498 OUDH. share in the manufacture of cotton cloth. As landowners they have but a poor reputation, and are considered unimproving and litigious. The Census of 1881 distributes the whole Muhammadan population into 1,365,356 Sunnís, 68,038 Shiás, and 49 'unspecified.' Even more significant than the small number of Musalmáns is the preponderance of Brahmans, which marks out Oudh as a stronghold of Hinduism. The sacred class numbers no fewer than 1,364,783 persons, being about one-eighth of the whole population. In spite of their enormous social importance, as domestic directors of the whole community, they include only 6 among the tálukdárs of the Province; and two of these owe their wealth to the later days of Muhammadan rule. As cultivators they abound, but make undesirable tenants. One of their great divisions refuses to touch the plough, relying upon hired labour, and most are lazy and improvident. They supply good soldiers, however, and are often employed in trade. The Rájputs or Kshattriyas, once rulers of the Province, and now landholders of the greater part of it, rank next. Soldiers by profession and hereditary instinct under the old régime, they are now driven to live an idle existence upon estates too narrow for their increasing numbers, and compelled to submit to a poverty which ill accords with their traditions and feelings. In spite of their predominance in proprietorship, they form only about one-twentieth of the inhabitants. In 1881, according to the Census, they numbered 637,890. The Muhanmadans, Bráhmans, and Kshattriyas compose together about a quarter of the population, the quarter which represents the higher social stratum. The remainder consists of the lower Hindu castes, the religious orders which stand outside caste distinctions, and the semiaboriginal tribes. Amongst the lower classes of Hindus, the Kayasths (147,432) and Vaisyas (237,497), or writing and trading classes, number hardly half a million. The Súdras or lowest class of Hindus include 1,185,512 Ahírs, whose proper duty consists in tending cattle, but who also engage largely in agriculture. The best tenantry and most industrious cultivators, however, are to be found amongst the Kúrmís (792,319) and Muráos, who together number in Oudh rather more than a million souls. They form the depositaries of the agricultural wealth of the Province, and, in respect of bravery hardly inferior to the Rajput, have fought well under British officers. Many other Sudra and mixed castes are represented by smaller numbers. At the base of the social superstructure are the aboriginal or semi-Hinduized tribes, the more or less pure descendants of the squat and black-skinned native race whom the Aryan colonists displaced. Some of these, such as the Pásis, who number 718,906, provide material for possible soldiers, and furnish the greater part of the rural police. Others, like the Bhárs (31,762) and
