NORTILITESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDII. 395 merchandise on the backs of bullocks along obscure forest paths where any other than a gipsy would be lost. Besides acting as carrier, the Banjára follows the calling of a cattle grazier, and sometimes that of a robber. The Banjáras are chiefly to be found in the Tarai, or subHimalayan tracts. They are slowly becoming civilised. (2) Kunjras, or greengrocers, who carry their wares from door to door, and rarely keep a shop. They are not far removed from the nomadic state, and are hell in low esteem. (3) Bhurjis, or grain-parchers, who sell grain either in its whole state or in the form of a powder or flour called sattu, consisting of parched grain and parched rice mixed. (4) The Raunia, Bilwar, Bhurtia, and Lohia castes, are small retail dealers and seldom keep regular shops. (5) The Kasondhan, Kasarbani, Vishnoi, Rastogi, Unaya, Orh, and Maheshwari castes are traders, keeping regular shops. (6) The Agrahari, Agarwala, Bolira, and Khatri castes are bankers, wholesale dealers, and wealthy traders, The Bohra seidon keeps a shop, and is known for his rapacity as an usurer. He bears the same character in Bombay as is attributed to him in Northern India. The Khatri is the highest and most important of all the trading castes. He is a strictly orthodox Hindu, and is found as a guru, or spiritual guide, among the Sikhs. His operations extend far beyond his own Province. He commands the markets of Afghánistán. Vambery the traveller met him offering his oblations at Baku on the Caspian. The number of Baniyas, including nearly all Hindu trading castes, recorded in the Census of 1881 for the NorthWestern Provinces and Oudh was 1,204,130. Artistic Handicrafts. The principal are the carved ebony of Nagina (value of out-turn in 1883, £ 3000); white wood-carving of Saharanpur (value of out-turn in 1883, £1500); wire inlaid wood-work of Mainpuri (value of annual out-turn, £600); wood-carving of Pilibhit (value of out-turn in 1883, £100); wire inlaid work of Pilibhit (value of outturn in 1883, £1700); Bareli, furniture (value of out-turn in 1883, £5000); Benares, brass-work (value of out-turn in 1883, £5000); Moradabad, metal ware, mostly exported to Bombay (number of firms engaged in the trade, 158 in 1883, employing 1400 workmen, who turned out work to the value of over £30,000); Lucknow, diamondcut silver - work, mostly bangles, the trade being supported almost entirely by European visitors in the cold weather (value of out-turn in 1883, fi Soo); Lucknow, embroidery (a craft giving employment to 156 firms and 750 workmen, most of the latter reported as being steeped in hopeless poverty, and earning the barest pittance for their work); Agra, mosaics (annual value of out - turn, £ 2000); Sikandrábád, muslin work; Lucknow, pottery and models in clay (mostly of Indian scenes and servants); Aligarh, pottery; Rampur, pottery, a blue glazed ware ; Cawnpur, leather-work in portmanteaus,
