There is not a greater name in the category of Mahomedan sainthood than that of Moinuddeen, who was a Persian of Cheest, but whose holy dust remains in Ajmere. To make such a pilgrimage, it is a necessary condition, however, for its efficacy, that the pilgrim should go on foot, and be accompanied by his wife. Akber himself was a famous walker, who could travel on foot thirty or forty miles in a day. But it was beyond the power of a woman to accomplish a journey of three hundred and fifty miles at such a rate. It was, therefore, broken in easy stages of three coss, or six miles a day. That the begum might not hurt her feet, carpets were spread on the road. That her purdanashin honour might not suffer, künnäts or cloth-walls were raised on each side of the way. High towers of burnt bricks were also erected at each stage, to mark the places where they rested in their imperial progress. In this manner did the royal pair proceed to the destination of their journey. On arrival there, the Emperor made a supplication to the saint, who at night appeared to him in his sleep, and recommended him to go and entreat the intercession of the holy old man, who lived on the top of Sicri. This was Sheik Salim, then ninetysix years of age. To him the Emperor came, and he was assured that his Begum Jodh Baie would be delivered of a son, who would live to a good old age. The Empress happened to be pregnant about the time, and remained in the vicinity of the old man's hermitage, till the promised boy was born, and called after the hermit, Mirza Salim-the future Johangeer of Indian

history. They show you to this day the little roof of tiles, close to the original little dingy mosque of the old hermit, where the Empress gave birth to Jehangeer.'

By himself, the hoary Sheik was a sufficiently venerable-looking man, but he now appeared doubly or trebly so in the eyes of Akber, who thereafter took up his residence at Futtehpore Sicri, and founded a magnificent town upon its height. By building, planting, and digging, the rock was converted into a scene rivalling the splendours of Agra. Often, from the glare and dust of that city, did Akber retire to this suburban retreat, to breathe purer air, and enjoy lovely rural sights. Here were his vast stables, his hawking establishments, and the kennels of his dogs. Here was the stud of his shikaree elephants. Here did he make himself jovial with his favourites, and spend life in slippers. And here always he left his harem when he set out on his expeditions. To this day the whole hill bears marks of terraces, gardens, wells, cisterns, and palaces, which give a more melancholy sense of desolation than ruins that appear to have mouldered away under the natural touch of time.'

The most striking object of all at Futtehpore Sicri is a colossal gateway, one hundred and twenty feet in height, and the same in breadth. The span of the arch is forty feet broad, by sixty feet high. In Sleeman's opinion, the beholder is struck with the disproportion between the thing wanted and the thing provided. There seems to be something quite preposterous in forming so enormous an entrance for a poor diminutive

man to walk through an entrance under which ships might sail.' The broad flight of stone stairs, twentyfour feet high, is perhaps the grandest in the world. It is however getting fast dilapidated—the annual rains sweeping down the hill are here loosening a slab and there dislodging another. On the right side of the entrance, is engraven on stone in large letters standing in bas-relief, the following passage in Arabic: 'Jesus, on whom be peace, has said, the world is merely a bridge; you are to pass over it, and not to build your dwellings upon it.'

Nor is the quadrangle in the interior a less grand affair, being a square of 575 feet with majestic cloisters all round. In the centre of the quadrangle stands the tomb of Sheik Salim, a beautiful modest little building, but much too costly over a hermit. The material is all fine white marble, carved with a tasteful elegance. The sarcophagus is enclosed in a latticed screen of marble, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. To the left is a large mosque, surmounted by three beautiful white marble domes. The old Sheik lived to see the grand works completed. He died at the notable age of 108 years.

The Palace of Akber.-It is dilapidated, and mutilated, and reduced to a desert, full of ruins, and fragments of pillars, domes, and porticoes, presenting a sad picture of departed greatness. Near the Hati Durwaza -a huge and massive gateway-are seen 'two figures of astonishing elephants of the natural size, carved in stone with admirable skill and truth.' Not far from

this is a tower, nearly fifty feet high, built, according to local report, of elephant's tusks, but actually of composition, moulded and enamelled into a resemblance of those natural substances.' It is much to be deplored that such skilful arts of the Indians have perished. There is also in existence a beautiful octagonal pavilion, said to have been the emperor's private study. It has three large windows filled with an excellent tracery of white marble, and all its remaining wall is carved with trees, bunches of grapes, and the figures of different kinds of birds and beasts, of considerable merit in execution.' By Aurungzebe's bigotry the birds and beasts have been disfigured, as savouring of idolatry. Shade of Aurungzebe! why did you spare the trees, when they too are worshipped by many men?

Nothing is so great a curiosity in Futtehpore Sicri as the raised marble floor, which Akber used as a diceboard, while women were his counters. The platform is paved in squares of different colours, after the fashion of a dice-board. Here, as legends tell, was played a "royal game of goose," termed puchcesee, the pieces in which were thirty-two ladies of the zenana, sixteen on each side; the emperor sat as umpire; the nobles stood as spectators; two favoured lords who had been selected as combatants, manoeuvred their forces with all the skill and attention of dice-players, and the victor carried off the thirty-two damsels." This is unparalleled in

*The following account of Akber's Pachisi-board is from an old Agra periodical :-'The game is usually played by four persons, each of whom is supplied with four wooden or ivory cones, which are called

history. The Ranee of Ravana invented Chess to beguile the martial propensities of her lord. The Pandava princes staked away their wife, and the throw of the dice made her the property of their rivals. Runjeet Sing challenged General Ventura to seduce away a Cashmerian girl from his zenana, promising to put no obstacles in the way,-and 'in eight and forty hours the lovely Lotus (the girl's name) was transplanted from her royal lover's garden to the Italian's.' But this game of Akber can be accounted for only by the wellknown Mahomedan saying, 'that women have no souls.'

Our fathers and grandfathers, whose 'Pierian spring' of knowledge is the Persian, still quote many of the witty sayings of Beerbul, which amused the court of Akber. But the impression that is now abroad is, that he is as much a myth as the Giaffir of Caliph Haroun Al Raschid. Those who want to have their doubts removed about his authenticity may come and see 'a small but richly ornamented house,' which is pointed out to

"gots," and are of different colours for distinction. Victory consists in getting these four pieces safely through all the squares of each rectangle into the vacant place in the centre,--the difficulty being, that the adversaries take up in the same way as pieces are taken at backgammon. Moving is regulated by throwing "cowries," whose apertures falling uppermost or not, affect the amount of the throw by certain fixed rules. But on this Titanic board of Akber's wooden or ivory "gos" would be lost altogether. Sixteen girls, therefore, dressed distinctively-say four in red, four in blue, four in white, four in yellow-were trotted up and down the squares, taken up by an adversary, and put lack at the beginning again; and at last, after many difficulties, four of the same colour would find themselves gig gling into their d pattas together in the middle space, and the game

was won.