offences have been tried, and states the crime of each, the evidence, and the punishment he conceives applicable. The bháradúrs, according to their judgment on the dit'ha's report, set down the punishment to be inflicted on each offender, and return the list to the ditha, who makes it over to the arz-begi or sheriff, and he sees execution done accordingly through the medium of the mahá-náikias.

QUESTION LXX-What is the prisoner's daily allowance ?— and what is the system of prison discipline?

ANSWER.-Each prisoner receives daily a seer of parched rice and a few condiments. [Another respondent states that prisoners of the common class get one and a half annas per diem; persons above that class receive, according to their condition, from four annas to one rupee per diem.]

QUESTION LXXI.-What is the preventive establishment in cities?

ANSWER-There is no civil establishment of watchmen, but the military patrol the streets throughout the night at intervals. QUESTION LXXII.-To whom are night-brawls, and riots, and disturbances reported?

ANSWER. The night-watch of the city belongs to the soldiery, who go their rounds at stated times. If they apprehend any persons in their rounds, they keep them till morning in the guard-room, and then deliver them to the mahánias, by whom they are produced in court, when their affairs are summarily heard, and they are released or committed to prison, as the case may be.

QUESTION LXXIII.-What are the village establishments of the preventive and detective kind?

ANSWER-In each village one diária, four pradháns, four náikias, and from five to ten mahánias.

QUESTION LXXIV. In the villages of Népál is there any establishment similar to the village economy of the plains?— any bará alotaya, or bará balotaya?

ANSWER.-No; there is neither pattél, nor patwarí, nor mirdhá, nor garait, nor blacksmith, nor carpenter, nor chamár, nor washerman, nor barber, nor potter, nor kándu, on the public establishment of any village of Népál.

QUESTION LXXV.-Is the managing zemindár of each village,

or are the principal landholders collectively, bound to Govern ment, in cases of theft, to produce the thief, or restore the stolen property?

ANSWER.-No; there is no such usage.

QUESTION LXXVI.-Is the village málguzár usually a farmer of the revenues, or only a collector? the principal resident ryot or a stranger? and how do these fiscal arrangements affect those for police purposes?

ANSWER. The dwária and pradháns above mentioned collect the revenues, and the same persons superintend the police, keep the peace and punish with small fines and whipping trifling breaches of it. The dwária is chiefly an official person, and the representative of Government or its assignee; the pradháns are the most substantial landowners of the village, and chiefly represent the community. They act together for purposes of detection and apprehension-the four pradháns under the duária.*

QUESTION LXXVII.-How much of the law depends on custom, and how much on the Shástras?

ANSWER.-Many of the decisions of the court are founded on customary laws only; many also on written and sacred canons. [By another respondent: "There is no code of laws, no written body of public enactments. If a question tuin upon a caste of a Brahman or a Rújpút, then reference is made to the guru (ráj guru), who consults the Shástra, and enjoins the ceremonies needful for the recovery of the caste or the punishment of him who has lost it. If a question before the courts affect a Parbattia, or Néwár, or Bhótia, it is referred to the custoins established in the time of JAYA THITI MA'L RÁJÁ, for each separate tribe; dhúngá-chúáyi being performed as directed by

• Note from Mr. Hodgson's Remarks on the Great Military Road which Traverses the Whole Kingdom of Népál. —“This State, instead of collecting its revenues and paying its establishments out of them, prefers the method of assigning its revenual claims directly to its functionaries, and leaving them to collect the amount; while, as judicial follows revenual administrations in Népál, the Government feels little concern about territorial divisions: in the whole country, westward from Káthmándú as far as the Nárayáni River, and eastward as far as the Dúd Kósi River, there is no specific arrondissement district, or zillah. These large tracts of country are assigned principally to the Compu, or ariny stationed in the capital; and their judicial administration is for the most part in the hands of deputies of the officers, supervised by certain migratory royal judges, called mountain bicháris.”

those customs. Since the Górkháli conquests of Népál Proper, the ordeal by immersion in the Queen's Tank has become the prevalent mode of settling knotty points."

QUESTION LXXVIII.-In general, what sort of causes are governed by the Shastras, and what by customary laws?

ANSWER.-Infringements of the law of caste in any and every way fall under the Shástra; other matters are almost entirely governed by customary law (dés-áchár).

QUESTION LXXIX.-Do the Néwárs and Parbattias follow the same or different law Shastras?

ANSWER. The customs of the Bauddha portion of the Néwárs are peculiar to themselves.

QUESTION LXXX.-With respect to inheritance, adoption, and wills, do you follow the Mitákshará, the Dáyabhága, or any other Shastra of the plains; or have you only a customary law in such matters ?

ANSWER.-We constantly refer to those books in the decision of such cases.

QUESTION LXXXI.-How do sons divide among the Khas tribe ?-sons by wives and those by concubines; also unmarried daughters? What is the widow's share, if there be sons and daughters? What if there be none?

ANSWER. Among the Khas, sons by concubines get a third of what constitutes the share of a son by a wife. [Another respondent says in addition: "If a Khas has a son born in wedlock, that son is his heir; if he has no such son, his brother and his brother's male descendants are his heirs: his married.

daughters and their progeny never. If he has a virgin daughter, she is entitled to a marriage portion, and no more."]

QUESTION LXXXII.-Can the Khas adopt an heir not of their kindred, if they have near male relations?

ANSWER.-No; they must choose for adoption the child of some one of their nearest relatives.

QUESTION LXXXIII.-Are wills in force among the Khas? and how much of ancestral and of acquired property can a Khas alienate by will from his sons or daughters?

Dr. Buchanan Hamilton observes that ordeals were seldom used until the Gorkha family seized the Government, since which time they have become very frequent.-Account of Népál, p. 103.

ANSWER.-If a Khas has a son, he cannot alienate a rupee from him by will, save only, and in moderation, to pious uses.

QUESTION LXXXIV.-Do the Magars and Gúrungs, and other Parbattias differ from the Khas in respect to inheritance, adoption, and wills?

ANSWER-In general, they agree closely.

QUESTION LXXXV.-How is it with respect to the Newárs, Sivamárgi, and Buddha-múrgi?

ANSWER.-The former section agrees mostly with the Parbattias on all three heads; the latter section have some rules of their

own.

QUESTION LXXXVI.-How is it with regard to the Múrmi tribe, and the Kiránti?

ANSWER.-Answered above: in regard to inheritance, all tribes agree.

QUESTION LXXXVII.-Are the customs of the several tribes above mentioned, in respect to inheritance, &c., reduced to writing, collected, and methodised? If not, can they be ascertained with sufficient ease in cases of dispute before the courts?

ANSWER.-The customary law on those heads is reduced to writing, and the book containing it is studied by the bicháris and others whom it may concern. [Another respondent, on the other hand, says, with reference to the customary laws: "They are not reduced to writing; nor are the dit'has or bicháris regularly educated to the law. A dit'ha or bichári has nothing to do with the courts till he receives from the Government the turban of investiture; but that is never conferred, save on persons conversant with the customs of the country, and the usage of its various tribes; and this general conversancy with such matters, aided by the opinions of elders in any particular cases of difficulty, is his sole stay on the judgment-seat, unless it is that the ci-devant dit'ha or bichári, when removed by rotation or otherwise, cannot retire until he has imparted to his successor a knowledge of the state of the court, and the general routine of procedures." A third reply is as follows:-"When cases of dispute on these topics are brought into the court, the judge calls for the sentiments of a few of the most respectable elders of the tribe to which the litigants belong, and follows their statement of the custom of the tribe."

QUESTION LXXXVIII.-Are the bicháris regularly educated to the law?

ANSWER. Those who understand dharma and adharma, who are well educated and practised in law affairs, are alone made bicháris. [By another authority: "Those who are well educated, of high character, and practically acquainted with the law, are alone made bicháris. It is not indispensable that they should have read the law Shastra, though, if they have, so much the better."]

QUESTION LXXXIX.-The dit'ha is not often a professed lawyer; yet, is he not president of the supreme court? How is this?

ANSWER. Whether the dit'ha has read the Nyáya Shástra or not, he must understand nyáya (justice-law), and be a man of high respectability.

QUESTION XC.-Are there separate bicháris for the investigation of the civil causes of Néwárs and of Parbattias?

ANSWER.-There are not.

QUESTION XCI.-In the dit'ha's court, if the dit'ha be the judge, the investigator, and decider, what is the function of the bicháris?

ANSWER-The investigation is the joint work of the dit'has and the bicháris. [Another respondent says: "They both act together; the decree proceeds from the diť'ha."]

QUESTION XCII.-In courts where no dit'ha presides, do the bicháris act in his stead?

ANSWER-See the answer to Question XXV.

QUESTION XCIII.-Among Néwárs and Parbattias, may not the creditor seize and detain the debtor in his own house, and beat and misuse him also? and to what extent ?

ANSWER. The creditor may attach duns to the debtor, to follow and dun him wherever he goes. The creditor may also stop the debtor wherever he finds him; take him home, confine, beat, and abuse him; so that he does him no serious injury in health or limbs. [Another answer states that the creditor may seize upon the debtor, confine him in his own house, place him under the spout that discharges the filthy wash of the house, and such like; but he has no further power over him.]

QUESTION XCIV.-Is sitting dhárná in use in Népál?