The same prince, who was very fortunate during his reign, shewed the utmost attention and respect to his mother, of which he one day gave the following striking instance:—­Being on a journey between Lahore and Agra, on which occasion his mother accompanied him, being carried in a palanquin, and having to pass a river, he took one of the poles of the palanquin on his own shoulder, commanding his greatest nobles to do the same, and in this manner carried her across the river.  He never denied her any request that ever she made, except one, and this was, that our Bible might be hung about the neck of an ass, and so beaten about the town of Agra.  The reason of this strange request was, that the Portuguese had taken a ship of theirs, in which they found a copy of the Koran, or bible of the Mahometans, which they tied about the neck of a dog, and beat the dog about the streets of Ormus.  But he denied her this request, saying, That if it were evil in the Portuguese to have so done with the Koran, it did not become a king to requite evil with evil, as the contempt of any religion was contempt of God, and he would not be revenged upon an innocent book.  The moral of this is, that God would not permit the sacred book of his law and truth to be contemned among the infidels.

One day in every year, for the amusement of the king’s women, all the tradesmen’s wives are admitted into the Mahal, having each somewhat to sell, after the manner of a fair, and at which the king acts as broker for his wives, no other man being present, and by means of his gains on this occasion, provides his own supper.  By this means he attains to a sight of all the pretty women of the city; and at a fair of this kind he got his beloved Noor Mahal.

After Shaof Freed had won the battle of Lahore by a stratagem, all the captains of the rebel army, to the number of two thousand, who had been taken by the king, were hung up upon flesh-hooks, or set upon stakes, forming an avenue for the king’s entrance into Lahore.  On this occasion, his son Curseroo, [Cusero] who had been made prisoner, rode beside him, bare-footed, on an elephant, and the king asked him how he liked that spectacle?  To this the prince answered, That he was sorry to see so much cruelty and injustice in his father, in thus executing those who had only done their duty, as they had lived on his bread and salt:  but that his father had done justly if he had pardoned these brave men, and punished him, who was their master, and the author of this rebellion.

Sultan Cusero has only one wife, owing to the following circumstance:  During his confinement, the king proposed to make a hunting progress of four months, and consulted how he might keep his son in safe custody during his absence.  He at length determined to build a tower in which to immure him, having neither door nor window, and only a few small holes to let in air, and these so high as to be beyond reach.