The Memoirs of Bābur 910.5.6

910.5.6

In the Nijr-aū mountains is an abundance of _archa_, _jīlghūza_, _bīlūt_ and _khanjak_.[799] The first-named three do not grow above Nigr-aū but they grow lower, and are amongst the trees of Hindūstān. _Jīlghūza_-wood is all the lamp the people have; it burns like a candle and is very remarkable. The flying-squirrel[800] is found in these mountains, an animal larger than a bat and having a curtain (_parda_), like a bat's wing, between its arms and legs. People often brought one in; it is said to fly, downward from one tree to another, as far as a _giz_ flies;[801] I myself have never seen one fly. Once we put one to a tree; it clambered up directly and got away, but, when people went after it, it spread its wings and came down, without hurt, as if it had flown. Another of the curiosities of the Nijr-aū mountains is the _lūkha_ (var. _lūja_) bird, called also _bū-qalamūn_ (chameleon) because, between head and tail, it has four or five changing colours, resplendent like a pigeon's throat.[802] It is about as large as the _kabg-i-darī_ and seems to be the _kabg-i-darī_ of Hindūstān.[803] People tell this wonderful thing about it:—When the birds, at [Sidenote: Fol. 135b.] the on-set of winter, descend to the hill-skirts, if they come over a vineyard, they can fly no further and are taken.[804] There is a kind of rat in Nijr-aū, known as the musk-rat, which smells of musk; I however have never seen it.[805]