e exception of furnishing a picquet while in camp,
they do no duty but in the day of battle.

"The Maratha cavalry is always irregularly and badly paid; the
household troops scarcely ever receive money, but are furnished with
a daily allowance of coarse flour and some other ingredients from the
bazar which just enable them to exist. The Silladar is very nearly as
badly situated. In his arrangements with the State he has allotted
to him a certain proportion of jungle where he pastures his cattle;
here he and his family reside, and his sole occupation when not on
actual service is increasing his Pagah or troop by breeding out of his
mares, of which the Maratha cavalry almost entirely consist. There
are no people in the world who understand the method of rearing and
multiplying the breed of cattle equal to the Marathas. It is by no
means uncommon for a Silladar to enter a service with one mare and
in a few years be able to muster a very respectable Pagah. They have
many methods of rendering the animal prolific; they back their colts
much earlier than we do and they are consequently more valuable as
they come sooner on the effective strength.

"When called upon for actual service the Silladar is obliged to give
muster. Upon this occasion it is always necessary that the Brahman
who takes it should have a bribe; and indeed the Hazri, as the muster
is termed, is of such a nature that it could not pass by any fair or
honourable means. Not only any despicable _tattus_ are substituted
in the place of horses but animals are borrowed to fill up the
complement. Heel-ropes and grain-bags are produced as belonging to
cattle supposed to be at grass; in short every mode is practised to
impose on the Sirkar, which in turn reimburses itself by irregular and
bad payments; for it is always considered if the Silladars receive
six months' arrears out of the year that they are exceedingly well
paid. The Volunteers who join the camp are still worse situated, as
they have no collective force, and money is very seldom given in a
Maratha State without being extorted. In one word, the native cavalry
are the worst-paid body of troops in the world. But there is another
grand error in this mode of raising troops which is productive of the
worst effects. Every man in a Maratha camp is totally independent; he
is the proprietor of the horse he rides, which he is never inclined to
risk, since without it he can get no service. This single circumstance
de