text:  Our author like Bishop Heber [12] and other travellers on the same route is struck by the contrast between the robust and well-fed peasantry of Hindustan Proper and the puny rice-eaters of Bengal; "who eat fish boiled rice bitter oil; and an infinite variety of vegetables; but of wheaten or barley bread and of pulse they know not the taste nor of mutton fowl or _ghee_ (clarified butter