The Mogul Is Said To Keep
30,000 Elephants, At A Most Enormous Expence; And In Feeding Them,
Together With His Lions And Other Beasts, He Expends An Incredible Sum
Of Money, Being At The Least 10,000 Pounds Sterling Daily.
I have myself
rode upon an elephant since I came to this court, meaning in my next
book to have my effigies represented in that form.
This king keeps a
thousand women for his own use, the chiefest of whom, called Normal,
(Noormahal) is his queen.
In my ten months journey between Aleppo and this court, I spent just
three pounds sterling, yet fared reasonably every day; victuals being so
cheap in some of the countries through which I travelled, that I often
lived competently for one penny a-day. Of that three pounds, I was
actually cozened out of ten shillings, by certain evil Christians of the
Armenian nation; so that in reality I only expended fifty shillings in
all that time. I have been in a city of this country called
Detee,[249] where Alexander the Great joined battle with Porus king of
India, and defeated him; and where, in memory of his victory, he caused
erect a brazen pillar, which remains there to this day. At this time I
have many irons in the fire, as I am learning the Persian, Turkish, and
Arabic languages, having already acquired the Italian. I have been
already three months at the court of the Great Mogul, and propose, God
willing, to remain here five months longer, till I have got these three
languages; after which I propose to visit the river Ganges, and then to
return to the court of Persia.
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