[32] Blackstone.
[33] Since my return to England, I have been so fortunate as to procure a view of Sindree, as it existed in the year 1808, from a sketch by Captain Grindlay, who visited it at that time. It has been engraved for this work, and faces Chap. XVI. Captain Grindlay’s observations on Sindree follow in a note.
[34] I have suppressed various opinions which I had formed on the causes of these constant changes, deeming them of small value. The paper has been also published at length by the Royal Asiatic Society of London.
[35] Dhooan.
[36] Called “Khur-gudha” by the natives.
[37] This class of people are yet numerous in Cutch: it is among them that the horrid custom called “traga” prevails. It consists in sacrificing one of their number when any injury or oppression is offered to their community, under a belief that the blood so shed rests on the head of those who oppress them.
[38] I have since found, in some manuscript papers of the late lamented Captain M‘Murdo, written as long since as 1815, that he formed similar conclusions with myself regarding the Run of Cutch. He is treating of that part of it near Kattywar, of which I have not spoken, and the following extract is both curious and satisfactory:—-
“The Runn has every appearance of the sea having shortly withdrawn from it. This is supported by the semblance and production of the neighbouring country, and large stones are found on the shore several miles from the present Runn, of a description similar to those used as anchors; they have holes bored through for the cable. On the shore, at different places, are shown small ancient buildings, called Dan Derees, or houses where the dan or customs were collected; and, in short, it is a tradition in the country, that Khor, a village two miles east of Teekir, was a sea-port town. About fifty years since, the wreck of a vessel, of a size far beyond that of any of the craft now in use in the Gulf of Cutch, was discovered at Wawania, sunk in the mud about fifteen feet deep.”—Captain M‘Murdo’s MS. Memoir on Kattywar, August, 1815.
Transcriber's Note
The following apparent errors have been corrected: