Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official | Page 2

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 Ran? of Garha--Hornets' Nests in India
CHAPTER 10
The Peasantry and the Land Settlement
CHAPTER 11
Witchcraft
CHAPTER 12
The Silver Tree, or 'Kalpa Briksha'--The 'Singhara', 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 Sagar 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 Deor? by a Freebooter--A Suttee
CHAPTER 22
Interview with the Raja who marries the Stone to the Shrub--Order of the Moon and the Fish
CHAPTER 23
The Raja of Orchha--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 Jhans?--Disputed Succession
CHAPTER 30
Haunted Villages
CHAPTER 31
Interview with the Raja of Datiya--Fiscal Errors of Statesmen-- Thieves and Robbers by Profession
CHAPTER 32
Sporting at Datiya--Fidelity of Followers to their Chiefs in India-- Law of Primogeniture wanting among Muhammadans
CHAPTER 33
'Bh?miawat'
CHAPTER 34
The Suicide-Relations between Parents and Children in India
CHAPTER 35
Gwalior Plain once the Bed of a Lake--Tameness of Peacocks
CHAPTER 36
Gwalior and its Government
CHAPTER 37
[2] Contest for Empire between the Sons of Shah Jahan
CHAPTER 38
[2] Aurangzêb and Murad Defeat their Father's Army near Ujain
CHAPTER 39
[2] Dara Marches in Person against his Brothers, and is Defeated
CHAPTER 40
[2] Dara Retreats towards Lahore--Is robbed by the Jats--Their Character
CHAPTER 41
[2] Shah Jahan Imprisoned by his Two Sons, Aurangzêb and Murad
CHAPTER 42
[2] Aurangzêb Throws off the Mask, Imprisons his Brother Murad, and Assumes the Government of the Empire
CHAPTER 43
[2] Aurangzêb Meets Shuja in Bengal, and Defeats him, after Pursuing Dara to the Hyphasis
CHAPTER 44
[2] Aurangzêb Imprisons his Eldest Son--Shuja and all his Family are Destroyed
CHAPTER 45
[2] Second Defeat and Death of Dara, and Imprisonment of his Two Sons
CHAPTER 46
[2] Death and Character of Am?r Jumla
CHAPTER 47
Reflections on the Preceding History
CHAPTER 48
The Great Diamond of Kohin?r
CHAPTER 49
Pindhar? System--Character of the Maratha Administration--Cause of their Dislike to the Paramount Power
CHAPTER 50
Dh?lpur, Capital of the Jat Chiefs of Gohad--Consequence of Obstacles to the Prosecution of Robbers
CHAPTER 51
Influence of Electricity on Vegetation--Agra and its Buildings
CHAPTER 52
N?r Jahan, the Aunt of the Empress N?r Mahal,[3] over whose Remains the Taj 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-S?kr?--The Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage--Birth of Jahang?r
CHAPTER 55
Bharatpur--D?g--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 Nawab Shams-ud-d?n
CHAPTER 65
Marriage of a Jat Chief
CHAPTER 66
Collegiate Endowment of Muhammadan Tombs and Mosques
CHAPTER 67
The Old City of Delhi
CHAPTER 68
New Delhi, or Shahjahanabad
CHAPTER 69
Indian Police--Its Defects--and their Cause and Remedy
CHAPTER 70
Rent-free Tenures--Right of Government to Resume such Grants
CHAPTER 71
The Station of Meerut--'Atal?s' who Dance and Sing gratuitously for the Benefit of the Poor
CHAPTER 72
Subdivisions of Lands--Want of Gradations of Rank--Taxes
CHAPTER 73
Meerut-Anglo-Indian Society
CHAPTER 74
Pilgrims of India
CHAPTER 75
The Bêgam Sumroo
CHAPTER 76
ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA Abolition of Corporal Punishment--Increase of Pay with Length of Service--Promotion by Seniority
CHAPTER 77
Invalid Establishment
Appendix: Thuggee and the part taken in its Suppression by General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., by Captain J. L. Sleeman Supplementary Note by the Editor Additions and Corrections
INDEX
Notes:
1. A blunder for 'Sweepers' and 'Washermen'
2. Chapters 37 to 46, inclusive, are not reprinted in this edition.
3. A mistake. See post, Chapter 52, note 1.

EDITOR'S PREFACE (1893)[1]
The Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, always a costly book, has been scarce and difficult to procure for many years past. Among the crowd of books descriptive of Indian scenery, manners, and customs, the sterling merits of Sir William Sleeman's work have secured it pre-eminence,