Storia do Mogor 238.8.4

238.8.4

As I have said that the Moguls rear pigeons for amusement (I. 65), it is necessary for me to inform the reader how they employ these pigeons to give intelligence if the king leaves his house or comes into the public hall to hold audience. Let the reader be aware, then, that these nobles are very pleased not to have to move from home uselessly. Many have their dwellings far from the royal palace, about a league away. They order their retinue to be kept in readiness, first of all having sent to court a servant with two pigeons of different colours. If the king leaves his house or holds audience, the noble's servant releases one of these pigeons at court, and by reaching its home it serves as a messenger. If it is the one that denotes the king's leaving home or sitting in audience, the noble at once rides with his cavalcade in all haste to be present, as is his duty. If the other comes, it notifies the contrary: the retinue are dismissed, and the master takes his ease at home. [80] In the year one thousand six hundred and ninety-four (1694), when Aurangzeb was in the kingdom of Bijapur, he fell ill of diarrhoea, so that he was unable to come out to hold audience; and he became so weak that he fainted several times, from which cause it was spread about in the camp that Aurangzeb was dead. A'zam Tara, who was there, wished to profit by the occasion; and assuming the news was true, he mounted his horse, and with all his armed force came to attack his father's enclosure.