The Memoirs of Bābur 910.9.6

910.9.6

Marching from that hill-skirt, our faces set west, we dismounted on a waterless plain (_qūl_) between Bannū and the Plain. The soldiers got water here for themselves, their herds and so on, by digging down, from one to one-and-a-half yards, into the dry water-course, when water came. Not here only did this happen for all the rivers of Hindūstān have the peculiarity that water is safe to be found by digging down from one to one-and-a-half yards in their beds. It is a wonderful provision of God that where, except for the great rivers, there are no running-waters,[900] water should be so placed within reach in dry water-courses. We left that dry channel next morning. Some of our men, riding light, reached villages of the Plain in the afternoon, raided a few, and brought back flocks, cloth and horses bred for trade.[901] Pack-animals and camels and also the braves we had outdistanced, kept coming into camp all through that night till dawn and on till that morrow's noon. During our stay there, the foragers [Sidenote: Fol. 149b.] brought in from villages in the Plain, masses of sheep and cattle, and, from Afghān traders met on the roads, white cloths, aromatic roots, sugars, _tīpūchāqs_, and horses bred for trade. Hindī (var. Mindī) _Mughūl_ unhorsed Khwāja Khiẓr _Lūhānī_, a well-known and respected Afghān merchant, cutting off and bringing in his head. Once when Sherīm T̤aghāī went in the rear of the foragers, an Afghān faced him on the road and struck off his index-finger.