ch feelings of resignation to the Divine will, or fate, are
common alike to Hindoos and Musalmans.

8. 'One of a wife's duties should be to keep all bad omens out of her
husband's way, or manage to make him look at something lucky in the
early morning. . . . Different lists of inauspicious objects are
given, which, if looked upon in the early morning, might cause
disaster' (M. Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_, p.
397).

9. Dr. Spry died in 1842, and his estate was administered by the
author. The doctor's works are described _ante_, Chapter 14, note 16.

CHAPTER 22

Interview with the Raja who marries the Stone to the Shrub--Order of
the Moon and the Fish.

On the 8th,[1] after a march of twelve miles, we readied Tehri, the
present capital of the Raja of Orchha.[2] Our road lay over an
undulating surface of soil composed of the detritus of the syenitic
rock, and poor, both from its quality and want of depth. About three
miles from our last territory we entered the boundary of the Orchha
Raja's territory, at the village of Aslon, which has a very pretty
little fortified castle, built upon ground slightly elevated in the
midst of an open grass plain.

This, and all the villages we have lately passed, are built upon the
bare back of the syenitic rock, which seems to rise to the surface in
large but gentle swells, like the broad waves of the ocean in a calm
after a storm. A great difference appeared to me to be observable
between the minds and manners of the people among whom we were now
travelling, and those of the people of the Sagar and Nerbudda
territories. They seemed here to want the urbanity and intelligence
we find among our subjects in the latter quarters.

The apparent stupidity of the people when questioned upon points the
most interesting to them, regarding their history, their agriculture,
their tanks, and temples, was most provoking; and their manners
seemed to me more rude and clownish than those of people in any other
part of India I had travelled over. I asked my little friend the
Sarimant, who rode with me, what he thought of this.

'I think', said he, 'that it arises from the harsh character of the
government under which they live; it makes every man wish to appear a
fool, in order that he may be thought a beggar and not worth the
plundering.'

'It strikes me, my friend Sarimant, that their government has made
them in reality the beggars and the fools that they appear