DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0323
288
MEMOIR OF THE INDUS. CHAP. XIV.
he has strengthened by guns taken from Lahore,—
a fact which no one discloses to the Maharaja. The
favourite judiciously prepares for a future time,
when the tenure of his possessions will be weak-
ened with the loss of his patron. The son of Dihan
Sing, a boy of nine years, is the only individual,
besides a son and two priests, who is permitted to
sit on a chair in Runjeet Sing's Durbar. It may
be imagined, that such a long line of innovation has
not been effected without exciting the jealousy,
perhaps envy, of the old Seik chieftains.
From the chiefs, our attention is naturally di-
rected to the Seik people; and, if we find a hol-
lowness and decay in the former, we have here a
healthy and vigorous body. The inhabitants are a
robust and athletic race, of sinewy limbs and tall
stature. The genuine Khalsa, or Sing, knows no
occupation but war and agriculture, and he more
affects the one than the other. No race of people
could have been better constituted to firmly uphold
their government; and, with ambition and patriot-
ism (if I can use the word) equal to their power,
they are a sufficiently numerous body to defend it.
Their ascendancy as a nation continues to increase
the numerical strength of the tribe; and, actuated
in the common cause by common principles, they
are certainly a powerful people. It is not to be
doubted that the head of the Seik church, the
Bedee, or Sahib Sing, might yet frustrate the de-
signs of any ruler, and, by a crusade in behalf of
this religion, overthrow the best laid designs of an
ambitious prince. Runjeet Sing is aware of this
MEMOIR OF THE INDUS. CHAP. XIV.
he has strengthened by guns taken from Lahore,—
a fact which no one discloses to the Maharaja. The
favourite judiciously prepares for a future time,
when the tenure of his possessions will be weak-
ened with the loss of his patron. The son of Dihan
Sing, a boy of nine years, is the only individual,
besides a son and two priests, who is permitted to
sit on a chair in Runjeet Sing's Durbar. It may
be imagined, that such a long line of innovation has
not been effected without exciting the jealousy,
perhaps envy, of the old Seik chieftains.
From the chiefs, our attention is naturally di-
rected to the Seik people; and, if we find a hol-
lowness and decay in the former, we have here a
healthy and vigorous body. The inhabitants are a
robust and athletic race, of sinewy limbs and tall
stature. The genuine Khalsa, or Sing, knows no
occupation but war and agriculture, and he more
affects the one than the other. No race of people
could have been better constituted to firmly uphold
their government; and, with ambition and patriot-
ism (if I can use the word) equal to their power,
they are a sufficiently numerous body to defend it.
Their ascendancy as a nation continues to increase
the numerical strength of the tribe; and, actuated
in the common cause by common principles, they
are certainly a powerful people. It is not to be
doubted that the head of the Seik church, the
Bedee, or Sahib Sing, might yet frustrate the de-
signs of any ruler, and, by a crusade in behalf of
this religion, overthrow the best laid designs of an
ambitious prince. Runjeet Sing is aware of this