Considering him as being at least attached to, if not of the very same species, as the knave just described, I shall give a short description of the _Podar_; of whom mention has already been made. He is not always an attendant at an office, though, in great concerns, his presence is indispensable. He either receives from four to ten rupees per month, or is paid, by a very small centage, for whatever money he examines. We often admire the dexterity of our money-tellers; but the _podar_, who counts by fours, (_i.e._ _gundahs_,) finishes the detail of a thousand in so short a time, as would cause even our most expert money-tellers to stare with astonishment! It is only mixed money that is counted, when large sums are passing; most payments are first sorted, when, the several kinds of rupees being made into parcels, are weighed, fifty at a time: in this manner, a lac (_i.e._ a 100,000) may be speedily ascertained; each parcel of fifty being kept separate, until a certain number is completed: when the whole are accounted, and removed into bags, to make way for further operations. Here it may be proper to remark, that no _sircar_ will take charge of money when his employer keeps the key: nor is it, on the other hand, customary for the _sircar_ to have the entire charge. So many tricks have been played by changing the coin, that it is now a general rule for every treasure-chest to have two large padlocks, of different construction; the _sircar_, or _tusseel-dar_ (_cash keeper_,) receiving one key, and the master retaining the other. This prevents aggression on either part, but is by no means pleasing to the _banians_, though they affect to be highly satisfied, because a command of specie will often enable them to make very advantageous purchases in Company’s paper; but such a precaution inevitably debars their access to master’s cash.