highly interesting question which, until the last census, was never worked out with any exactness. It now appears that of 1000 Sikhs in the several administrative divisions of the province, an average of 699 belong to the agricultural castes, Játs, Rájputs, Sainis, and Kambohs, the proportion being highest in the districts south of the Sutlej. Of the mercantile castes, Aroras, Baniyás, and Khattrís are 47 per 1000. Of the artisan castes, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, goldsmiths, barbers, and the like, 134 per 1000, and the menial and outcaste groups include 95. The artisan Sikhs are distributed very evenly in all districts, but the mercantile Sikhs are almost exclusively found in the Mussulman districts, in some of which, the Ráwal Pindi Division for example, they form a majority of the Sikh population. The religious castes, Bráhmans and Fakírs, are hardly represented at all, only 4 per 1000 of the Punjab Sikhs belonging to the priestly class.
The backbone of the Sikh people is the great Ját caste which, divided and subdivided into numerous clans and tribes, is by far the most important of all the Punjab races. The origin of the Játs is shrouded in much uncertainty, and has been the subject of long discussion. Some distinguished writers have found for them a Getic origin, but the traditions of the Punjab Játs, in almost all cases, refer to a Rájput descent and emigration to the Punjab from Central India. Even the Sindhu and Waraich Játs, who claim a Trans-Indus origin, are by no means unanimous,
