LETTER CLXXXII.

To the DEWÂN and BUKTSHY of each of the Seven KUCHURRIES of the Seat of the SULTANUT (or SERINGAPATAM); dated 10th TULOOEY. (17th December.)

(CIRCULAR.)

DIRECTING the birth-day of the Sultan, or the approaching 14th day of Tûlooey [20th December] to be celebrated, in the manner appointed in the Hûkm-nâmeh [on that head].

OBSERVATIONS.

In a loose paper in my possession, containing directions for the regulation of military salutes on various occasions,* there is a note, or memorandum, purport­ing, that the Sultan was born on the 14th of Tûlooey of the year of the Higera 1165; on the anniversary of which day it is ordered, “that a salute* of thirty-one “guns shall be fired at ten o’clock in the morning, and all the people of the city “observe the same as a festival.”

Whether or not this rejoicing was intended to be general throughout the king­dom, or was confined to the capital (Seringapatam), I am unable to say; but I believe that it was customary for the principal officers, however distant from court, to transmit Nuzrs of congratulation to the Sultan on the annual return of his birth-day.