ceased for several
generations. They are all Brahmans, and take advantage of such
calamities to impress the people with an opinion of their usefulness.
The "bhumkas" are all Gonds, or people of the woods, who worship
their own Lares and Penates' (_Ramaseeana_, Introduction, p. 13.
note).

5. Very often the Government of the country know nothing of these
tenures; the local authorities allowed them to continue as a
perquisite of their own. The holders were willing to pay them a good
share of the rent, assured that they would be resumed if reported by
the local authorities to the Government. These authorities consented
to take a moderate share of the rent, assured that they should get
little or nothing if the lands were resumed. [W. H. S.] 'Rent' here
means 'land-revenue'. Of course, under modern British administration
the particulars of all tenures are known and recorded in great
detail,

6. Since the author wrote these remarks the legal position of
cultivating proprietors and tenants has been largely modified by the
pressure of population and a long course of legislation. The Rent
Acts, which began with Act x of 1859, are now numerous, and have been
accompanied by a series of Land Revenue Acts, and many collateral
enactments. All the problems of the Irish land question are familiar
topics to the Anglo-Indian courts and legislatures.

7. This proposition no doubt was true for the 'Sagar and Nerbudda
Territories' in 1835, but it cannot be predicated of the thickly
populated and settled districts in the Gangetic valley without
considerable qualification. Examples of long-established, unchanged,
well-known rent-rates are not uncommon.

8. In recent years this task of 'mapping the waves of the ocean' has
been attempted. Every periodical settlement of the land revenue in
Northern India since 1833 has been accompanied by the preparation of
detailed village maps, showing each field, even the tiniest, a few
yards square, with a separate number. In many cases these maps were
roughly constructed under non-professional supervision, but in many
districts they have been prepared by the cadastral branch of the
Survey Department. The difficulty mentioned by the author has been
severely felt, and it constantly happens that beautiful maps become
useless in four or five years. Efforts are made to insert annual
corrections in copies of the maps through the agency of the village
accountants, and the 'kanungos', or officers who supervi