Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/197

A SYUD OF UPPER SIND. the old rates most ruinous charges. The new system was confirmed at a meeting of the Syuds of Tattah, in the great mosque, on the 1st November, 1856. The scale of charges for ceremonies are divided into classes, to suit the means of the people, and the result may be estimated by the first class table, which shows that the old rates on a birth were—Rs. 4,900, reduced to Rs. 660; on a marriage, Rs. 6,950, reduced to Rs. 810; on a death, Rs. 3,550, reduced to Rs. 395. The table which accompanies the report contains a list of every ceremony to be observed, and its cost, and throws much light upon the domestic customs of the Syuds, but it is too long for extract. The new rates have proved an immense relief to the Syud families, both poor and rich, and are implicitly followed.

The subject of the Photograph is a landholder near Hyderabad, possessing a comfortable property. All the Syuds of Sind are of the Sheea sect.