We passed through and close to several villages, whose houses are nothing but mud walls, without a thatched or tiled roof to one in twenty.

The people say there is no security in them from the King's troops and the passies, a large class of men in Oude, who are village watchmen but inveterate thieves and robbers, when not employed as such.

All refractory landholders hire a body of passies to fight for them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder, and cost little to their employers.

They are all armed with bows and arrows, and are very formidable at night.

They and their refractory employers keep the country in a perpetual state of disorder; and, though they do not prevent the cultivation of the land, they prevent the village and hamlets from being occupied by anybody who has anything to lose, and no strong local ties to restrain him.
The town of Ramnuggur, in which Gorbuksh resides occasionally, is on the road some five miles from the river.