AND MINUTE SURVEY OF COUNTRIES. 739 Kâbul is of excellent quality; its quinces and damask plums are excellent, as well as its bâdrengs. There is a species of grape which they call the water-grape that is very delicious; its wines are strong and intoxicating. That produced on the skirt of the mountain of Khwâjeh Khan-Saaîd is celebrated for its potency, though I describe it only from what I have heard: 'The drinker knows the flavour of the wine; how should the sober know it?' "Kâbul is not fertile in grain; a return of four or five to one is reckoned favourable. The melons too are not good, but those raised from seed brought from Khorasân are tolerable. The climate is ex tremely delightful, and in this respect there is no such place in the known world. In the nights of summer you cannot sleep without a postîn (or lamb-skin cloak). Though the snow falls very deep in the winter, yet the cold is never excessively intense. Samarkand and Tabriz are celebrated for their fine climate, but the winter cold there is extreme beyond measure." "Opposite to the fort of Adînahpûrt, to the south, on a rising ground, I formed a charbagh (or great garden), in the year nine hundred and fourteen (1508). It is called Baghe Vafá (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 Dibâlpûr, I brought plantains and planted them here. They grew and thrived. The year before I had also planted the sugar-cane in it, which throve remarkably well. I sent some of them to Badakshân and Bokhâra. It is on an elevated site, enjoys running water, and the climate in the winter season is temperate. In the garden there is a small hillock, from which a stream of water, sufficient to drive a mill, incessantly flows into the garden below. The four-fold field-plot of this garden is situated on this eminence. On the south-west part of this garden is a reservoir of water ten gez square, which is wholly planted round with orange trees; there are likewise pomegranates. All around the piece of water the ground is quite covered with clover. This spot is the very eye of the beauty of the garden. At the time when the orange becomes yellow, the prospect is delightful. Indeed the garden is charmingly laid out. To the south of this garden lies the Koh-e-Sefîd (the White Mountain) of Nangenhâr, which separates Bengash from Nangenhâr. There is no road by which one can pass it on horseback. Nine streams descend from this mountain. The snow on its summit never diminishes, much larger-white and red in colour, with large leaves, that rise little from the 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 somewhat like a citron. The name is also applied to a large sort of cucumber. †The fort of Adînahpûr is to the south of the Kâbul river. 740 BABER- HIS EXACT ACCOUNT OF FERGHANA, whence probably comes the name of Koh-e-Sefid* (the White Mountain). No snow ever falls in the dales at its foot." "The wine of Dereh-Nûr is famous all over Lamghanât. It is of two kinds, which they term areh-tâshi (the stone-saw), and suhântâshi (the stone-file). The stone-saw is of a yellowish colour; the stone-file, of a fine red. The stone-saw, however, 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 towards Hindustân, but none higher up than this hill. The inhabitants used formerly to keep hogst, but in my time they have renounced the practice.” His account of the productions of his paternal 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 whiphandles and birds' cages! The most remarkable piece of statistics, however, with which he has furnished us, is in his account of Hindustân, which he first entered as a conqueror in 1525. It here occupies twenty-five closely printed quarto pages; and contains, not only an exact account of its boundaries, population, resources, revenues, and divisions, but a full enumeration of all its useful fruits, trees, birds, beasts, and fishes; with such a minute description of their several habitudes and peculiarities, as would make no contemptible figure in a modern work of 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: "Hindustân is situated in the first, second, and third climates. No part of it is in the fourth. It is a remarkably fine country. It is quite a different world, compared with our countries. Its hills and The Koh-e-Sefid is a remarkable position in the geography of Afghanistan. It is seen from Peshâwer. This practice Baber viewed with disgust, the hog being an impure animal in the Muhammedan law. AND OF HINDUSTÂN. 741 rivers, its forests and plains, its animals and plants, its inhabitants and their languages, its winds and rains, are all of a different nature. Although the Germsils (or hot districts), in the territory of Kâbul, bear, in many respects, some resemblance to Hindustân, while in other particulars they differ, yet you have no sooner passed the river Sind than the country, the trees, the stones, the wandering 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 them, 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 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 Hindustân, the populousness and decay, or total destruction of villages, nay of cities, is almost instantaneous. Large cities that have been inhabited for a series of years, (if, on an alarm, the inhabitants 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."+ "The Ils and Ulûses." In Persia there are few rivers, but numbers of artificial 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. "This is the wulsa or walsa, so well described by Colonel Wilks in his Historical Sketches, vol. i. 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 age, (the infant children being carried by their mothers,) with a load of grain proportioned to 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 de 742 BABER-HIGHLAND LOVE OF THE HILL COUNTRY. The prejudices of the more active and energetic inhabitant of the hill country are still more visible in the following passage:— "Hindustân is a country that has few pleasures to recommend it.* The people are not handsome. They have no idea of the charms of friendly society, of frankly mixing together, or of familiar intercourse. They have no genius, no comprehension of mind, no politeness of manner, no kindness or fellow-feeling, no ingenuity or mechanical invention in planning or executing their handicraft works, no skill or knowledge in design or architecture; they have no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk-melons †, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good food or bread in their bazars, no baths or colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candlestick." "The chief excellency of Hindustân is, that it is a large country, and has abundance of gold and 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 pouring down all at once, and form rivers, even in places where, at other times, there is no water. While the rains continue on the ground, the air is singularly delightful-insomuch, that nothing can surpass its soft and agreeable temperature. Its defect is, that the air is rather moist and damp. During the rainy season, you cannot shoot, even with the bow of our country, and it becomes quite useless. Nor is it the bow alone that becomes useless; the coats of mail, books, clothes, and furniture, all feel the bad effects of the moisture. Their houses, too, suffer from not being substantially built. There is pleasant enough weather in the winter and summer, as well as in the rainy season; but then the north wind always blows, and there is an excessive quantity of earth and dust flying about. When the rains are at hand, this wind blows five or six times with excessive violence, and such a quantity of dust flies about that you cannot see one another. They call this an Andhi.‡ It gets warm during Taurus and Gemini, but not so warm as to become intolerable. The heat cannot be compared to the heats of Balkh and Kandahâr. It is not above half so warm as in these places. Another convenience of Hindustân is, that the workmen of every pro parture of the enemy; 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.' * Baber's opinions regarding India are nearly the same with those of most Europeans of the upper class, even at the present day. + Grapes and musk-melons, particularly the latter, are now common all over India. This is still the Hindustâni term for a storm, or tempest. HIS PORTRAITS OF EMINENT CONTEMPORARIES. 743 fession and trade are innumerable and without end. For any work, or any employment, there is always a set ready, to whom the same employment and trade have descended from father to son for ages. In the Zefer-Nâmeh of Mûlla Sherîf-ed-din Ali Yezdi, it is mentioned as a surprising fact, that when Taimur Beg was building the Sangîn (or stone) mosque, there were stone-cutters of Azerbaejan, Fârs, Hindustân, and other countries, to the number of two hundred, working every day on the mosque. In Agra alone, and of stone-cutters belonging to that place only, I every day employed on my palaces six hundred and eighty persons; and in Agra, Sikri, Biâna, Dhulpûr, Guâliâr, and Koel, there were every day employed on my works one thousand four hundred and ninety-one stone-cutters. In the same way, men of every trade and occupation are numberless and without stint in Hindustân. "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 Ferghâna: "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 * 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. |
