His Majesty cares very little for meat, and often expresses himself to that effect. It is indeed from ignorance and cruelty that, although various kinds of food are obtainable, men are bent upon injuring living creatures, and lending a ready hand in killing and eating them; none seems to have an eye for the beauty inherent in the prevention of cruelty, but makes himself a tomb for animals. If his Majesty had not the burden of the world on his shoulders, he would at once totally abstain from meat; and now, it is his intention to quit it by degrees, conforming, however, a little to the spirit of the age. His Majesty abstained from meat for some time on Fridays, and then on Sundays; now on the first day of every solar month, on Sundays, on solar and lunar eclipses, on days between two fasts, on the Mondays of the month of Rajab,* on the feast-day of every solar month, during the whole month of Farwardín,* and during the month, in which his Majesty was born, viz, the month of A´bán. Again, when the number of fast days of the month of A´bán had become equal to the number of years his Majesty had lived, some days of the month of A´zar also were kept as fasts. At present the fast extends over the whole month. These fast days, however, from pious motives, are annually increased by at least five days. Should fasts fall together, they keep the longer one, and transfer the smaller by distributing its days over other months. Whenever long fasts are ended, the first dishes of meat come dressed from the apartments of Maryam Makání, next from the other bégums, the princes, and the principal nobility.

In this department nobles, ahadís, and other military, are employed. The pay of a foot soldier varies from 100 to 400 dáms.