Storia do Mogor 202.8

202.8

All the names given are either Persian or Hindu; for the king takes into his house several daughters of Hindu princes, and gives them Hindu names, as the fancy takes him, and also in the same way to those who are Mahomedans. It is also the practice of these kings and the Mogul princes to entertain matrons as spies, and eunuchs who give [blank; ? information] to these old ladies of the loveliest young women in the empire. Afterwards these matrons, by promises and deceit, lead them astray, and have them carried off into whatever palace the king or a prince requires. There they are detained among the number of mistresses or concubines, as I have recorded in the first part of this history, when speaking of the King Jahangir (? Shahjahan) and the Prince Dara (I. 131, 152). When it happens that he does not wish to keep them, the king sends them back with some great present. I say this because I have had a special acquaintance with all these secrets and of many others, which it is not in place for me to state. The names of the matrons, with the meanings, are: