Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/17

 HAR 9 Katabria of Palia, the Chamar Gaurs of Sara. By day they marched secretly through the forests, stopping at noon beneath some vast pípal or banian to cook the midday meal and offer an oblation of meal and flowers to their patron goddess Bhawani, who is partial to these umbrageous shrines. At night they would come forth from the jungle, move swiftly and silently on some village in which dwelt a village banker, a wealthy grain merchant, some Government civil or military officer retired with his savings to his native village; before daylight they would dive back into the forests, leaving mangled and tortured bodies over the holes whence their treasures had been rifled. Even now in the Bangar the Pásis pride themselves on taking some evidence of their prowess, a per- knife, a handkerchief from the tents of the English officers who visit their jungles for sport, and with whom they are generally on the best of terms. There are other forests between Sandíla and Mádhoganj, between Hardoi and Bawan; but the main jungle tract is that which extends along both banks of the Sai almost continuously for about fifteen miles from its source, while on either side detached patches of jungle are scattered here and there, gradually getting more and more sparse further east and west from that river. These jungles were formerly inhabited; in one patch of about three thousand acres, granted as a reward for loyalty to Munshi Fazl Rasul, the owner's ploughs have already revealed fifteen ancient wells in perfect order, covered with a light coating of loam from the decay of fallen leaves during many centuries. There is hardly any sál forest, dhák is the most commod; and nowhere is the glorious bloom of that tree a more striking feature of the March and April landscape than in Hardoi. Karaunda is common, but the banian tree is more abundant in Hardoi than in any other part of Oudh. Rivers.—The rivers of Hardoi are, commencing from the west, the Ganges, Rámganga, Garra, Sukheta, Sai, Baita, and Gumti, most of which are noticed separately; their aggregate cold weather discharge is nearly 4,000 feet per second. Few of them are of any use for purposes of irrigation. The Garra is perhaps most largely applied to that object. The Gumti during the winter and summer is here a gentíc stream whose dry weather discharge is not more than 300 cubic feet; it has high sandy banks on each side, is easily fordable at all places, and at certain spots is not more than two feet deep. It is nowhere bridged in this district. The Sai, which during the rains has an enormous torrent of water, is here an insignificant river, with a channel hardly sunk below the general surface till it gets beyond the latitude of Hardoi opposite Sandíla. There it has cut a chan- nei some twenty-five feet below the surrounding country ; its dry weather discharge is only thirty feet at Partabgarh ; it is a mere rivulet in Hardoi. The Ganges, the Rámganga, and the Garra are navigable by boats of 500 maunds; the banks of all are sandy, the bottoms never rocky, though ridges of kankar occur. The fords are mentioned in the accompanying table. 2