CHAPTER II.
Bahraetch--Shrine of Syud Salar--King of the Fairies and the Fiddlers--Management of Bahraetch district for forty-three years-- Murder of Amur Sing, by Hakeem Mehndee--Nefarious transfer of _khalsa_ lands to Tallookdars, by local officers--Rajah Dursun Sing-- His aggression on the Nepaul Territory--Consequences--Intelligence Department--How formed, managed, and abused--Rughbur Sing's management of Gonda and Bahraetch for 1846-47--Its fiscal effects--A gang-robber caught and hung by Brahmin villagers--Murder of Syampooree Gosaen--Ramdut Pandee--Fairies and Fiddlers--Ramdut Pandee, the Banker--the Rajahs of Toolseepoor and Bulrampoor--Murder of Mr.Ravenscroft, of the Bengal Civil Service, at Bhinga, in 1823.
Bahraetch is celebrated for the shrine of Syud Salar, a _martyr_, who is supposed to have been killed here in the beginning of the eleventh century, when fighting against the Hindoos, under the auspices of Mahmood Shah, of Ghuznee, his mother's brother.

Strange to say, Hindoos as well as Mahommedans make offerings to this shrine, and implore the favours of this military ruffian, whose only recorded merit consists of having destroyed a great many Hindoos in a wanton and unprovoked invasion of their territory.

They say, that he did what he did against Hindoos in the conscientious discharge of his duties, and could not have done it without God's permission--that God must then have been angry with them for their transgressions, and used this man, and all the other Mahommedan invaders of their country, as instruments of his vengeance, and means to bring about his purposes: that is, the thinking portion of the Hindoos say this.
The mass think that the old man must still have a good deal of interest in heaven, which he may be induced to exercise in their favour, by suitable offerings and personal applications to his shrine.
The minister reports to the Resident on the 9th, that the King had relented, and wished to retain the singer, Ruzee-od Dowlah, and his sister, and Kotub Allee, at Lucknow, with orders never to approach the presence.

Captain Bird, in a letter, confirms this report.
_December_ 11, 1849 .-- Left Bahraetch and came south-east to Imaleea, on the road to Gonda, over a plain in the Pyagpoor estate, almost entirely waste.

Few groves or single trees to be seen; scarcely a field tilled or house occupied; all the work of the same atrocious governor, Rughbur Sing.