Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/287

Rh comparative sparseness of the population throughout Behar. The cause of this and of other effects will probably be found in the extreme sub-division of landed property in that province; but whatever the cause, the fact is necessary to be known in framing suitable measures for the promotion of general instruction.

Third.—For the purpose of comparison I subjoin in one view the number of persons in each family, taking the different classes of the population collectively and separately—

The average number of persons in each family in the city of Moorshedabad is less than the corresponding results in the Mofussil thanas of the respective districts, and one cause of this will be found in the fact that the number of traders, shop-keepers, and day-laborers who resort to Moorshedabad from the surrounding or more distant districts without their families is great. There are also three classes of women who have no families, and who are found in considerable numbers within the limits of the city jurisdiction, viz., public women; aged women, who reside on the banks of the Bhagarathi on account of the holiness which its waters confer; and widows. The number of widows is alleged to be greater in the city than in the country, in consequence of the greater prevalence of epidemic diseases which are believed by the natives to be more fatal to the male than to the female sex. All these causes, affecting both the male and female population, combine to increase the number of families consisting of one or two individuals, and consequently to lessen the general average of persons in each family in the city. The five Mofussil thanas differ very little from each other,—the lowest average being less than a quarter of a unit below, and the highest less than a half above five persons in each family which may, therefore, be deemed the mean rate. The difference between the Hindu and Musalman