brick for 300 Rs., and a small one for 50 or 100 Rs; most of the houses in Roree are calcined brick. To prevent insects penetrating the floors of warehouses, which are intended to receive grain and goods, they are sometimes paved with blocks of stone which may be procured in any quantity in the neighbourhood; the stones are covered with clay, and plastered with cowdung, and a thick coat of coarse salt strewed over it.

Houses above one story, belong to, and are occupied by one family, and when the children marry, they remove to another dwelling; all houses of this description, were built by wealthy merchants and bankers, before the reign of the Talpooras, and through their oppression many have been deserted by the proprietors Families occupy the lower floors in

the cold months, and remove above in summer; they cook and light fires, above and below, and there are no chimnies for the smoke to escape. The great height of the houses, and narrow streets and lanes, exclude the sun's rays, and the heat in the lower stories is quite insupportable to an European in summer. A single narrow door gives admittance to a gloomy and dirty parlour, which is not furnished with windows nor any aperture for light and air; to get at the door you mount an earthen stair with a narrow terrace at top. Poor people rarely use bedsteads,* and have neither pillows nor sheets; they spread their mats at night on the house tops, or terrace in front of their doors, and cover themselves with a blue cotton cloth, which serves them for a garment in the day time. Others lock up their goods in a back chamber, and sleep in their shops, which are open towards the street.

The principal thoroughfare leading up from the Indus is paved with bricks laid edge ways, and some of the lanes and passages in the town, are as narrow and dirty as the closes in the old city of Edinburgh. The bazars are covered in with mats like those of Arabia and Egypt, to keep off the sun's rays, but so much neglected that they are a public nuisance, rather than a comfort, and a horseman cannot ride under them without coming in contact with sticks and cotton straw, which cover him with dust. The interior of houses, is extremely dirty; dunghills fill the open spaces and suburbs of the town, and it presents altogether a scene of great squalidness and filth: here are neither swine, vultures, nor storks to devour the offal as in Indian villages, but loathsome, mangy, and half-starved dogs are numerous, and almost the only scavengers.

A common bedstead, laced with a string of moonj grass, costs eight or ten annas (12 or 16 pence).

Roree contains about forty mosques, where prayers are recited, and more than double the number ruined and deserted. The great mosque stands on an elevated platform in the N. E. quarter of the town, and was built, according to a Persian inscription on the front, in the year 992 of the Hejira, or 265 years ago, by Futteh Khan Lieutenant of the Emperor Akbur. It is a solid, heavy looking pile of red brick, covered by three domes, and faced with porcelain tiles, and on the east or front face, are a paved court and cloisters, where travellers formerly lodged, but now in ruin. When I entered the court, a traveller was just arrived from a long journey, and stretched at length upon his back on the pavement, while a monjawur, or attendant of the mosque, trampled upon his thighs to give relief, I was told, to his weary limbs.

Near the mosque, in the Hindoo quarter of the town, the Mose Moobaruk, a hair of Mahomed's beard is preserved in a shrine covered with ill painted arabesques. The Sindees say there are only 2 of these precious hairs to be found in the world; the one at Roree, one at Dilhee, and the remaining half in Persia; the relic, it is believed, was brought to Bukur four generations ago, and is enshrined in amber, in a gold case set with rubies and emeralds. The gold case is kept in a golden box, shaped like the pen-holders used by Asiatics, and wrapped in silk, plain and worked, with gold and silver flowers, and again enclosed in a wooden box clamped with silver. The hair is exhibited to pilgrims, and said to change colour like a camelion before their admiring eyes; a number of Moojawar or custodians, are attached to the shrine, and four of the principal families receive among them a daily allowance from Government of 12 rupee.

Roree has two great bazars, one filled exclusively by grain-seller's stores, and the other with shops of cloth merchants, fruiterers, fishmongers, et cetera; people of a trade reside together, and Hindoos Occupy quarters of the town distinct from Moosulmans. In the east quarter are the remains of a mosque and serai of noble proportions, which might be restored and made habitable at a moderate outlay, and would be a great benefit to the town, and convenience to travellers, who still lodge under the broken arcades which surround the ample court.

The town contains a number of shops, where turquoises are set and polished, it is a favourite gem but the specimens shown me were small, and of bad colour. People who cannot afford to purchase real stones wear false ones set in rings, and women adorn their toes with blue enamelled buckles or clasps, and their nose with a very unbecoming gold ornament, one half circular, and the other half moulded in form of a

crescent. Silver anklets are common, and females who are too poor to buy ivory bangles wear bone, poverty often prevents their appearing in gay coloured raiment, which is nearly confined to the public women, but they display their fondness for trinkets, by frequent visits to pedlar's shops, where mirrors, combs, leaden rings set with false stones, and other female ornaments, are sold. These shops are crowded with the wives and daughters of tradesmen, who pass much time turning over and trying on baubles, and I observed many sorrowful faces when they relinquished a favourite trinket from inability to pay for it.

In the fish market, a number of women congregate round people who sell Singhara, a fish like a shark considered to be very unwholesome eating, but preferred for its cheapness. The fish is cut in pieces, and the women go provided with small bowls to receive any quantity they require for their families.

Roree is divided into 46 Muhullas or quarters, and I add a list, and the description of inhabitants in each, which may be received, I think, as a close approximation to truth.

&c.

1.-Kanoongo,* Government Officers, Kardars, Moonshees, Putwarees,

2.-Wutchoowaree, goldsmiths, &c.

3.-Suthdura, M. polishers and setters of stones, silk-weavers.

4. Thushar (the name of a tribe of Moosulmans), M. cotton weavers, agriculturists, &c.

5.-Arain Khudwala, M. gardeners and fruiterers.

6.-Tukkur (a hill), H. Bahmuns, about 22 families of Hindoo shopkeepers.

7.-Musund, name of a tribe of Hindoo Gooroos.

8.—Arain (2d) Dulewala, name of a tribe of Moosulmans, M. farmers and agriculturists.

9.-Arain (3d) Ootradee, name of a tribe of Moosulmans, M. Farmers and agriculturists.

10.-Durgah, M. Moojawars, shopkeepers, cloth sellers, and labourers. 11.-Chyn Rae (name of a wealthy Hindoo living), H. shopkeepers and others.

12.-Chubootru, H. shopkeepers.

13. Suyud Yakoob Khan Bazar, M. singers and musicians, H. shopkeepers, &c.

• H. denotes that the Muhulla is inhabited by Hindoos and M. by Moosulmans.

14.-Gujwanee name of a tribe of Moosulmans.

15. Suyud Jan Shah (name of a Suyud living), inhabited exclusively by Suyuds; they are all Sheeas and permit no other class of people to reside in the Muhulla with them.

16. Suyud Ghoun Sulee Shah (name of a Suyud living), inhabited exclusively by Suyuds.

17. Suyud Ghoolam Shah (name of a Suyud living), inhabited exclusively by Suyuds.

18.-Moonda Kube (Moonda name of a deceased Fukeer), M. cottonspinners, H. shopkeepers and labourers.

19.-Kazee Ghoolam Mahomed (name of a Kazee living), M. 15 houses of Hukeems (physicians).

20.-Moohur Kundee, M. stone and seal cutters.

21.-Kussab, M. butchers.

22-Jiya Shah (name of a deceased Suyud), M. husbandmen.

23.-Kazee Purel (name of the chief Kazee of Roree), inhabited by his family and dependents. I may observe that the names of Muhullas which are derived from inhabitants of note are often changed on their decease to that of their successors.

24.-Bokharee Shah (name of a peer or holy man living), M. mat, fan, and basket makers.

25.-Mootrib, M. singers and musicians.

26.—Boola (name of a deceased Shuekh, a tailor), M. tailors.

27.-Kazee Wudha, inhabited by the family and dependents of Wudha Kazee aud Hukeem.

28.-Satee, name of a tribe of fish-sellers, Soonee Moosulmans.

29.-Puba, name of a tribe of fishermen who float on the Indus on earthen vessels, Soonee Moosulmans.

30.-Tukurwala Puba, fishermen, Soonee, Moosulmans.

31. Suyud Gholam Ulee Shah, (name of the Moorshid or spiritual guide of Meer Roostum of Khyrpoor,) all Suyuds.

32.-Bahmun, all Bahmuns.

33.-Buzzaz, H. cloth sellers.

34.-Wudweerhye Kurmoollah, the name of a Shykh of the Wudweehya tribe, in the service of meer Nuseer Khan.

35 -Shykh Hydur Ulee, M. Moollas, husbandmen, &c.

36.-Churkh durwazee, M. tailors, H. labourers.

37.-Dhoora-wala, (from Dhoora a valley. The Muhulla being placed between two hills,) H. shopkeepers and labourers.

38.-Moondur, (name of a tribe of Moosulmans) milk-sellers.

39.-Ruseewut, Moosulmans who make string of wan or moonj grass to lace bedsteads, &c.

40.-Tuwelee, so called because it held formerly many stables. It was inhabited exclusively by Moguls, and devastated by the Tulpooras on their accession. It is now almost deserted being occupied only by about twenty families of Hindoos and Moosulman silk weavers.

41.-Khuchur poor (name of a tribe of Moosulmans), H. M. coolies, labourers, and poor people.

42.-Mumnanee (name of a tribe of Moosulmans), M. dyers.

43.-Miyanee, inhabited by a tribe of Moosulman boatmen so called. 44.-Peer Bodla, M. shoemakers, leather cutters, and husbandmen. 45.-Mudtur, Moosulman soldiers of the Kuheeree tribe in the service of of Meer Roostum.

46.-Khanpoor, formerly inhabited by Pushans, and now deserted except by three or four Hindoo families.

I ascertained the number of houses to be 2,130, at 5 inhabitants to a house, which is I think a low average, this will give a population of 11,715 souls.

The shop-taxes (mutkee) of Roree, are called twice a year, and each trade nominates a khulatree or chief, and pays him a per centage on their profits, to gather the Government dues. The people assert that the Moghul emperors of India did not levy the tax, and that it was introduced by the Kathoras, but this is doubtful. All trades are conducted by Moosulmans; they are ironsmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, leather cutters, tinners, stone-cutters, tailors, dyers, weavers, fishermen, and fishmongers. The Hindoos work in gold and silver and are not prohibited following ing other trades, but it is considered a crime by their own people, and those who break the rules are accused of a tendency to Islamism. I took considerable pains to ascertain the amount of tax levied from different trades but am not sure that the following schedule is correct; the tax is subject to alteration, and some shopkeepers who are supported by chiefs and nobles are exempted from the cess.

Cloth merchants (Buzzaz), Rs. 6 per annum.

Cotton cleaners, Rs. 9 per annum.

Weavers of cotton cloth, (Koree)-cutters, polishers, and setters of turquoises and other stones (Weenjur); barbers and washermen, Rs. 2 per

annum.

Venders of brass, copper, and pewter ware, carpenters, slipper makers, and leather cutters, Rs. 4 per annum.

Ironsmiths, each person, 3 per annum.