pled in flavour of the ambassadors.  When the emperor drew near, Kazi Jusof, one of these friendly lords, came up and ordered the ambassadors to prostrate themselves; and when they had done so, the emperor ordered them to arise and mount their horses, and to accompany him.  Then turning to them, he thus addressed Shadi Khoja, one of the ambassadors:  “The presents, rarities, horses, and wild beasts which are sent to me in future must be better chosen, in order to preserve and increase the amity which I have for your princes.  At the hunt, I mounted the horse which you presented me; but he is so vicious, and I am so old, that he threw me, by which I was wounded, and have received a contusion on my head, which gave me great anguish; but by laying much gold on the place, the pain is assuaged.”  Upon this, Shadi Khoja said, that it was the horse on which the great Amir Timid Karkan[5] used to ride; and that Shah Rokh, who kept him as a rarity, had sent him to the emperor, as the most valuable horse in all his dominion.  Being satisfied with this apology, the emperor called for a shaker, which he let fly at a crane; but on the bird returning, without seizing his prey, the emperor gave it three strokes on the head.  He then alighted from his horse, and sat down in a chair, resting his feet on another, and gave a shaker to Soltan Shah, and another to Soltan Ahmed, but none to Shadi Khoja.  After this he mounted his horse, and as he approached towards the city, was received by vast crowds of people with a thousand acclamations.

On the fourth of the before named month, the ambassadors were brought to court to receive their presents from the emperor; who was seated on his throne, and caused tables to be set before him, on which the presents were displayed.  These were much of the same nature with those already mentioned, which were given to Soltan Shah, and Bakshi Malek.  Sometime afterwards, the most beloved of the emperor’s wives died, and her death was made public on the eighth day of the month Jomada-al-awake, the next day being appointed for her interment.  The ladies belonging to the imperial family are buried, on a certain mountain, on which all the horses that belonged to them are turned out to graze at liberty for the rest of their lives.  At the same time, several maidens and Khojas of the palace, who had belonged to the retinue of the deceased, are placed in attendance on the grave, having provisions allowed them to subsist upon for live years, perhaps more; and when their victuals are expended, they are permitted to die of famine.  But on the ensuing night, the new palace took fire, not without suspicion of the astrologers haying a hand in it.  By this misfortune, the principal apartment, which was eighty cubits long, and thirty cubits broad, adorned with pillars, painted blue, and richly varnished, so large that three men could hardly grasp them, was entirely consumed.  From thence, the flames communicated to a kiosk or gallery of twenty fathoms, and to the apartment of the ladies,