The Memoirs of Bābur 910.5.4

910.5.4

Mīr Sayyid `Alī _Hamadānī_,[788]—God's mercy on him!—coming here as he journeyed, died 2 miles (1 _shar`ī_) above Kūnār. His disciples carried his body to Khutlān. A shrine was erected at the honoured place of his death, of which I made the circuit when I came and took Chaghān-sarāī in 920 AH.[789] The orange, citron and coriander[790] abound in this _tūmān_. Strong wines are brought down into it from Kāfiristān. A strange thing is told there, one seeming impossible, but one told to us again and again. All through the hill-country above Multa-kundī, _viz._ in Kūnār, Nūr-gal, Bajaur, Sawād and thereabouts, it is commonly said that when a woman dies and has been laid on a bier, she, if she has not been an ill-doer, gives the bearers such a shake when they lift the bier by its four sides, that against their will and hindrance, her corpse falls to the ground; but, if she has done ill, no movement occurs. This was heard not only from Kūnārīs but, again and again, in Bajaur, [Sidenote: Fol. 134b.] Sawād and the whole hill-tract. Ḥaidar-`alī _Bajaurī_,—a sulṯān who governed Bajaur well,—when his mother died, did not weep, or betake himself to lamentation, or put on black, but said, "Go! lay her on the bier! if she move not, I will have her burned."[792] They laid her on the bier; the desired movement followed; when he heard that this was so, he put on black and betook himself to lamentation.