sâgar Lake--Paralysis from eating the Grain of the
Lathyrus sativus
CHAPTER 16
Suttee Tombs--Insalubrity of deserted Fortresses
CHAPTER 17
Basaltic Cappings--Interview with a Native Chief--A Singular
Character
CHAPTER 18
Birds' Nests--Sports of Boyhood
CHAPTER 19
Feeding Pilgrims--Marriage of a Stone with a Shrub
CHAPTER 20

The Men-Tigers
CHAPTER 21
Burning of Deorî by a Freebooter--A Suttee
CHAPTER 22
Interview with the Râjâ who marries the Stone to the Shrub--Order of
the Moon and the Fish
CHAPTER 23
The Râjâ of Orchhâ--Murder of his many Ministers
CHAPTER 24
Corn Dealers--Scarcities--Famines in India
CHAPTER 25
Epidemic Diseases--Scape-goat
CHAPTER 26
Artificial Lakes in Bundêlkhand-Hindoo, Greek, and Roman Faith
CHAPTER 27
Blights
CHAPTER 28
Pestle-and-Mortar Sugar-Mills--Washing away of the Soil
CHAPTER 29

Interview with the Chiefs of Jhânsî--Disputed Succession
CHAPTER 30
Haunted Villages
CHAPTER 31
Interview with the Râjâ of Datiyâ--Fiscal Errors of Statesmen-- Thieves
and Robbers by Profession
CHAPTER 32
Sporting at Datiyâ--Fidelity of Followers to their Chiefs in India-- Law
of Primogeniture wanting among Muhammadans
CHAPTER 33
'Bhûmiâwat'
CHAPTER 34
The Suicide-Relations between Parents and Children in India
CHAPTER 35
Gwâlior Plain once the Bed of a Lake--Tameness of Peacocks
CHAPTER 36
Gwâlior and its Government
CHAPTER 37
[2] Contest for Empire between the Sons of Shah Jahân
CHAPTER 38

[2] Aurangzêb and Murâd Defeat their Father's Army near Ujain
CHAPTER 39
[2] Dârâ Marches in Person against his Brothers, and is Defeated
CHAPTER 40
[2] Dârâ Retreats towards Lahore--Is robbed by the Jâts--Their
Character
CHAPTER 41
[2] Shâh Jahân Imprisoned by his Two Sons, Aurangzêb and Murâd
CHAPTER 42
[2] Aurangzêb Throws off the Mask, Imprisons his Brother Murâd, and
Assumes the Government of the Empire
CHAPTER 43
[2] Aurangzêb Meets Shujâ in Bengal, and Defeats him, after Pursuing
Dârâ to the Hyphasis
CHAPTER 44
[2] Aurangzêb Imprisons his Eldest Son--Shujâ and all his Family are
Destroyed
CHAPTER 45
[2] Second Defeat and Death of Dârâ, and Imprisonment of his Two
Sons
CHAPTER 46

[2] Death and Character of Amîr Jumla
CHAPTER 47
Reflections on the Preceding History
CHAPTER 48
The Great Diamond of Kohinûr
CHAPTER 49
Pindhârî System--Character of the Marâthâ Administration--Cause of
their Dislike to the Paramount Power
CHAPTER 50
Dhôlpur, Capital of the Jât Chiefs of Gohad--Consequence of Obstacles
to the Prosecution of Robbers
CHAPTER 51
Influence of Electricity on Vegetation--Agra and its Buildings
CHAPTER 52
Nûr Jahân, the Aunt of the Empress Nûr Mahal,[3] over whose
Remains the Tâj is built
CHAPTER 53
Father Gregory's Notion of the Impediments to Conversion in India--
Inability of Europeans to speak Eastern Languages
CHAPTER 54
Fathpur-Sîkrî--The Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage--Birth of Jahângîr

CHAPTER 55
Bharatpur--Dîg--Want of Employment for the Military and the
Educated Classes under the Company's Rule
CHAPTER 56
Govardhan, the Scene of Kriahna's Dalliance with the Milkmaids
CHAPTER 57
Veracity
CHAPTER 58
Declining Fertility of the Soil--Popular Notion of the Cause
CHAPTER 59
Concentration of Capital and its Effects
CHAPTER 60
Transit Duties in India--Mode of Collecting them
CHAPTER 61
Peasantry of India attached to no existing Government--Want of Trees
in Upper India--Cause and Consequence--Wells and Groves
CHAPTER 62
Public Spirit of the Hindoos--Tree Cultivation and Suggestions for
extending it
CHAPTER 63

Cities and Towns, formed by Public Establishments, disappear as
Sovereigns and Governors change their Abodes
CHAPTER 64
Murder of Mr. Fraser, and Execution of the Nawâb Shams-ud-dîn
CHAPTER 65
Marriage of a Jât Chief
CHAPTER 66
Collegiate Endowment of Muhammadan Tombs and Mosques
CHAPTER 67
The Old City of Delhi
CHAPTER 68
New Delhi, or Shâhjahânâbâd
CHAPTER 69
Indian Police--Its Defects--and their Cause and