t he should be received with courtesy, and escorted back
safely. The landholder relied on the banker's pledge and came; but
the Rajah no sooner got him into his power, than he caused him to be
put to death. The banker could not consent to live under the
dishonour of a violated pledge; and, abstaining from food, died in
twenty-one days, invoking the vengeance of the _River Sarjoo_, on the
head of the perfidious Prince. In his last hours the banker was
visited by one of the Rajah's wives, who was then pregnant, and
implored him to desist from his purpose in mercy to the child in her
womb; but she was told by the dying man, that he could not consent to
survive the dishonour brought upon him by her perjured husband; and
that she had better quit the place and save herself and child, since
the incensed river Sarjoo would certainly not spare any one who
remained with the Rajah. She did so. The banker died, and his death
was followed by a sudden rise of the river and tempest. The town was
submerged, and the Rajah with all who remained with him perished. The
ruins of the old town are said to be occasionally still visible,
though at a great depth under the water in the old bed of the Sarjoo,
which forms a fine lake, near the present village of Koorassa, midway
between Gonda and Wuzeer Gunge.

The pregnant wife fled, and gave birth to a son, whose descendant is
now the head of the Kulhuns Rajpoots, and the Rajah of Bahmanee Paer,
a district on the eastern border of Oude towards Goruckpoor. But, it
is a remarkable fact, that the male descendants have been all blind
from their birth, or, at least, the reigning portion of them, and the
present Rajah is said to have two blind sons. This is popularly
considered to be one of the effects of the Rajah's violated pledge to
the banker. A handmaid of the Rajah, Achul Sing, is said to have fled
at the same time, and given birth to a son, from whom are descended
the Kulhuns tallookdars of the Chehdwara, or Gowaris district,
already noticed. The descendants of Rutun Pandee are said still to
hold rent-free lands, under Achul Sing's descendant, in Bahmanee
Paer; and the Pandee is worshipped throughout the districts as a
saint or martyr. He has a shrine in every village, at which offerings
are made on all occasions of marriage, and blessings invoked for the
bride and bridegroom, from the spirit of one who set so much value on
his plighted faith while on earth. The two branches of the Kulhuns
fami