MULTAV DISTRICT.
in the hollows formed by the old watercourses, and are utilized by embankments and artificial channels for fertilizing the neighbouring fields.
The general aspect of the District may be briefly described as follows :—Starting from the present banks of the Chenab and Sutlej rivers, is a strip of land subject to the annual overflow of those rivers during the rains. This strip extends inland about three miles from the Sutlej, and rather further from the banks of the Chenáb and Ráví. This tract is intersected by the canals, but does not generally receive much canal water. Beyond this riverain strip comes a belt of higher land where wells can be sunk without difficulty, the water being from 20 to 30 feet below the surface; and canal irrigation is also generally plentiful. The breadth of this belt depends chiefly on the canals. Where there are none, as in most parts of Sarai Sidhu tahsil, it is not more than four or five miles across; along the Chenab, where the canals run almost parallel with the river, it is six or seven miles; and along the Sutlej, where the canals strike inore inland, it is upwards of ten miles. Farther inland and extending up to the búr, the country is known as the Ráwá. Where water is reached by the canals, the cultiration is good; but where there are no canals, it is only in favourable hollow spots where drainage water collects that wells can be worked with any profit. Filling the centre of the District comes the barren plateau of the bír. The bár lands are principally available for pasture; and the proceeds of the grazing tax form an important item of Government revenue. The sale of ghi (clarified butter) is a lucrative source of income to the pastoral tribes. The only valuable articles of jungle produce are sajji, an impure carbonate of soda, saltpetre, and vegetable dyes. Kankar, or nodular limestone, is found in certain localities sparsely scattered over the surface. Of wild animals, wolves are very common; and during the five years ending 1882, £133 was paid in the shape of rewards for the destruction of 350 wolves.
History'. — The city now known as Múltán probably bore in the carliest times the name of Kasyapapura, derived from Kasyapa, father of the Adityas and Daityas, the Sun-gods and Titans of Hindu mythology. Under various Hellenic forms of this ancient designation, Múltán figures in the works of Hecatæus, Herodotus, and Ptolemy. General Cunningham believes that the Kaspeiræa of the last-named author, being the capital of the Kaspeiræi, whose dominions extended from Kashmir (Cashmere) to Muttra, must have been the principal city in the Punjab towards the 2nd century of our era. Five hundred years earlier, Múltán appears in the history of Alexander's invasion as the chief seat of the Malli, whom the Macedonian conqueror utterly subdued after a desperate resistance. He left Philip as Satrap at Múltán itself; but it seems probable that the Hellenic power in this distant
