On Tuesday, the 7th, I marched. One day the son of Ḥakīm* ‘Ālī was praising the milk of a camel. It occurred to me that if I could continue that for some days, it was possible that it might do some good, and it might prove agreeable to me. Āṣaf Khān had a Persian camel in milk, and I took a little of it. Contrary to the milk of other camels, which is not devoid of saltness, it appeared to my taste sweet and delicious, and now for a month past I have been drinking every day a cup of it, equal in quantity to half a water-cup, and it is clearly advantageous, for it quenches my thirst. It is strange that two years ago Āṣaf K. bought this camel, but at that time it had not a young one, and had no sign of milk. At this time by chance milk flowed from its dugs. They gave it every day to drink four seers of cow's milk with five seers of wheat, one seer of black* sugar, and one seer of fennel (bāḍyān), to make its milk delicious, sweet, and profitable. Certainly it suited me admirably, and was to my taste. By way of testing it, I sent for some cow's and buffalo's milk, and tasted all three. There was no comparison in sweetness and flavour with the milk of this camel. I ordered them to give the same kind of food to some other female camels, that it might become clear whether the purity was in consequence of eating good food, or whether it was due to the natural sweetness of this (particular) camel's milk.*

On Wednesday, the 8th, I marched, and halted on the 9th. The royal tent was pitched near a large tank. Shāh-Jahān presented me with a boat made after the Kashmīr fashion, the sitting-place of which they had made of silver. At the end of that day I embarked in that boat and went round the tank. On this day ‘Ābid K., Bakhshi of Bangash, who had been summoned, came and had the good fortune to kiss the threshold, and was honoured with the post of Dīwān-i-buyūtāt. Sar-farāz Khan, who was one of the auxiliaries of Gujarat, received a standard, a private tipchāq horse, and an elephant, and, overwhelmed with honour, obtained leave to go. ‘Īzzat* Khān, who was one of those attached to the army of Bangash, was exalted with the gift of a standard. Marching was ordered on Friday, the 10th. Mīr Mīrān was promoted to the mansab of 2,000 personal and 600 horse. On Saturday, the 11th, the auspicious equipage alighted in the pargana of Doḥad. On the eve of Sunday, the 12th of the Ilāhī month of Ābān, in the thirteenth year from my accession, corresponding with the fifteenth Zī-l-Qa‘da of the Hijrī year 1027, in the nineteenth degree of Libra, the Giver of blessings gave my prosperous son Shāh-Jahān a precious son by the daughter of Āṣaf K. I hope that his* advent may be auspicious and blessed to this everlasting State. Halting for three days at this place, on Wednesday,* the 15th Ābān, the camp was pitched at the village of amarna.* As it was necessary that the Mubārak-shamba entertainment should as far as possible be arranged for on the bank of a river and a clean place, and there was in this neigh­bourhood no spot which met those requirements, there was no help for it but to order a start when half of the night of Thursday (i.e., Wednesday), the 16th, had passed, and when the sun rose the camp was pitched on the bank of the tank of Bākhūr. At the end of the day, the feast of cups was held and I presented cups to some of my private servants. On Friday, the 17th, I ordered a march. Kesho Dās Mārū is a jagirdar in that neighbourhood. According to orders, he came from the Deccan, and was honoured by doing homage.

On Saturday, the 18th (Ābān), the camp was at Rām-gaṛh. For some nights before this there appeared, at three gharīs before sunrise, in the atmosphere, a (luminous) vapour in the shape of a pillar.* At each succeeding night it rose a gharī earlier. When it assumed its full form, it took the shape of a spear (ḥarba), thin at the two ends, and thick in the middle. It was curved like a sickle, and had its back to the south, and its face to the north. It now showed itself a watch (pahar) before sunrise. Astronomers took its shape and size by the astrolabe, and ascertained that with differences of appearance (?) it extended over twenty-four degrees. It moved in high heaven, but it had a movement of its own, differing from that of high heaven, for it was first in Scorpio and afterwards in Libra. Its declination (ḥarakat-i-‘arẓ?) was mainly southerly. Astrologers call such a phenomenon a spear (ḥarba) in their books, and have written that its appearance portends weakness to the kings of Arabia, and points to their enemies prevailing over them. God knows! Sixteen nights after this phenomenon, a star showed itself in the same quarter. Its head was luminous, and its tail was two or three yards long, but the tail was not luminous. It has now appeared for eight nights; when it disappears, the fact will be noticed, as well as the results of it.

I halted on Sunday, the 19th, and on Monday I alighted at the village of Sītalkhera.* On Tuesday, the 21st, there was again a halt. I presented Rashīd K., the Afghan, with a robe of honour and an elephant, sending them to him by Ran-bāz K. On Wednesday, the 22nd, the camp rested in pargana Madanpūr.* On Thursday, the 23rd, I halted and had a feast of cups, and Dārāb K. had a nādirī dress of honour given to him. Halting on Friday, on Saturday the camp was pitched in the pargana of Nawārī.* On Sunday, the 26th, I pitched on the bank of the River Chambal, and on Monday on the bank of the River Kahnar* (?). On Tuesday, the 28th, the royal standards were raised in the neighbourhood of the city of Ujain. From Aḥmadabad to Ujain is a distance of ninety-eight kos. It was traversed in twenty-eight marches and forty-one halts—that is, in two months and nine days. On Wednesday, the 29th, I had an interview with Jadrūp, who is one of the austere ones of the Hindu religion, and the particulars of whose circumstances have been described in the preceding pages, and went with him to see Kāliyādaha. Certainly association with him is a great privilege.

On this day it was made known to me in the contents of a report from Bahādur K., the Governor of Qandahar, that in the Hijrī year 1026—that is, last year—the number of mice in Qandahar and the neighbourhood was so great that they destroyed all the crops and grain and cultivation and the fruits of the trees of the province, so that there had been no produce. They (the mice) cut off the ears of corn and ate them. When the cultivators gathered their crops, before they were threshed and cleaned, another* half was destroyed, so that perhaps one-fourth of the crops only came to hand. In the same way no vestige was left of the melons (melon-beds) or garden produce. After some time the mice dis­appeared.

As my son Shāh-Jahān had not made a birthday entertain­ment for his son (Aurangzīb), he petitioned at Ujain, which is the place of his jagir, that the Thursday entertainment of the 30th should be held at his abode. Of necessity, having consented to the carrying out of his wish, the day was passed in enjoyment at his quarters. My private servants who have the entrée into this kind of parties and assemblies were de­lighted with brimming cups. My son Shāh-Jahān brought that auspicious child before me, and, presenting as offerings a tray of jewels, and jewelled ornaments, and fifty elephants, thirty male and twenty female, asked me for a name for him. Please God it will be given him in a favourable hour. Of his elephants seven were included in my private stud; the rest were distributed among the faujdars. The value of the offerings that were accepted will be Rs. 200,000.

On this day ‘Aẓudu-d-daula (Jamālu-d-dīn Ḥusain Anjū) came from his jagir, and had the good fortune to kiss the threshold. He gave eighty-one muhars as nazr, and an elephant as an offering. Qāsim K., whom I had dismissed from the government of Bengal, had been sent for, and having had the good fortune to do homage, presented 1,000 muhars as nazr. On Friday, the 1st of Āzar, I amused myself with hawking. As the retinue passed along, a field of millet (jwār) was met with. Though generally a stem has only one head, each of them had twelve. I was astonished. and at this time the tale of “The King and the Gardener” occurred to me.