MEMOIRS OF BABER. The rawâsh of Kâ. Darrow lane by which Sheikh Bayezîd had escaped. | bers of bee-hives, but honey is brought only from of excellent quality; its quinces and damask I struck him such a blow on the temples with the the hill-country on the west. point of my sword, that he bent over as if ready to bul is a species of grape which they call the water-grape, fall from his horse; but supporting himself on the plums are excellent, as well as its bâdrengs. There vall of the lane, he did not lose his seat, but escaped with the utmost hazard. Having dispersed that is very delicious; its wines are strong and inall the horse and foot that were at the gate, we took toxicating. That produced on the skirt of the possession of it. There was now no reasonable mountain of Khwâjeh Khan-Saaîd is celebrated for chance of success; for they had two or three thou- its potency, though I describe it only from what I sand well-armed men in the citadel, while I had have heard: only a hundred, or two hundred at most, in the outer stone fort: and, besides, Jehangîr Mirza, about as long before as milk takes to boil, had been beaten and driven out, and half of my men were with him." Soon after this there is an unlucky hiatus all the manuscripts of the Memoirs, so that it is to this day unknown by what means the heroic prince escaped from his treacherous associates, only that we find him, the year after, warring prosperously against a new set of enemies. Of his military exploits and adventures, however, we think we have now given a sufficient specimen. any In these we have said he resembles the paladins of Europe, in her days of chivalric enterprise. But we doubt greatly whether of her knightly adventurers could have given so exact an account of the qualities and productions of the countries they visited as the Asiatic Sovereign has here put on record. Of Kabul, for example, after describing its boundaries, rivers, and mountains, he says "The drinker knows the flavour of the wine; how "Kâbul is not fertile in grain; a return of four or 64 Opposite to the fort of Adînahpûr, ‡ to the south, garden), in the year nine hundred and fourteen on a rising ground, I formed a charbagh (or great (1508). It is called Baghe Vafa (the Garden of Fidelity). It overlooks the river, which flows between the fort and the palace. In the year in which I defeated Behâr Khan and conquered Lahore and here. They grew and thrived. The year before I Dibâlpûr, I brought plantains and planted them had also planted the sugar-cane in it, which throve remarkably well. I sent some of them to Badakhrunning water, and the climate in the winter season shân and Bokhâra. It is on an elevated site, enjoys "This country lies between Hindustân and Kho- is temperate. In the garden there is a small hillock, rasan. It is an excellent and profitable market for from which a stream of water, sufficient to drive a commodities. Were the merchants to carry their mill, incessantly flows into the garden below. The goods as far as Khitâ or Rûm,* they would scarcely four-fold field-plot of this garden is situated on this get the same profit on them. Every year, seven, eminence. On the south-west part of this garden eight, or ten thousand horses arrive in Kabul. From is a reservoir of water ten gez square, which is Hindustân, every year, fifteen or twenty thousand wholly planted round with orange trees; there are pieces of cloth are brought by caravans. The com- likewise pomegranates. All around the piece of modities of Hindustân are slaves, white cloths, water the ground is quite covered with clover. This At the time when the orange becomes yellow, the sugar-candy, refined and common sugar, drugs, spot is the very eye of the beauty of the garden. To the south of this garden lies the and spices. There are many merchants that are not satisfied with getting thirty or forty for ten.t prospect is delightful. Indeed the garden is charmThe productions of Khorasan, Rum, Irak, and ingly laid out. Chînt, may all be found in Kâbul, which is the very Koh-e-Sefîd (the White Mountain) of Nangenhâr, emporium of Hindustân. Its warm and cold dis- which separates Bengash from Nangenhâr. There tricts are close by each other. From Kâbul you is no road by which one can pass it on horseback. may in a single day go to a place where snow never Nine streams descend from this mountain. The falls, and in the space of two astronomical hours, snow on its summit never diminishes, whence probyou may reach a spot where snow lies always, ex-ably comes the name of Koh-e-Sefid (the White cept now and then when the summer happens to Mountain). No snow ever falls in the dales at its "The wine of Dereh-Nûr is famous all over be peculiarly hot. In the districts dependant on foot." Kabul, there is great abundance of the fruits both of hot and cold climates, and they are found in its Lamghanât. It is of two kinds, which they term immediate vicinity. The fruits of the cold dis-areh-tâshi (the stone-saw), and suhân-tashi (the ́tricts in Kâbul are grapes, pomegranates, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, quinces, jujubes, dainsons, almonds, and walnuts; all of which are found in great abundance. I caused the sour-cherry-tree to be brought here and planted; it produced excellent fruit, and continues thriving. The fruits it *The rawâsh is described as a root something possesses peculiar to a warm climate are the orange, citron, the amlûk, and sugar-cane, which are brought from the Lamghanât. I caused the cane to be brought, and planted it here. They bring like beet-root, but much larger-white and red in the Jelghûzek T from Nijrow. They have num-colour, with large leaves, that rise little from the sugar Khitâ is Northern China, and its dependent provinces. Rûm is Turkey, particularly the provinces about Trebizond. †Three or four hundred per cent. + Chin is all China. A berry like the karinda. Alubâla. The jelghûzek is the seed of a kind of pine, the cones of which are as big as a man's two fists. stone-file). The stone-saw is of a yellowish colour; the stone-file, of a fine red. The stone-saw, how. ever, is the better wine of the two, though neither of them equals their reputation. Higher up, at the head of the glens, in this mountain, there are some apes to be met with. Apes are found lower down ground. It has a pleasant mixture of sweet and acid. It may be the rhubarb, râweid. + The bâdreng is a large green fruit, in shape to a large sort of cucumber. somewhat like a citron. The name is also applied The fort of Adînahpûr is to the south of the Kâbul river. The Koh-e-Sefid is a remarkable position in the geography of Afghanistân. It is seen frem Peshawer. | standing water is to be met with. All these cities and countries derive their water from wells or tanks, in which it is collected during the rainy season. In destruction of villages, nay of cities, is almost in Hindustân, the populousness and decay, or tota stantaneous. Large cities that have been inhabited for a series of years, (if, on an alarm, the inhabitanto take to flight,) in a single day, or a day and a half, are so completely abandoned, that you can scarcely discover a trace or mark of population.' towards Hindustân, but none higher up than this hill. The inhabitants used formerly to keep hogs, but in my time they have renounced the practice." His account of the productions of his pateraal kingdom of Ferghana is still more minute -telling us even the number of apple-trees in a particular district, and making mention of an excellent way of drying apricots, with almonds put in instead of the stones; and of a wood with a fine red bark, of admirable use for making whip-handles and birds' cages! energetic inhabitant of the hill country are The prejudices of the more active and The most remarkable piece of statistics, how- still more visible in the following passage:ever, with which he has furnished us, is in by account of Hindustân, which he first en- to recommend it. The people are not handsome. "Hindustan is a country that has few pleasures tered as a conqueror in 1525. It here occu-They have no idea of the charms of friendly society, pies twenty-five closely-printed quarto pages; They have no genius, no comprehension of mind, and contains, not only an exact account of its no politeness of manner, no kindness or fellowof frankly mixing together, or of familiar intercourse. boundaries, population, resources, revenues, feeling, no ingenuity or mechanical invention in and divisions, but a full enumeration of all its planning or executing their handicraft works, no useful fruits, trees, birds, beasts, and fishes; skill or knowledge in design or architecture; they with such a minute description of their sev- have no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or eral habitudes and peculiarities, as would make musk-melonst, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no contemptible figure in a modern work of colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candlestick." no good food or bread in their bazars, no baths or natural history-carefully distinguishing the facts which rest on his own observation from those which he gives only on the testimony of others, and making many suggestions as to the means of improving, or transferring them from one region to another. From the detailed botanical and zoological descriptions, we can afford of course to make no extracts. What follows is more general: : 46 a large country, and has abundance of gold and The chief excellency of Hindustân is, that it is silver. The climate during the rains is very pleasant. on some days it rains ten, fifteen, and even twenty times. During the rainy season, inundations come places where, at other times, there is no water. pouring down all at once, and form rivers, even in While the rains continue on the ground, the air is singularly delightful-insomuch, that nothing can surpass its soft and agreeable temperature. Its de"Hindustan is situated in the first, second, and During the rainy season, you cannot shoot, even fect is, that the air is rather moist and damp. third climates. No part of it is in the fourth. It is with the bow of our country, and it becomes quite a remarkably fine country. It is quite a different useless. Nor is it the bow alone that becomes world, compared with our countries. Its hills and useless; the coats of mail, books, clothes, and furrivers, its forests and plains, its animals and plants, niture, all feel the bad effects of the moisture. its inhabitants and their languages, its winds and Their houses, too, suffer from not being substanrains, are all of a different nature. Germsîls (or hot districts), in the territory of Kâbul, the winter and summer, as well as in the rainy Although the tially built. There is pleasant enough weather in bear, in many respects, some resemblance to Hin-season; but then the north wind always blows, and dustân, while in other particulars they differ, yet there is an excessive quantity of earth and dust flyyou have no sooner passed the river Sind than the ing about. When the rains are at hand, this wind country, the trees, the stones, the wandering blows five or six times with excessive violence, and tribes, the manners and customs of the people, are all entirely those of Hindustân. The northern range of hills has been mentioned. Immediately on crossing the river Sind, we come upon several countries in this range of mountains, connected with Kashmir, such as Pekheli and Shemeng. Most of hem, though now independent of Kashmir, were formerly included in its territories. After leaving Kashmir, these hills contain innumerable tribes and states, Pergannahs and countries, and extend all the way to Bengal and the shores of the Great Ocean. About these hills are other tribes of men." "The country and towns of Hindustân are extremely ugly. All its towns and lands have an uniform look; its gardens have no walls; the greater part of it is a level plain. The banks of its rivers and streams, in consequence of the rushing of the torrents that descend during the rainy season, are worn deep into the channel, which makes it generally difficult and troublesome to cross them. In many places the plain is covered by a thorny brush-wood, to such a degree that the people of the Pergannahs, relying on these forests, take shelter in them, and, trusting to their inaccessible situation, often continue in a state of revolt, refusing to pay their taxes. In Hindustân, if you except the rivers, there is little running water. Now and then some *This practice Baber viewed with disgust, the hog being an impure animal in the Muhammedan law. "The Ils and Ulûses." * In Persia there are few rivers, but numbers of artifical canals or water-runs for irrigation, and for the supply of water to towns and villages. The same is the case in the valley of Soghd, and the richer parts of Mâweralnaher. by Colonel Wilks in his Historical Sketches, vol. i. "This is the wulsa or walsa, so well described p. 309, note: On the approach of an hostile army, the unfortunate inhabitants of India bury under ground their most cumbrous effects, and each individual, man, woman, and child above six years of mothers,) with a load of grain proportioned to their age, (the infant children being carried by their strength, issue from their beloved homes, and take the direction of a country (if such can be found) exempt from the miseries of war; sometimes of a strong fortress, but more generally of the most unfrequented hills and woods, where they prolong a miserable existence until the departure of the ene my; and if this should be protracted beyond the time for which they have provided food, a large portion necessarily dies of hunger.' See the note itself. The Historical Sketches should be read by every one who desires to have an accurate idea of the South of India. It is to be regretted that we do not possess the history of any other part of India, written with the same knowledge or research.' same with those of most Europeans of the upper ter, are now common all over India. such a quantity of dust flies about that you cannot | hill country to the east of Andejân, and the snow see one another. They call this an Andhi. It fell so deep as to bury it, so that of the whole only gets warm during Taurus and Gemini, but not so two persons escaped, he no sooner received in warm as to become intolerable. The heat cannot formation of the occurrence, than he despatched be compared to the heats of Balkh and Kandahar. overseers to collect and take charge of all the propIt is not above half so warm as in these places.erty and effects of the people of the caravan; and, Another convenience of Hindustân is, that the wherever the heirs were not at hand, though him workmen of every profession and trade are innu- self in great want, his resources being exhausted, merable and without end. For any work, or any he placed the property under sequestration, and preemployment, there is always a set ready, to whom served it untouched; till, in the course of one or the same employment and trade have descended two years, the heirs, coming from Khorasan and from father to son for ages. In the Zefer-Nâmeh Samarkand, in consequence of the intimation which of Mulla Sherîf-ed-dîn Ali Yezdi, it is mentioned they received, he delivered back the goods safe as a surprising fact, that when Taimur Beg was and uninjured into their hands. His generosity building the Sangîn (or stone) mosque, there were was large, and so was his whole soul; he was of an stone-cutters of Azerbaejan, Fârs, Hindustân, and excellent temper, affable, eloquent, and sweet in other countries, to the number of two hundred, his conversation, yet brave withal, and manly. working every day on the mosque. In Agra alone, On two occasions he advanced in front of the and of stone-cutters belonging to that place only, I troops, and exhibited distinguished prowess; once, every day employed on my palaces six hundred and at the gates of Akhsi, and once at the gates of eighty persons; and in Agra, Sîkri, Biâna, Dhulpûr, | Shahrokhîa. He was a middling shot with the Guâliar, and Koel, there were every day employed bow; he had uncommon force in his fists, and on my works one thousand four hundred and ninety- never hit a man whom he did not knock down. one stone-cutters. In the same way, men of every From his excessive ambition for conquest, he often trade and occupation are numberless and without exchanged peace for war, and friendship for hostility. stint in Hindustân. In the earlier part of his life he was greatly addicted to drinking bûzeh and talar.t Latterly, once or twice in the week, he indulged in a drink. ing party. He was a pleasant companion, and in the course of conversation used often to cite, with great felicity, appropriate verses from the poets. In his latter days he was much addicted to the use of Maajûn,‡ while under the influence of which he was subject to a feverish irritability. He was a humane He played a great deal at backgammon, and sometiines at games of chance with the dice." The following is the memorial of Hussain Mirza, king of Khorasan, who died in 1506: "The countries from Behreh to Behâr, which are now under my dominion, yield a revenue of fifty-two krors, as will appear from the particular and detailed statement. Of this amount, Pergannahs to the value of eight or nine krors are in the possession of some Rais and Rajas, who from old times have been submissive, and have received these Pergannahs for the purpose of confirming them in their obedience." These Memoirs contain many hundred characters and portraits of individuals; and it would not be fair not to give our readers one or two specimens of the royal author's minute style of execution on such subjects. We may begin with that of Omer-Sheikh Mirza, his grandfather, and immediate predecessor in the throne of Ferghana : "Omer-Sheikh Mirza was of low stature, had a short bushy beard, brownish hair, and was very corpulent. He used to wear his tunic extremely tight; insomuch, that as he was wont to contract his belly while he tied the strings, when he let himself out again the strings often burst. He was not curious in either his food or dress. He tied his turban in the fashion called Destâr-pêch (or plaited turban). At that time, all turbans were worn in the char-pêch (or four-plait) style. He wore his without folds, and allowed the end to hang down. During the heats, when out of the Divân, he generally wore the Moghul cap. "He read elegantly: his general reading was the Khamsahs, the Mesnevis, and books of history; and he was in particular fond of reading the Shahnâmeh.** Though he had a turn for poetry, he did not cultivate it. He was so strictly just, that when the caravan from Khitatt had once reached the This is still the Hindustâni term for a storm, or tempest. + About a million and a half sterling, or rather 1,300.000l. This statement unfortunately has not been preserved. About 225,000l. sterling. Several Persian poets wrote Khamsahs, or poems, on five different given subjects. The most celebrated is Nezâmi. The most celebrated of these Mesnevis is the mystical poem of Moulavi Jilûleddin Muhammed. The Sufis consider it as equal to the Koran. ** The Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, is the famous poem of the great Persian poet Ferdausi, and contains the romantic history of ancient Persia. tt North China; but often applied to the whole man. "He had straight narrow eyes, his body was robust and firm; from the waist downwards he was of a slenderer make. Although he was advanced in years, and had a white beard, he dressed in gay-coloured red and green woollen clothes. He usually wore a cap of black lamb's skin, or a kilpak. Now and then, on festival days, he put on a small turban tied in three folds, broad and showy, and having placed a plume nodding over it, went in this style to prayers. "On first mounting the throne, he took it into his head that he would cause the names of the twelve Imams to be recited in the Khûtbeh. Many used their endeavours to prevent him. Finally, however, he directed and arranged every thing according to the orthodox Sunni faith. From a disorder in his joints, he was unable to perform his prayers, nor could he observe the stated fasts. He was a lively, pleasant man. His temper was rather hasty, and his language took after his temper. In many instances he displayed a profound reverence for the faith; on one occasion, one of his sons having slain a man, he delivered him up to the avengers of blood to be carried before the judgment-seat of the Kazi. For about six or seven years after he first ascended the throne, he was very guarded in abstaining from such things as were forbidden by country from China to Terfân, and now even west to the Ala-tagh Mountains. This anecdote is erroneously related of Baber himself by Ferishta and others.-See Dow's Hist. of Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 218. + Bûzch is a sort of intoxicating liquor somewhat resembling beer, made from millet. Talar I do not know, but understand it to be a preparation from the poppy. There is, however, nothing about bûzeh or talar in the Persian, which only specifies sherâb, wine or strong drink. Any medical mixture is called a maajûn; but in common speech the term is chiefly applied to intoxicating comfits, and especially those prepared with bang. the law; afterwards he became addicted to drinking "As we were guests at Mozeffer Mirza s house, wine. During nearly forty years that he was King Mozeffer Mirza placed me above himself, and hav of Khorasan, not a day passed in which he did not ing filled up a glass of welcome, the cupbearers in drink after mid-day prayers; but he never drank waiting began to supply all who were of the party wine in the morning. His sons, the whole of the with pure wine, which they quaffed as if it had been soldiery, and the town's-people, followed his exam-the water of life. The party waxed warm, and the ple in this respect, and seemed to vie with each spirit mounted up to their heads. They took a fancy other in debauchery and lasciviousness. He was a to make me drink too, and bring me into the same brave and valiant man. He often engaged sword circle with themselves. Although, all that time, I 'n hand in fight, nay, frequently distinguished his had never been guilty of drinking wine, and from prowess hand to hand several times in the course of never having fallen into the practice was ignorant the same fight. No person of the race of Taimur of the sensations it produced, yet I had a strong Beg ever equalled Sultan Hussain Mirza in the use lurking inclination to wander in this desert, and my of the scymitar. He had a turn for poetry, and com- heart was much disposed to pass the stream. In posed a Diwân. He wrote in the Turki. His poet- my boyhood I had no wish for it, and did not know ical name was Hussaini. Many of his verses are far its pleasures or pains. When my father at any time from being bad, but the whole of the Mirza's Diwân asked me to drink wine, I excused myself, and abis in the same measure. Although a prince of dignity, stained. After my father's death, by the guardian both as to years and extent of territory, he was as care of Khwajah Kazi, I remained pure and undefond as a child of keeping butting rams, and of amu- filed. I abstained even from forbidden foods; how sing himself with flying pigeons and cock-fighting." then was I likely to indulge in wine? Afterwards One of the most striking passages in the when, from the force of youthful imagination and constitutional impulse, I got a desire for wine, I had work is the royal author's account of the mag- nobody about my person to invite me to gratify my nificence of the court and city of Herat, when wishes; nay, there was not one who even suspected he visited it in 1506; and especially his im- my secret longing for it. Though I had the appeposing catalogue of the illustrious authors, art-tite, therefore, was difficult for me, unsolicited as ists, and men of genius, by whom it was then adorned. * "The age of Sultan Hussain Mirza was certainly a wonderful age; and Khorasan, particularly the city of Heri, abounded with eminent men of unrivalled acquirements, each of whom made it his aim and ambition to carry to the highest perfection the art to which he devoted himself. Among these was the Moulana Abdal Rahman Jâmi, to whom there was no person of that period who could be compared, whether in respect to profane or sacred science. His poems are well known. The merits of the Mûlla are of too exalted a nature to admit of being described by me; but I have been anxious to bring the mention of his name, and an allusion to his excellences, into these humble pages, for a good omen and a blessing!" I was, to indulge such unlawful desires. It now came into my head, that as they urged me so much, and as, besides, I had come into a refined city like Heri, in which every means of heightening pleasure and gaiety was possessed in perfection; in which all the incentives and apparatus of enjoyment were combined with an invitation to indulgence, if I did not seize the present moment, I never could expect such another. I therefore resolved to drink wine! But it struck me, that as Badîa-ez-zemân Mirza was the eldest brother, and as I had declined receiv ing it from his hand, and in his house, he might now take offence. I therefore mentioned this difficulty which had occurred to me. My excuse was ap proved of, and I was not pressed any more, at this party, to drink. It was settled, however, that the next time we met at Badîa-ez-zemân Mirza's, I should drink when pressed by the two Mirzas." He then proceeds to enumerate the names of between thirty and forty distinguished per- the conscientious prince escaped from this By some providential accident, however, Bons; ranking first the sages and theologians, meditated lapse; and it was not till some to the number of eight or nine; next the poets, about fifteen; then two or three paint-years after, that he gave way to the longers; and five or six performers and composers cherished and resisted propensity. At what of music;-of one of these he gives the fol- particular occasion he first fell into the snare, lowing instructive anecdoteunfortunately is not recorded-as there is a blank of several years in the Memoirs previous to 1519. In that year, however, we find him a confirmed toper; and nothing, in To Another was Hussian Udi (the lutanist), who played with great taste on the lute, and composed elegantly. He could play, using only one string of his lute at a time. He had the fault of giving him-deed, can be more ludicrous than the accuracy self many airs when desired to play. On one occasion Sheibâni Khan desired him to play. After giving much trouble he played very ill, and besides, did not bring his own instrument, but one that was good for nothing. Sheibâni Khan, on learning how matters stood, directed that, at that very party, he should receive a certain number of blows on the neck. This was one good deed that Sheibâni Khan did in his day; and indeed the affectation of such people deserves even more severe animadversion." In the seductions of this luxurious court, Baber's orthodox abhorrence to wine was first assailed with temptation:-and there is something very naïve, we think, in his account of his reasonings and feelings on the occasion. No moral poet ever had a higher reputation than Jâmi. His poems are written with great beauty of language and versification, in a captivating strain of religious and philosophic mysticism. He is not merely admired for his sublimity as a poet, but venerated as a saint." and apparent truth with which he continues to chronicle all his subsequent and very frequent excesses. The Eastern votary of intoxication has a pleasant way of varying his enjoyments, which was never taken in the West. When the fluid elements of drunkenness begin to pall on him, he betakes him to what is learnedly called a maajun, being a sort of electuary or confection, made up with pleasant spices, and rendered potent by a large admixture of opium, bang, and other narcotic ingredients; producing a solid intoxication of a very delightful and desirable de scription. One of the first drinking matches that is described makes honourable mention of this variety : "The maajûn-takers and spirit-drinkers, as they have different tastes, are very apt to take offence with each other. I said, 'Don't spoil the cordiality of the party; whoever wishes to drink spirits, let MEMOIRS OF BABER. him drink spirits; and let him that prefers maajûn, I take maajûn; and let not the one party give any idle or provoking language to the other.' Some sat down to spirits, some to maajûn. The party went on for some time tolerably well. Bâba Jân Kabûzi had not been in the boat; we had sent for him when we reached the royal tents. He chose to drink spirits. Terdi Muhammed Kipchâk, too, was sent for, and joined the spirit-drinkers. As the spiritdrinkers and maajûn-takers never can agree in one party, the spirit-bibing party began to indulge in foolish and idle conversation, and to make provok. ing remarks on maajûn and maajûn-takers. Bâba Jan, too, getting drunk, talked very absurdly. The tipplers, filling up glass after glass for Terdi Muhammed, made him drink them off, so that in a very short time he was mad drunk. Whatever exertions I could make to preserve peace, were all navailing ; there was much uproar and wrangling. The party became quite burdensome and unpleasant, and soon broke up." The second day after, we find the royal bacchanal still more grievously overtaken : "We continued drinking spirits in the boat till bed-time prayers, when, being completely drunk, we mounted, and taking torches in our hands came at full gallop back to the camp from the river-side, falling sometimes on one side of the horse, and sometimes on the other. I was miserably drunk, and next morning, when they told me of our having galloped into the camp with lighted torches in our hands, I had not the slightest recollection of the circumstance. After coming home, I vomited plentifully." Even in the middle of a harassing and desultory campaign, there is no intermission of this excessive jollity, though it sometimes puts the parties into jeopardy,-for example:"We continued at this place drinking till the sun Those who was on the decline, when we set out. had been of the party were completely drunk. Syed Kâsim was so drunk, that two of his servants were obliged to put him on horseback, and brought him to the camp with great difficulty. Dost Muhammed Bakir was so far gone, that Amîn Muhammed Terkhân, Masti Chehreh, and those who were along with him, were unable, with all their exertions, to get him on horseback. They poured a great quantity of water over him, but all to no purpose. At this moment a body of Afghâns appeared in sight. Amîn Muhammed Terkhân, being very drunk, gravely gave it as his opinion, that rather than leave him, in the condition in which he was, to fall into the hands of the enemy, it was better at once to cut off his head, and carry it away. Making another exertion, however, with much difficulty, they contrived to throw him upon a horse, which they led along, and so brought him off.' On some occasions they contrive to be drunk four times in twenty-four hours. The gallant prince contents himself with a strong maajûn one day; but place till bed-time prayers. Mûll Mahmud Khalîfeh him suffering from the same wound. In a year or two after this, when he seems "On Monday the 23d of the first Jemâdi, I had He then issued a magnificent Firman, announcing his reformation, and recommending its example to all his subjects. But he still We are sorry to be obliged to add, that though persists, we find, in the use of a mild maajûn. he had the firmness to persevere to the last in his abstinence from wine, the sacrifice seems to have cost him very dear; and he continued to the very end of his life to hanker after his broken wine-cups, and to look back with fond regret to the delights he had ab "Next morning we had a drinking party in the "This verse, I presume, is from a religious poem, and has a mystical meaning. The profane application of it is the ground of offence." "This vow was sometimes made by persons who set out on a war against the Infidels. They did not trim the beard till they returned victorious. Some vows of a similar nature may be found in |