Storia do Mogor 238.4.5

238.4.5

With this instrument they flog on the ribs with all their strength, and it encircles the whole body, making wheals an inch wide and breaking the skin. In this way, little by little, the peasants pay what they owe. This habit is much honoured among husbandmen — that is, never to pay readily; and to undergo these torments and this disgrace is among them an honour. He who gets most blows and suffers the most is the most esteemed. If, perchance, the soil does not produce a crop, by reason of the rain failing, they sell their sons and their cattle to meet what they are obliged to pay. For the king takes one moiety and leaves them the other. These faujdārs have to supervise the roads, and should any merchant or traveller be robbed in daylight, they are obliged to pay compensation. If robbed at night, it is the traveller's fault for not having halted earlier, and he loses all, without his complaint being heard. In the days of Shāhjahān there was at court an ambassador of the Grand Turk, who, on seeing this great harshness, said to the king that it seemed to him that much cruelty was thus inflicted on his subjects. The king replied: 'Do not imagine that these people are like those of Turkey. If I did not deal with them thus, they would never leave me a moment's peace.'