On the 16th Farwardīn, Muqarrab Khān, who is one of
my chief retainers and the old confidants of the Jahangiri
service, who had attained the rank of 3,000 personal and
2,000 horse, came from the fort of Cambay and had the
honour of waiting on me. I had ordered him, on account
of certain business, to go to the port of Goa*
and buy
for the private use of the government certain rareties
procurable there. According to orders he went with
diligence to Goa, and remaining there for some time,
took at the price the Franks asked for them the rareties
he met with at that port, without looking at the face of
the money at all (i.e. regardless of cost). When he
returned from the aforesaid port to the Court, he
produced before me one by one the things and
rareties he had brought. Among these were some
animals that were very strange and wonderful, such
as I had never seen, and up to this time no one had
known their names. Although King Bābar has described
in his Memoirs the appearance and shapes of several
animals, he had never ordered the painters to make
pictures of them. As these animals appeared to me to
be very strange, I both described them and ordered that
painters should draw them in the Jahāngīr-nāma, so
that the amazement that arose from hearing of them
might be increased. One of these animals in body is
larger than a peahen and smaller than a peacock.*
When
it is in heat and displays itself, it spreads out its
feathers like the peacock and dances about. Its beak
and legs are like those of a cock. Its head and neck
and the part under the throat are every minute of a
different colour. When it is in heat it is quite red—
one might say it had adorned itself with red coral—and
after a while it becomes white in the same places, and
looks like cotton. It sometimes looks of a turquoise
colour. Like a chameleon it constantly changes colour.
Two pieces of flesh it has on its head look like the comb
of a cock. A strange thing is this, that when it is in
heat the aforesaid piece of flesh hangs down to the length
of a span from the top of its head like an elephant's
trunk, and again when he raises it up it appears on its
head like the horn of a rhinoceros, to the extent of two
finger-breadths. Round its eyes it is always of a turquoise
colour, and does not change. Its feathers appear to be of
various colours, differing from the colours of the peacock's
feathers. He also brought a monkey of a strange and
wonderful form. Its hands, feet, ears, and head are like
those of a monkey, and its face like that of a fox. The
colour of its eyes is like that of a hawk's eye, but the
eyes are larger than those of a hawk. From its head
to the end of its tail it is an ordinary cubit in length. It
is lower than a monkey and taller than a fox. Its hair
is like the wool of a sheep and its colour like that of
ashes. From the lobe of its ear to its chin it is red and
of the colour of wine. Its tail is two or three finger-
In these days I increased the mansab of Mahābat Khān
by 1,000 personal and 500 horse, which thus became 4,000
personal and 3,500 horse. The mansab of I‘timādu-d-daulah,
original and increased, was fixed at 4,000 personal and
1,000 horse. To the mansab of Mahā Singh also an
increase of 500 personal and horse was given: it was
originally and with increase 3,000 personal and 2,000
horse. The mansab of I‘tiqād Khān was increased by
500 personal and 200 horse, and made up to 1,000
personal and 300 horse. Khwāja Abū-l-ḥasan in these
days came from the Deccan and waited on me. Daulat
Khān, who had been appointed to the faujdarship of
Allahabad and of the Sarkar of Jaunpur, came and paid
his respects: an increase of 500 was made to his mansab,
which was 1,000. On the day of culmination (rūz-i-
In order to lay the foundation of a palace at Lahore, I sent there Khwāja Jahān Khwāja Dūst Muḥammad, who is well skilled in this kind of business.