GON
517
and the
glorification, of their host is recompensed by presents of money, and elephants, or by a grant of land. A peculiar caste, called Khmgaria, preserves and recites the classical legends.
horses,
The Mahardja ofBalrdmpur patronizes a number of men learned in Sanskrit and Persian, and local pride points to his capital as a Chhoti Kashi, a demidiata Benares. The original compositions of his munshis a,nd pandits have more art and less spirit than the village songs, but his lithographic press, by the occasional publication of really valuable works, is of service to the literature of the district.
The Muhammadans form one-tenth Eeli "on d if^^^' superstitwns^^
^"^ d
of the whole population, and rather ™°^® ^^^"^ ^^^^ °f them are returned as agricultural, They are most influential and most numerous in proportion to the Hindus in the old Muhammad an raj
of IJtraula, where they form the majority of village proprietors. As common cultivators they are very thick all over the north of the district. Their religion is strongly tainted with Hinduism, and the services of the Brahman astrologer are held in high estimation by high and low.
The most interesting local worships are generally those connected with the tutelary deities of the village and the clan. Every village worships its special diohar, the protector of the dih, or village site. Of those, the most frequent is Kali, the dread wife of Shiva, whose mound is generally After her comes just outside the village under the shade of a grove. Hardewal or Hardeo, of whom I am not able to say whether he represents the deity Hari or a deified mortal. Ratan Pande is responsible for the welfare of many villages scattered all over the district, and takes rank as a minor divinity. Another Pande named Manik, of whose history I have been able to ascertain nothing, is occasionally burdened with the same trust. By the border of tbe jungles, and generally under a sihora tree, may be found the altar of Mari Bhawani, the goddess of death. A divinity or devil of the Nat caste, named Nakt Bir, is here and there honoured with offerings of ganja. Milk and rice are presented to the Agya Baital,also known as Dano or Dan Sahib, whose asthan may be found in places along the crest of the lower hills. This terrible demon feeds on dung beetles, and, sallying forth at dusk, with a fire between his lips, tempts unwary wayfarers from their path and destroys their reason. Travellers through the forest cast a reverent stick on the heap sacred to Banspati Mai, the goddess of the place. Raja Kidar ( Khwaja Khizr ) has been borrowed from the Muhammadan legends about Alexander, and protects the boats of those Mallahsthat call upon him from shipwreck on the rivers. The Kahars and is said to have who Kahar, Nathu of memory the to veneration pay especial Fyzabeen buried alive under the foundations of the fort at Akbarpur worship object of popular Another honour. his to held bad, where a fair is haunts are at Hathni or fear is the goddess Samay, whose most famous
m
m
in the Sadullahnagar pargana.
the Manikapur, and BheUa thickly inhabited is more general in the less border of a jungle.
tracts,
and
Her worship
m villages
on the
cross stakes "When a village is founded, the "dih" or site is marked off by are solemnly worshipped on the day which ground, the into driven of wood
