The only badge denoting the basai is a small tuft of hair on the crown of the head. The term interpreted has nothing harsh in it, meaning ‘occupant, dweller, or settler.’ The numerous towns in India called _Basai_ have this origin: chiefs abandoning their ancient haunts, and settling[3.4.20] with all their retainers and chattels in new abodes. From this, the town of Basai near Tonk (Rampura), derived its name, when the Solanki prince was compelled to abandon his patrimonial lands in Gujarat; his subjects of all classes accompanying him voluntarily, in preference to submitting to foreign rule. Probably the foundation of Bijolli was similar; though only the name of Basai now attaches to the inhabitants. It is not uncommon [181], in the overflowing of gratitude, to be told, “You may sell me, I am your basai.”[3.4.21] =Private Feuds—Composition.=—In a state of society such as these sketches delineate, where all depends on the personal character of the sovereign, the field for the indulgence of the passions, and especially of that most incident to the uncontrollable habits of such races—revenge—must necessarily be great. Private feuds have tended, with the general distraction of the times, to desolate this country. Some account of their mode of prosecution, and the incidents thence arising, cannot fail to throw additional light on the manners of society, which during the last half-century were fast receding to a worse than semi-barbarous condition, and, aided by other powerful causes, might have ended in entire annihilation. The period was rapidly advancing, when this fair region of Mewar, the garden of Rajasthan, would have reverted to its primitive sterility. The tiger and the wild boar had already become inmates of the capital, and the bats flitted undisturbed in the palaces of her princes. The ante-courts, where the chieftains and their followers assembled to grace their prince’s cavalcade, were overgrown with dank shrubs and grass, through which a mere footpath conducted the ‘descendant of a hundred kings’ to the ruins of his capital. In these principalities the influence of revenge is universal. Not to prosecute a feud is tantamount to an acknowledgement of self-degradation; and, as in all countries where the laws are insufficient to control individual actions or redress injuries, they have few scruples as to the mode of its gratification. Hence feuds are entailed with the estates from generation to generation. To sheathe the sword till ‘a feud is balanced’ (their own idiomatic expression), would be a blot never to be effaced from the escutcheon.