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 188 KHE to drive away their ravenous devourers were the only indications that the vital sparks were not quite extinct. “The demise of such numbers tainted the air, and caused a sickness among the troops. Many officers died of putrid fevers, and the most seri- ous consequences would inevitably have followed, but for the setting in of the rains, which both abated the extreme heat of the atmosphere and carried off immense quantities of offensive remains. It is not easy to assert how many died, but I heard it stated by some gentlemen of the committee for managing the subscription, money that at least two hun. dred thousand persons had flocked from the country, of whom not more than one in twenty could be maintained for the number of months which must elapse before the soil could render its aid. To calculate upon less than a regular supply until such should be the case would have been absurd, for there was not the smallest probability of the scourge being abated in the meanwhile. The lower provinces, as before remarked, could do little more than support themselves, and no periodical supply of the fruits, &c., usually produced in the rainy season could be expected in a country of which nearly two-thirds of the population was destroyed. “ This mournful scene, however, gradually drew to a close. The un- fortunate group had either died or had been restored to health, and were capable of returning to their occupations. The wolves now felt themselves bereft of their usual prey, but did not lose their habit of attacking men, many of whom, though in general provided with some means of defence which circumstances had rendered necessary, yet became victims to their depredations, till at length measures could be taken to check their rapacity, and they were obliged to have recourse to their former researches for food.”-Forbes' Oriental Memoir, vol. III, page 59. Blights, droughts, flools. The rains, as already remarked, are more copious in Kheri than in southern Oudh. Still rain fails in January and February frequently, and whatever crops cannot be irrigated suffer severely. Floods are very destructive in Dhaurahra, Srinagar, and Firozabad from the Chauka in Kheri, northern Paila, Haidarabad, from the local rainfall which causes the jbíls to overflow the neighbouring fields. Muhamdi, Magdapur, Palia, Khairigarh have good slopes generally and do not suffer from floods. Hailstorms seldom occur. The girwi or red rust is described in the account of Lucknow district; it does little harm gene- rally, but the weevil often ruins the gran crop. Locusts have never done much harm in this district, although Hardoi to the south has been greatly plagued by them. In fine, floods are the only natural calamity from which the country suffers, and till State works are taken in hand the Chauka will continue to devastate, as it does now, some three hundred square miles annually. Its effects are often good, as in some places the deposit is ferti- lizing, and it is doubtful if it would pay to embank a river whose bottom has a descent of one hundred and eighty feet in its course through the district of about 110 miles, and which consequently has a current in the rains of about four miles per hour. Food and condiments. The food of the people consists principally of juár, bájra, (called also lahra), kodo, sáowáu, ground and made into cakes;