The Memoirs of Bābur 933.2.4

933.2.4

"I ordered Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad to watch the cook; when he was taken for torture (_qīn_), he related the above particulars one after another." "Monday being Court-day, I ordered the grandees and notables, amīrs and wazīrs to be present and that those two men and two women should be brought and questioned. They there related the particulars of the affair. That taster I had cut in pieces, that cook skinned alive; one of those women I had thrown under an elephant, the other shot with a match-lock. The old woman (_būā_) I had kept under guard; she will meet her doom, the captive of her own act."[1986] "On Saturday I drank a bowl of milk, on Sunday _`araq_ in which stamped-clay was dissolved.[1987] On Monday I drank milk in which were dissolved stamped-clay and the best theriac,[1988] a strong purge. As on the first day, Saturday, something very dark like parched bile was voided." "Thanks be to God! no harm has been done. Till now I had not known so well how sweet a thing life can seem! As the line has it, 'He who has been near to death knows the worth of life.' Spite of myself, I am all upset whenever the dreadful [Sidenote: Fol. 307.] occurrence comes back to my mind. It must have been God's favour gave me life anew; with what words can I thank him?"