Storia do Mogor 159: Daulat, Eunuch.

159

The fame I had acquired as a good surgeon and physician was the cause, among other things, that I was importuned by the eunuch Daulat, a man of staid habits, rich, and well known. This eunuch was in the employ of 'Ali Mardan Khan, he who made over the fortress of Qandahar to the King Shahjahan. When his master died in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-two, this eunuch of his carried his bones to Persia to be buried in the tomb of his forefathers. The fact became known to Shah 'Abbas, at that time King of Persia, who ordered the arrest of the eunuch Daulat. 'Ali Mardan Khan's remains he directed to be burnt, and the eunuch's nose and ears to be cut off. He was then to be expelled from the country. The king held it an act of presumption [168] to bring the bones of a traitor into a kingdom, of which in his lifetime he was a declared enemy.
The wretched Daulat retired full of shame to Lahor, and kept close within his house. Knowing the work I had done, he several times requested me by some art or ingenuity to make his nostrils and ears grow again — an impossible thing. But he imagined that Christians could do miracles with elixirs. He therefore besought and entreated me that I would do him this favour, and he would give me anything I asked. I answered that now there was no remedy, the wounds being old, for if they had been fresh something might have been done. This reply of mine only inspired greater hopes, and he asked me to renew the sores by making new wounds. Then I was to cut off the best-shaped nose and the finest ears from one or other of his slaves, and apply them to his face. He embraced me, he styled me Galen, Bu 'Ali (i.e., Avicenna), Aristotle, and Plato ; he begged me to do him this favour, and make him happy all the rest of his life.
The slaves then present were in a great state of mind lest I should accept the eunuch's proposal, and gazed at me with mournful faces, as if entreating me not to comply with the request. I was laughing inwardly at them, contrasting the eagerness of Daulat with the fright of the slaves. But as a final answer I stated that even if I did what he asked, and cut off the noses and ears of the slaves, it would be of no avail, for being another's flesh it would never unite, the only result being to disfigure his slaves without any benefit to him. Finding there was no remedy, and being a facetious