تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 10.1.1

10.1.1

The post in the land of Hind is of two kinds. The horse post they call al-wulāq, with u after the w and ending in q; it consists of horses belonging to the Sultan stationed every four miles. As for the foot post, there are three stages to each mile, which they call al-dāwa, with an undotted d and w; the dāwa is a third of a mile, and the mile among them is called the kurūh, with u after the k and the r. The arrangement is that every third of a mile there is an inhabited village, outside which are three pavilions where men sit ready to move, their waists girded. Each of them has a whip two cubits long with copper bells at its top. When the courier leaves the city, he takes the letter in the upper part of one hand and the whip with the bells in the other, and sets out running with all his might. When the men in the pavilions hear the sound of the bells they make ready for him, and when he reaches them one of them takes the letter from his hand and runs off with all his strength, shaking the whip, until he reaches the next dāwa. They go on in this way until the letter reaches its destination.