“Whereas it hath become known to the Government of the Honourable English East India Company, that we, the tribe of _Rajekoomars_, do not suffer our female children to live; and whereas this is a great crime, as mentioned in the _Brehma Bywant Pooran_, where it is said that killing even a _Fetus_ is as criminal as killing a _Brahman_, and that for killing a female, or woman, the punishment is to suffer in the _nerk_, or hell, called _Kat Shootul_, for as many years as there are hairs on that female’s body, and that afterwards that person shall be born again, and successively become a leper and be afflicted with the _Jukhima_; and whereas the British Government in India, whose subjects we are, have an utter detestation of such murderous practices, and we do ourselves acknowledge, that although customary among us they are highly sinful, we do therefore hereby agree not to commit any longer such detestable acts; and any among us (which God forbid) who shall be hereafter guilty thereof, or shall not bring up and get our daughters married to the best of our abilities among those of our caste, shall be expelled from our tribe, and shall neither eat, nor keep society, with us, besides suffering hereafter the punishments denounced in the above _Pooran_ and _Shafter_. We have therefore entered into this agreement. “Dated the 17th of December, 1789.”[181] On May 27, 1805, Colonel Alexander Walker, the resident at Baroda, called the attention of the government at Bombay to the conditions in Guzerat, and the government authorized him to go ahead and use such measures as he deemed wise to suppress infanticide, sending him a copy of the engagement of Duncan as a suggestion of lines that might be profitably employed.[182] It was while in the course of his investigations and work in suppressing the practice that Colonel Walker heard first from the Hindus the supposedly divine origin of the practice of putting female children to death. It was the supposedly divine origin and the fact that they acted within the observance of their religious duties that gave protection against interference from civil authorities. The Jharejas, a tribe among whom Walker made his investigations, informed him that the origin of the practice of infanticide came about through the fact that a powerful Raja of their caste, who had a daughter of singular beauty and accomplishments, desired his Rajgor or family Brahmin to affiance her to a prince of desert and rank equal to her own.[183] The Rajgor, after much travelling, returned to the Raja and informed him that he was not able to find any one to meet the proper requirements. The Raja was so dejected over this that, according to the story, he finally consented to the Rajgor’s putting his daughter to death as the only means out of the difficulty; and from that time on, according to the Jharejas, female infanticide was practised throughout the land.[184]