During my illness it had occurred to me that when I completely recovered, inasmuch as I was inwardly an ear-bored slave of the Khwāja (Mu‘īnu-d-dīn) and was indebted to him for my existence, I should openly make holes in my ears and be enrolled among his ear-marked slaves. On Thursday, 12th Shahrīwar,* corresponding to the month of Rajab, I made holes in my ears and drew into each a shining pearl. When the servants of the palace and my loyal friends saw this, both those who were in the presence and some who were in the distant borders diligently and eagerly made holes in their ears, and adorned the beauty of sincerity with pearls and rubies which were in the private treasury, and were bestowed on them, until by degrees the infection caught the Ahadis and others. At the end of the day of Thursday, the 22nd of the said month, corresponding with the 10th Sha‘bān, the meeting for my solar weighing was arranged in my private audience hall, and the usual observances were carried out. On the same day Mīrzā Rāja Bhāo Singh, gratified and prosperous, returned to his native country with the promise that he would not delay (there) more than two or three months. On the 27th of the month of Mihr news came that Farīdūn Khān Barlās had died at Udaipur. In the clan of Barlās no leader remained but he. As his tribe had many claims on this State and endless connection with it, I patronised his son Mihr ‘Alī, and raised him to the mansab of 1,000 personal and horse. On account of the approved services of Khān Daurān, I increased by 1,000 his mansab, which became 6,000 personal and 5,000 horse, original and increase. On the 6th Ābān the qarāwuls (shikārīs) reported that three tigers had been met at a distance of 6 kos. Starting after midday, I killed all three of them with a gun. On the 8th of the month the festival of the Dewālī came on. I ordered the attendants of the palace to have games with each other for two or three nights in my presence; winnings and losings took place. On the 8th of this month they brought to Ajmir the body of Sikandar Mu‘īn Qarāwul (Shikārī), who was one of my old attendants and had done much service for me when I was prince, from Udaipur, which was the place where my son Sulān Khurram was staying. I ordered the qarawuls and his fellow-tribesmen to take his body and bury it on the bank of Rānā Shankar's tank. He was a good servant to me. On the 12th Āzar two daughters whom Islām Khān in his lifetime had taken from the Zamindar of Kūch (Behar), whose country is on the boundary of the eastern provinces, together with his son and 94 elephants, were brought before me. Some of the elephants were placed in my private stud. On the same day, Hūshang, Islām Khān's son, came from Bengal, and had the good fortune to kiss the threshold, and presented as offerings two elephants, 100 muhrs, and 100 rupees. On one particular night in Day I dreamt that the late king (Akbar) said to me: “Bābā, forgive for my sake the fault of ‘Azīz Khān, who is the Khān A‘am.” After this dream, I decided to summon him from the fort (of Gwalior).

There is a ravine in the neighbourhood of Ajmir that is very beautiful. At the end of this ravine a spring appears which is collected in a long and broad tank, and is the best water in Ajmir. This valley and spring are well known as Ḥāfi Jamāl. When I crossed over to this place I ordered a suitable building to be made there, as the place was good and fit for developing. In the course of a year a house and grounds were made there, the like of which those* who travel round the world cannot point out. They made a basin 40 gaz by 40, and made the water of the spring rise up in the basin by a fountain. The fountain leaps up 10 or 12 gaz. Buildings are laid on the edge of this basin, and in the same way above, where the tank and fountain are, they have made agreeable places and en­chanting halls and resting-rooms pleasant to the senses. These have been constructed and finished off in a masterly style by skilled painters and clever artists. As I desired that it should be called by a name connected with my august name, I gave it the name of Chashma-i-Nūr, or ‘the fountain of light.’ In short, the one fault it has is this, that it ought to have been in a large city, or at a place by which men frequently pass. From the day on which it was completed I have often passed Thursdays and Fridays there. I ordered that they should think out a chronogram for its com­pletion. Sa‘īdā Gīlānī, the head of the goldsmiths, discovered it in this clever hemistich:—

“The palace* of Shāh Nūru-d-dīn Jahāngīr” (1024).

I ordered them to put a stone with this carved upon it on the top of the portico of the building.

In the beginning of the month of Day, merchants came from Persia and brought pomegranates of Yazd and melons from Kārīz, which are the best of Khurasan melons, so many that all the servants of the Court and the Amirs of the frontiers obtained a portion of them and were very grateful to the True Giver (God) for them. I had never had such melons and pomegranates. It seemed as if I had never had a pomegranate or a melon before. Every year I had had melons from Badakhshan and pomegranates from Kabul, but they bore no comparison with the Yazd pomegranates and the Kārīz melons. As my revered father (may God's light be his witness!) had a great liking for fruit, I was very grieved that such fruits had not come to Hindustan from Persia in his victorious time, that he might have enjoyed and profited by them. I have the same regret for the Jahāngīrī ‘ir (so-called otto of roses), that his nostrils were not gratified with such essences. This ‘itr is a discovery which was made during my reign through the efforts of the mother of Nūr-Jahān Begam. When she was making rose-water a scum formed on the surface of the dishes into which the hot rose-water was poured from the jugs. She collected this scum little by little; when much rose­water was obtained a sensible portion of the scum was collected. It is of such strength in perfume that if one drop be rubbed on the palm of the hand it scents a whole assembly, and it appears as if many red rosebuds had bloomed at once. There is no other scent of equal excellence to it. It restores hearts that have gone and brings back withered souls. In reward for that invention I presented a string of pearls to the inventress. Salīma* Sulān Begam (may the lights of God be on her tomb) was present, and she gave this oil the name of ‘‘itr-i-Jahangiri.’

Great difference appeared in the climates of India. In this month of Day, in Lahore, which is between Persia and Hindustan, the mulberry-tree bore fruit of as much sweetness and fine flavour as in its ordinary season. For some days people were delighted by eating it. The news-writers of that place wrote this. In the same days Bakhtar Khān Kalāwant, who was closely connected with ‘Adil Khān, inasmuch as he (‘Ādil) married his own brother's daughter to him, and made him his preceptor in singing and durpat* guftan, appeared in the habit of a dervish. Summoning him and enquiring into his circumstances, I endeavoured to honour him. In the first assembly I gave him 10,000 rupees in cash and 50 pieces of cloth of all sorts and a string of pearls, and having made him a guest of Āṣaf Khān, ordered him to enquire into his circumstances. It did not appear whether he had come without ‘Ādil Khān's permission, or the latter had sent him in this guise in order that he might find out the designs of this Court and bring him news about them. Considering his relationship to ‘Ādil Khān, it is most probable that he has not come without ‘Ādil Khān's knowledge. A report by Mīr Jamālu - d - dīn Ḥusain, who at this time was (our) ambassador at Bijapur, corroborates this idea, for he writes that ‘Ādil Khān has, on account of the kindness which has been shown by H.M. (Jahāngīr) to Bakhtar Khān, been very gracious to him (Jamālu-d-dīn). Every day he has shown him more and more favour, keeps him beside him at nights, and recites to him durpats, which he (‘Ādil Khān) has composed, and which he calls nauras* (Juvenilia). “The remainder of the facts will be written on the day when I get my dismissal.”

In these days they brought a bird from the country of Zīrbād (Sumatra, etc., Blochmann, p. 616) which was coloured like a parrot, but had a smaller body. One of its peculiarities is that it lays hold with its feet of the branch or perch on which they may have placed it and then makes a somersault, and remains in this position all night and whispers to itself. When day comes it seats itself on the top of the branch. Though they say that animals also have worship, yet it is most likely that this practice is instinctive. It never drinks water, and water acts like poison upon it, though other birds subsist on water.