The reign of Feroh-syur being over, as well as the power and prevalence of the two brothers, the throne fell to the lot of Mahmed-shah, and the vezirship to that of his favourite Mahmed-aamin-qhan, whose ministry lasted only three or four months and some days. But that Minister who died of execruciating pains in his bowels, having chanced some days before his death, to hear for the first time of that impostor, he ordered some of the soldiers, then at his gate, to set out immediately, and to seize and bring that Pimp away (for such was his expression on that occasion), and they had orders to kill him instantly, if he made the least resistance. As it was already past noon when the order was given, and the Vezir had dismissed his people, there were but few men at the gate, and only part of those went to the impostor’s, where they signified the order they had received. At that moment Qhyfshan-nom8d (for so he styled himself) was taking his meal within his room; and hearing the soldiers talk without, he lost his wits, and remained stupified with fear. But having had time to recollect himself, and being a man fertile in expedients, he sent out Did, his youngest son, who was extremely handsome; and putting in his hands a few cakes of mixed wheat and barley, with some dishes of pulse and greens, which he had before him, he added this message: Friends, as you are come to a fakir’s house partake of his fare for a while, until he comes himself. The soldiers equally surprised and struck with the singularity of the message, and the beauty and tender age of the messenger, waited awhile. In the meanwhile Mahmed-aamin-qhan, whose distemper was a violent cholic, being actually seized with a paroxysm of his evil, the news in an instant spread everywhere, and reaching the soldiers, they all left Nom8d, and repaired to their quarters at their master’s gate, being anxious about the arrears due to them. The Vezir, who was actually attacked and overpowered by the worst species of that distemper, had lost his senses and was speechless; but as soon as he could open his eyes, he asked where was that man? It was represented to him that his accident had so much affected all his servants, that their attention had been entirely engrossed by their master’s situation, on which account the seizing and bringing the man had suffered a small delay. The Minister, displeased with the apology, ordered him to be brought without fail to-morrow morning. But in the evening the Minister himself being seized with another violent fit of his distemper, seemed to be so near his end, that his life was despaired of; and Nom8d, who was thinking how to make his escape, but to whom Haddi-aly-qhan and some others of his friends and followers were from moment to moment conveying intelligence of the Minister’s despaired state, at once plucked up courage, and sending for a number of his followers who flocked in shoals to him, he gave broad hints of the Vezier’s being at the agonies of death, an intelligence that was now brought to him explicitly. On this notice he came out of his house with a serene air of satisfaction, and took up his seat in the mosque close to his door; upon which his followers, relations, and friends, immediately filled the mosque and street. But at this very time Camer-eddin-qhan, son to the dying Minister, having been over­come by the fears of the old women of the seraglio, and by the apprehensions of men as weak as the women themselves, he sent at day-break his own Divan with a bag of five thousand rupees to that impostor as an atonement for his father’s misbehaviour, and a price for some Amulets of his own writing, which were requested as a favour. The man who had already received a short note with intelligence of the Minister’s death, now spread­ing his wings full open, and taking a lofty soar, he was discours­ing in a high tone of voice, and saying these very words:—I have shot such an arrow into that Pagan’s heart as will never let him recover. Nevertheless, in imitation of my ancestor, who was martyrized in a mosque,* I am come to receive martyrdom in this mosque, although, indeed, would he add after a pause, I cannot receive it since I have been already martyrized once (an expression by which he alluded to the abortion suffered by the younger Fatema). He was yet speaking, when Camer-eddin-qhan’s Divan came in, and laid the money at his feet, as a price for his writing a Taaviz or Amulet, adding at the same time an humble message from the son, expressive of a hope that he would forgive Mahmed-aamin’s transgressions (for such was his expres­sion). The inspired man’s answer was: That an arrow once shot, and a water once spilt, could not come back. This answer having produced a fresh effusion of prayers and supplications, he turned towards his future successor, and bid him write these Arabic words of the Coran:—We have sent the Coran down for the bene­fit of the believers, nor is there in it any thing for tyrants but loss and disadvantage. The paper being written, he put it in the Divan’s hands, and bade him carry it quickly, although, added he, I know it will avail nothing, as by the time thou shalt be arrived, the man will already have ceased to live. The Divan humbly insisted on his accepting the money, but he refused it constantly, saying: That for his part he would not so much as touch it; but that the poor people present might take it, if they pleased. Hardly had these words come out of his mouth, when those Indian beggars, accustomed to overrun a whole city for the sake of a few pieces of copper, getting up at once, in a moment made away with the whole sum. The Devan, on his return, heard by the way that the Vezir was gone to the place he had deserved; and the intelligence being then publicly conveyed to Nom8d, he got up, dismissed the congregation, and went home with an air of satisfaction and triumph. But meanwhile this miracle of his being rumoured abroad, and exaggerated all over the city, did not fail to produce a plentiful crop of sots and idiots.

Three years after this miracle, Nom8d himself with all his whimsies and artifices died, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Nema-nom8d, who fell out with his brothers, and with several of his father’s followers, on account of the shares of a family estate which he had been presented with by his disciple, Hadi-qhan, and which the father had assigned to Vedji-bar and to his other con­fidants, in his life time, as an acknowledgment for their faithful services. These disputes did not please Vedji-bar, who more than once observed to Nema-nom8d, that he had better sit quiet and be silent, than to fall out with one, who by his age was not likely to be his guest many years longer. But as Nema-nom8d was already in his father’s lifetime accustomed to bear a sway, and to govern his followers, and he could not suspect that they could His imposture set open by one of his associates. alter or change their notions of his son’s importance, he paid no attention to Vedji-bar’s clamours, a conduct which could not fail to incense the latter, who thought himself equal to his master in every artifice and every imposture, and had, moreover, always acted as the other’s right-hand-man. These dissensions rose so high that, when the congregation of Ferb8ds proved more numer­ous than usual, he appeared in the middle of them, and with a deal of deliberateness, he delivered himself in these words:—Friends, said he, do you know my handwriting from that of the late Nomo8d’s. He was answered in the affirmative by numbers, who really knew both hands. Upon which he went into a closet, and brought out from thence the flap of his cloak full of a quantity of writings, containing the rough draughts and original minutes of the law book, which the impostor had published. The text appeared evidently written by both hands alternately, with plenty of alterations, interlineations, in either hand, and plenty of erasures. These being handed about for some time amongst the by-standers, most of whom could readily distinguish one hand from the other, the man still standing added these very words: Friends! let me tell you that this new religion and sect have been contrived by Nom8d with your humble servant’s assistance. Had it come from God, it would have come at one stroke,* without needing so much erasing, and so many alterations and corrections. These words struck the whole assembly. The writings and evidence being acknowledged on all hands, many who had still some common sense left, smiled at their own credulity, and went away pretty much altered in their belief; and the matter being rumoured abroad, the desertion increased, and those mixed assemblies of impostors and idiots, and knaves and sects, were very much thinned. Nema-nom8d, confounded at such a reverse, made up matters with Vedji-bar. But it was too late, the matter had got abroad; and Nema-nom8d finding how matters went to wreck, retired to an estate in the Döab, with which Hady-aaly-qhan had compli­mented the family, and it was there he took up his abode, by styling himself Shah-feghar or Saint Feghar, successor to his father’s carpet.

This Shah-feghar or Saint Feghar was a man of a pleasant aspect, and very sensible conversation; nor was he destitute of learning. I, the poor man, knew both him and his brother, Did, as well as Vedji-bar, as well as Mir-bakyr, who all became his successors, each in their turn. I have seen them all, known them all personally, spoken often to them; and what has been delivered in these sheets, are the result of either what I have heard from their mouths, or of what was said by those who conversed with them these many years past. Shah-feghar lived mostly under Mahmed-shah, and he even saw some years of the beginning of Ahmed-shah’s reign. This monarch, who, after Nadyr-shah’s departure, was observed often to amuse himself with fakirs and other religious persons, had given him free access to his person. But after that Prince’s decease, he found means to introduce him­self to the Navvab D8javid-qhan, another inspired personage, whose revelations called D8javidian-revelations, several persons out of flattery were collecting into one volume, in writing and arranging which Shah-feghar was associated to some other cor­rectors. Did, his younger brother, died about this time, and was in a few years followed by his elder, Shah-feghar. It was about the beginning of Mahmed-shah’s reign. Most of his father’s sectators and admirers were already dead in Feghar’s lifetime, and more had deserted him since that event; nor did there remain to him but some few idiots stupidly wedded to those whimsies. After Shah-fegar’s decease, and the ruin of Shah-djehan-abad, some of Nom8d’s nearest relations, like the remains of the tribes of Ad and Semood,* taking a dislike to that ruined city, repaired to Bengal, where they were recommended by some silly courtiers to Miren, son to Mir-djaafer-qhan, who had assumed the Nizamet or government of that province, and they were so well supported, that Miren complimented them with a spot of ground, since called Cadem-ress8l, and a pension of five rupees a day; but most of these people were already gone to hell, the place of their destination, in Mir-djaafer-qhan’s lifetime, of which Prince I hope to speak at large in the subsequent sheets. Nor did any one remain of that worthless impostor’s race, that I know, except Nema-nom8d-yar, and some of the impostor’s women, who are alive to this day in the year 1194 of the Hedjra.* So that the race of that worthless man was put an end to, thanks to God, and we can now revert to our general history.