BOOK II. They are connected by covered passages, and contain every accommodation that would be met with in a palace. A Maratta court, indeed, appears to much greater advantage in their camps than in their cities. Yet, with all this magnifi there is some of their usual carelessness and indifference to making anything complete: these canvass palaces are often so ill pitched that they are quite incapable of resisting the tempests of particular seasons. Sindia's whole suite of tents have been known to be levelled with the ground at midnight, and his women obliged to seek shelter from the wind and rain in some low private tent that happened to have resisted the fury of the elements. The intended proceedings for the next day are announced by fakírs or gosáyens, who go about the camp proclaiming a halt, or the hour and direction of the movement; and who stop on the march to beg, exactly at the point where the welcome sight of the flags of the proposed encampment dispose all to be liberal. The armies are fed by large bodies of Banjáras, a tribe whose business it is to be carriers of grain, and who bring it from distant countries and sell it wholesale to the dealers. Smaller dealers go about to villages at a moderate distance from the camp and buy from the inhabitants. The government interferes very little, and native camps are almost always well supplied. The villages in the neighbourhood of the camp are sure to be plundered, unless protected by safeguards. The inhabitants fly with such property as they can carry, the rest is pillaged, and the doors and rafters pulled down for firewood: treasure is dug for if the place is large; and even in small villages people try if the ground sounds hollow, in hopes of finding the pits in which grain is buried; or bore with iron rods, such as are used by our surveyors, and ascertain, by the smell, whether the rod has passed through grain. A system like this soon reduces a country to a desert. In a tract often traversed by armies the villages are in ruins and deserted; and bushes of different ages, scattered over the open country, show that cultivated fields are rapidly changing into jungle. The large towns are filled with fugitives from the country; and their neighbourhood is generally well cultivated, being secured by means of compositions with the passing armies. The most important part of the Hindú battles is, now, a cannonade. In this they greatly excel, and have occasioned heavy loss to us in all our battles with them; but the most characteristic mode of fighting (besides skirmishing, which is a favourite sort of warfare) is a general charge of cavalry, which soon brings the battle to a crisis. Nothing can be more magnificent than this sort of charge. Even the slow advance of such a sea of horsemen has something in it more than usually impressive; and, when they move on at speed, the thunder of the ground, the flashing of their arms, СНАР. II. BOOK II. the brandishing of their spears, the agitation of their banners rushing through the wind, and the rapid approach of such a countless multitude, produce sensations of grandeur which the imagination cannot surpass. Their mode is to charge the front and the flanks at once; and the manner in which they perform this manoeuvre has sometimes called forth the admiration of European antagonists, and is certainly surprising in an undisciplined body. The whole appear to be coming on at full speed towards their adversary's front, when, suddenly, those selected for the duty, at once wheel inwards, bring their spears by one motion to the side nearest the enemy, and are in upon his flank before their intention is suspected. These charges, though grand, are ineffectual against regular troops, unless they catch them in a moment of confusion, or when they have been thinned by the fire of cannon. Horse are often maintained (as before mentioned) by assignments of the rent or revenue belonging to government, in particular tracts of country, but oftener by payments from the treasury, either to military leaders, at so much a horseman, (besides personal pay, and pay of subordinate officers,) or to single horsemen, who, in such cases, are generally fine men, well mounted, and who expect more than ordinary pay. Some bodies are mounted on horses belonging to the government; and these, although the men are of lower rank than the others, are the most obedient and efficient part CHAP. of the army. The best foot now-a-days are mercenaries, men from the Jamna and Ganges, and likewise Arabs and Sindians; especially Arabs, who are incomparably superior to most other Asiatics in courage, discipline, and fidelity. Their own way of carrying on sieges is, probably, little improved since Menu: individuals creep near the wall, and cover themselves by digging, till they can crouch in safety, and watch for an opportunity to pick off some of the garrison; batteries are gradually raised, and a shot fired from time to time, which makes little impression on the works: a blockade, a surprise, or an unsuccessful sally, more frequently ends the siege than a regular assault. II. The modern system of government and policy Policy. will appear in so many shapes hereafter, that it is quite unnecessary to enter on the subject in this place. BOOK THE Code of Menu is still the basis of the Hindú jurisprudence; and the principal features remain Changes in unaltered to the present day. the written law. Civil law. The various works of other inspired writers, however, and the numerous commentaries by persons of less authority, together with the additions rendered necessary by the course of time, have introduced many changes into the written law, and have led to the formation of several schools, the various opinions of which are followed respectively in different parts of India. In all of these Menu is the text-book, but is received according to the interpretations and modifications of approved commentators; and the great body of law thus formed has again been reduced to digests, each of authority within the limits of particular schools. Bengal has a separate school of her own; and, although the other parts of India agree in their general opinions, they are still distinguished into at least four schools: those of Mithila (North Behár); Benares; Maharashtra (the Maratta country); and Drávida (the south of the Peninsula). All of these schools concur in abolishing mar |