The Book of Akbar 144.2

144.2

His Majesty Giti-sitani said, “I am the most valuable thing that “Humayun possesses; than me he has no better thing; I shall make “myself a sacrifice for him. May God the Creator accept it.” Khwaja Khalifa and the other courtiers represented that Humayun would, by the grace of God, recover and attain to the limit of his natural life under the shadow of his Majesty’s fortune. Why had such an expression come from his tongue? The meaning of the saying of the great men of old was that the most valuable article of property should be given in charity, consequently the priceless diamond which had in a mysterious way been obtained in the war with Ibrahim and had been presented to Humayun, should be sacrificed. He replied, “What value has worldly wealth? and how can it be a redemption for Humayun? I myself shall be his sacrifice. “He is in extremity and I have lost the power (taqat) to behold his powerlessness (bi-taqati), but I can endure all his pain.” Thereafter he retired to his oratory and having performed such special rites as befitted the occasion, he thrice walked round his Highness Jahanbani Jannat-ashiyani. When his prayer had been heard by God,—Glory be to His name!—he felt a strange effect on himself and cried out, “We have borne it away. We have borne it away.” Immediately a strange heat of fever surged upon his Majesty and there was a sudden diminution of it in the person of his Highness Jahanbani.