Arab troops are still employed in Hyderabad State.

Mr.Stevens notices them as follows in his book _In India_: "A gang of half-a-dozen, brilliantly dishevelled, a faggot of daggers with an antique pistol or two in each belt, and a six-foot matchlock on each shoulder.

They serve as irregular troops there, and it must be owned that if irregularity is what you want, no man on earth can supply it better.

The Arab irregulars are brought over to serve their time and then sent back to Arabia; there is one at this moment, who is a subaltern in Hyderabad, but as soon as he crosses the British border gets a salute of nine guns; he is a Sheikh in his own country near Aden." The Arabs who have been long resident here have adopted the ways and manners of other Musalmans.

Their marriages are in the Nikah form and are marked by only one [411] dinner, following the example of the Prophet, who gave a dinner at the marriage of his daughter the Lady Fatimah and Ali.