[Rāmdeora is 12 miles N. of Pokaran. The saint is commonly called Rāmdeoji or Rāmsāh Pīr.] Footnote 8.1.29: [Bārmer, the ancient name of which is said to be Bāhadamer, ‘hill fort of Bāhada,’ is 130 miles W. of Jodhpur city; its present population is 6064. Mallināth was son of Rāo Salkha, eighth in descent from Siāhji, founder of Mārwār State.] Footnote 8.1.30: Named in all probability, from the superabundant tree of the desert termed _Khair_, and _dhar_, ‘land.’ It is also called Kheralu, but more properly Kherala, ‘the abode of Khair’; a shrub of great utility in these regions. Its astringent pods, similar in appearance to those of the laburnum, they convert into food. Its gum is collected as an article of trade; the camels browse upon its twigs, and the wood makes their huts. [Kher is a ruined village, not far from Jasol, at the point where the Lūni River turns eastward. Kherālu has disappeared from modern maps, if it be not a mistake for Kerādu, where there are interesting temples (_ASR_, West Circle, March 31, 1907, pp. 40-43; Erskine iii. A. 201).] Footnote 8.1.31: [Khair, _Acacia catechu_; Khejra, _Prosopis spicigera_; Karīl, _Capparis aphylla_; Khep, _Crotolaria burhia_; Phog, _Calligonum polygonoides_.] Footnote 8.1.32: That is, 1814. I am transcribing from my journals of that day, just after the return of one of my parties of discovery from these regions, bringing with them natives of Dhat, who, to use their own simple but expressive phraseology, “had the measure of the desert in the palm of their hands”; for they had been employed as kasids, or messengers, for thirty years of their lives. Two of them afterwards returned and brought away their families, and remained upwards of five years in my service, and were faithful, able, and honest in the duties I assigned them, as jamadars of daks, or superintendents of posts, which were for many years under my charge when at Sindhia’s court, extending at one time from the Ganges to Bombay, through the most savage and little-known regions in India. But with such men as I drilled to aid in these discoveries, I found nothing insurmountable. [The famine of 1812-13 was the most calamitous of the earlier visitations (Erskine iii. A. 125).] ----- CHAPTER 2