families of the plateau will have no marriage connexion with
them. The races of the hilly tracts are semi-civilized tribes, who often
flee at the mere sight of a white man, and have as yet been but little
affected by the Hindu religion of their Rajput rulers. Of the climate of
the plateau, Abul Fazl, the author of the _Ain-i-Akbari_, says: "The
climate is so temperate that in the winter there is no occasion for warm
clothing, nor is it necessary in summer to cool the water with
saltpetre. But in the four rainy months the night here is cold enough to
render a quilt necessary." The rains of the south-east monsoon reach
Central India as a rule about the 12th of July, and last until the end
of September.

_Administrative Divisions._--The Central India agency is divided for
administrative purposes into eight units, two classed as residencies and
six as agencies. These are the residencies of Gwalior and Indore, and
the agencies of Baghelkhand, Bhopal, Bhopawar, Bundelkhand, Indore and
Malwa. But these divisions are purely an artificial grouping for the
purposes of the British government, the original native divisions
consisting of 16 states and 98 minor states and estates. The 15 large
states are Gwalior, Indore, Rewa, Bhopal, Dhar, Barwani, Datia, Orchha,
Charkhari, Chhattarpur, Panna, Dewas (senior branch), Dewas (junior
branch), Jaora and Ratlam. At the close of the Pindari War in 1818 the
whole country that is now under the Central India agency was in great
confusion and disorder, having suffered heavily from the extortions of
the Mahratta armies and from predatory bands. It had been the policy of
the great Mahratta chiefs, Holkar and Sindhia, to trample down into
complete subjection all the petty Rajput princes, whose lands they
seized and from whom they levied heavy contributions of money. Many of
these minor chiefs had been expelled from their possessions, had taken
refuge in the hills and forest, and retaliated upon the Mahratta
usurpers by wasting the lands which they had lost, until the Mahrattas
compounded for peace by payment of blackmail. In this state of affairs
all parties agreed to accept the interposition of the British government
for the restoration of order, and under Lord Hastings the work of
pacification was effected. The policy pursued was to declare the
permanency of the rights existing at the time of the British
interposition, conditionally upon the maintenance of order; to adjust
and guarantee the rel