تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.23.6

13.23.6

Some days later the eunuchs came from the palace of al-Makhdūma Jahān with the dawla, which is the litter in which women are carried, and which men also ride in. It resembles a couch; its surface is of plaited silk or cotton, and over it is a pole like the one over the būjāt among us, curved, of solid Indian cane. It is carried by eight men in two shifts: four rest while four carry. These litters are in Hind like donkeys in Egypt: most people get about in them. Whoever has slaves is carried by them, and whoever has no slaves hires men to carry him. There is a small number of these in the city who stand in the markets, at the Sultan's gate and at people's doors for hire. The women's litters are covered with a silk covering, and such was this litter which the eunuchs brought from the palace of the Sultan's mother. They carried in it my slave-girl, the mother of the deceased girl, and I sent with her a Turkish slave-girl as a gift. The slave-girl, the girl's mother, stayed with them one night and came back the next day, they having