The Bābur-nāma

The lūja1774 is another. This bird they call (Ar.) bū-qalamūn (chameleon) because, between head and tail, it has five or six changing colours, resplendent (barrāq) like a pigeon’s throat. It is about as large as the kabg-i-darī1775 and seems to be the kabg-i-darī of Hindūstān. As the kabg-i-darī moves (yūrūr) on the heads (kulah) of mountains, so does this. It is in the Nijr-aū mountains of the countries of Kābul, and in the mountains lower down but it is not found higher up. People tell this wonderful thing about it: – When the birds, at the onset of winter, descend to the hill-skirts, if they come over a vineyard, they can fly no further and are taken. God knows the truth! The flesh of this bird is very savoury.

The partridge (durrāj)1776 is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān but is also in the Garm-sīr countries1777; as however some kinds are only in Hindūstān, particulars of them are given here. The durrāj (Francolinus vulgaris) may be of the same bulk as the kīklīk1778; the cock’s back is the colour of the hen-pheasant (qīrghāwal-ning māda-sī); its throat and breast are black, with quite white spots.1779 A red line comes down on both sides of both eyes.1780 It is named from its cry1781 which is something like Shir dāram shakrak.1782 It pronounces shir short; dāram shakrak it says distinctly. Astarābād partridges are said to cry Bāt mīnī tūtīlār (Quick! they have caught me). The partridge of Arabia and those parts is understood to cry, Bi’l shakar tadawm al ni‘am (with sugar pleasure endures)! The hen-bird has the colour of the young pheasant. These birds are found below Nijr-aū. – Another kind is called kanjāl. Its bulk may be that of the one already described. Its voice is very like that of the kīklīk but much shriller. There is little difference in colour between the cock and hen. It is found in Parashāwar, Hashnagar and countries lower down, but not higher up.

The p(h)ūl-paikār1783 is another. Its size may be that of the kabg-i-darī; its shape is that of the house-cock, its colour that of the hen. From forehead (tūmāgh) to throat it is of a beautiful colour, quite red. It is in the Hindūstān mountains.

The wild-fowl (ṣaḥrāī-tāūgh)1784 is another. It flies like a pheasant, and is not of all colours as house-fowl are. It is in the mountains of Bajaur and lower down, but not higher up.

The chīlsī (or jīlsī)1785 is another. In bulk it equals the p(h)ūl-paikār but the latter has the finer colouring. It is in the mountains of Bajaur.

The shām1786 is another. It is about as large as a house-fowl; its colour is unique (ghair mukarrar).1787 It also is in the mountains of Bajaur.

The quail (P. būdana) is another. It is not peculiar to Hindūstān but four or five kinds are so. – One is that which goes to our countries (Tramontana), larger and more spreading than the (Hindūstān) quail.1788– Another kind1789 is smaller than the one first named. Its primaries and tail are reddish. It flies in flocks like the chīr (Phasianus Wallichii). – Another kind is smaller than that which goes to our countries and is darker on throat and breast.1790– Another kind goes in small numbers to Kābul; it is very small, perhaps a little larger than the yellow wag-tail (qārcha)1791; they call it qūrātū in Kābul.

The Indian bustard (P. kharchāl)1792 is another. It is about as large as the (T.) tūghdāq (Otis tarda, the great bustard), and seems to be the tūghdāq of Hindūstān.1793 Its flesh is delicious; of some birds the leg is good, of others, the wing; of the bustard all the meat is delicious and excellent.

The florican (P. charz)1794 is another. It is rather less than the tūghdīrī (houbara)1795; the cock’s back is like the tūghdīrī’s, and its breast is black. The hen is of one colour.

The Hindūstān sand-grouse (T. bāghrī-qarā)1796 is another. It is smaller and slenderer than the bāghrī-qarā [Pterocles arenarius] of those countries (Tramontana). Also its cry is sharper.

Of the birds that frequent water and the banks of rivers, one is the dīng,1797 an animal of great bulk, each wing measuring a qūlāch (fathom). It has no plumage (tūqī) on head or neck; a thing like a bag hangs from its neck; its back is black; its breast is white. It goes sometimes to Kābul; one year people brought one they had caught. It became very tame; if meat were thrown to it, it never failed to catch it in its bill. Once it swallowed a six-nailed shoe, another time a whole fowl, wings and feathers, all right down.

The sāras (Grus antigone) is another. Turks in Hindūstān call it tīwa-tūrnā (camel-crane). It may be smaller than the dīng but its neck is rather longer. Its head is quite red.1798 People keep this bird at their houses; it becomes very tame.

The mānek1799 is another. In stature it approaches the sāras, but its bulk is less. It resembles the lag-lag (Ciconia alba, the white stork) but is much larger; its bill is larger and is black. Its head is iridescent, its neck white, its wings partly-coloured; the tips and border-feathers and under parts of the wings are white, their middle black.

Another stork (lag-lag) has a white neck and all other parts black. It goes to those countries (Tramontana). It is rather smaller than the lag-lag (Ciconia alba). A Hindūstānī calls it yak-rang (one colour?).

Another stork in colour and shape is exactly like the storks that go to those countries. Its bill is blacker and its bulk much less than the lag-lag’s (Ciconia alba).1800

Another bird resembles the grey heron (aūqār) and the lag-lag; but its bill is longer than the heron’s and its body smaller than the white stork’s (lag-lag).

Another is the large buzak1801 (black ibis). In bulk it may equal the buzzard (Turkī, sār). The back of its wings is white. It has a loud cry.

The white buzak1802 is another. Its head and bill are black. It is much larger than the one that goes to those countries,1803 but smaller than the Hindūstān buzak.1804

The gharm-pāī1805 (spotted-billed duck) is another. It is larger than the sūna būrchīn1806 (mallard). The drake and duck are of one colour. It is in Hashnagar at all seasons, sometimes it goes into the Lamghānāt. Its flesh is very savoury.

The shāh-murgh (Sarcidiornis melanonotus, comb duck or nukta) is another. It may be a little smaller than a goose. It has a swelling on its bill; its back is black; its flesh is excellent eating.

The zummaj is another. It is about as large as the būrgūt (Aquila chrysaetus, the golden eagle).

The (T.) ālā-qārgha of Hindūstān is another (Corvus cornix, the pied crow). This is slenderer and smaller than the ālā-qārgha of those countries (Tramontana). Its neck is partly white.

Another Hindūstān bird resembles the crow (T. qārcha, C. splendens) and the magpie (Ar. ‘aqqa). In the Lamghānāt people call it the jungle-bird (P. murgh-i-jangal).1807 Its head and breast are black; its wings and tail reddish; its eye quite red. Having a feeble flight, it does not come out of the jungle, whence its name.

The great bat (P. shapara)1808 is another. People call it (Hindī) chumgādur. It is about as large as the owl (T. yāpālāq, Otus brachyotus), and has a head like a puppy’s. When it is thinking of lodging for the night on a tree, it takes hold of a branch, turns head-downwards, and so remains. It has much singularity.

The magpie (Ar. ‘aqqa) is another. People call it (H.?) matā (Dendrocitta rufa, the Indian tree-pie). It may be somewhat less than the ‘aqqa (Pica rustica), which moreover is pied black and white, while the matā is pied brown and black.1809

Another is a small bird, perhaps of the size of the (T.) sāndūlāch.1810 It is of a beautiful red with a little black on its wings.

The karcha1811 is another; it is after the fashion of a swallow (T. qārlūghāch), but much larger and quite black.

The kūīl1812 (Eudynamys orientalis, the koel) is another. It may be as large as the crow (P. zāg) but is much slenderer. It has a kind of song and is understood to be the bulbul of Hindūstān. Its honour with Hindūstānīs is as great as is the bulbul’s. It always stays in closely-wooded gardens.

Another bird is after the fashion of the (Ar.) shiqarrāk (Cissa chinensis, the green-magpie). It clings to trees, is perhaps as large as the green-magpie, and is parrot-green (Gecinus striolatus, the little green-woodpecker?).

(k. Fauna of Hindūstān: – Aquatic animals.)

One is the water-tiger (P. shīr-ābī, Crocodilus palustris).1813 This is in the standing-waters. It is like a lizard (T. gīlās).1814 People say it carries off men and even buffaloes.

The (P.) siyāh-sār (black-head) is another. This also is like a lizard. It is in all rivers of Hindūstān. One that was taken and brought in was about 4-5 qārī (cir. 13 feet) long and as thick perhaps as a sheep. It is said to grow still larger. Its snout is over half a yard long. It has rows of small teeth in its upper and lower jaws. It comes out of the water and sinks into the mud (bātā).

The (Sans.) g[h]aṛīāl (Gavialus gangeticus) is another.1815 It is said to grow large; many in the army saw it in the Sarū (Gogra) river. It is said to take people; while we were on that river’s banks (934-935 A.H.), it took one or two slave-women (dādūk), and it took three or four camp-followers between Ghāzīpūr and Banāras. In that neighbourhood I saw one but from a distance only and not quite clearly.

The water-hog (P. khūk-ābī, Platanista gangetica, the porpoise) is another. This also is in all Hindūstān rivers. It comes up suddenly out of the water; its head appears and disappears; it dives again and stays below, shewing its tail. Its snout is as long as the siyāh-sār’s and it has the same rows of small teeth. Its head and the rest of its body are fish-like. When at play in the water, it looks like a water-carrier’s bag (mashak). Water-hogs, playing in the Sarū, leap right out of the water; like fish, they never leave it.

Again there is the kalah (or galah) – fish [bāligh].1816 Two bones each about 3 inches (aīlīk) long, come out in a line with its ears; these it shakes when taken, producing an extraordinary noise, whence, seemingly, people have called it kalah [or galah].

The flesh of Hindūstān fishes is very savoury; they have no odour (aīd) or tiresomeness.1817 They are surprisingly active. On one occasion when people coming, had flung a net across a stream, leaving its two edges half a yard above the water, most fish passed by leaping a yard above it. In many rivers are little fish which fling themselves a yard or more out of the water if there be harsh noise or sound of feet.

The frogs of Hindūstān, though otherwise like those others (Tramontane), run 6 or 7 yards on the face of the water.1818

(l. Vegetable products of Hindūstān: Fruits.)

The mango (P. anbah) is one of the fruits peculiar to Hindūstān. Hindūstānīs pronounce the b in its name as though no vowel followed it (i. e. Sans. anb);1819 this being awkward to utter, some people call the fruit [P.] naghzak1820 as Khwāja Khusrau does: —

Naghzak-i mā [var. khẉash] naghz-kun-i būstān,Naghztarīn mewa [var. na‘mat]-i-Hindūstān.1821

Mangoes when good, are very good, but, many as are eaten, few are first-rate. They are usually plucked unripe and ripened in the house. Unripe, they make excellent condiments (qātīq), are good also preserved in syrup.1822 Taking it altogether, the mango is the best fruit of Hindūstān. Some so praise it as to give it preference over all fruits except the musk-melon (T. qāwūn), but such praise outmatches it. It resembles the kārdī peach.1823 It ripens in the rains. It is eaten in two ways: one is to squeeze it to a pulp, make a hole in it, and suck out the juice, – the other, to peel and eat it like the kārdī peach. Its tree grows very large1824 and has a leaf somewhat resembling the peach-tree’s. The trunk is ill-looking and ill-shaped, but in Bengāl and Gujrāt is heard of as growing handsome (khūb).1825

The plantain (Sans. kelā, Musa sapientum) is another.1826 An ‘Arab calls it mauz.1827 Its tree is not very tall, indeed is not to be called a tree, since it is something between a grass and a tree. Its leaf is a little like that of the amān-qarā1828 but grows about 2 yards (qārī]) long and nearly one broad. Out of the middle of its leaves rises, heart-like, a bud which resembles a sheep’s heart. As each leaf (petal) of this bud expands, there grows at its base a row of 6 or 7 flowers which become the plantains. These flowers become visible with the lengthening of the heart-like shoot and the opening of the petals of the bud. The tree is understood to flower once only.1829 The fruit has two pleasant qualities, one that it peels easily, the other that it has neither stone nor fibre.1830 It is rather longer and thinner than the egg-plant (P. bādanjān; Solanum melongena). It is not very sweet; the Bengāl plantain (i. e. chīnī-champa) is, however, said to be very sweet. The plantain is a very good-looking tree, its broad, broad, leaves of beautiful green having an excellent appearance.

The anblī (H. imlī, Tamarindus indica, the tamarind) is another. By this name (anblī) people call the khurmā-i-hind (Indian date-tree).1831 It has finely-cut leaves (leaflets), precisely like those of the (T.) būīā, except that they are not so finely-cut.1832 It is a very good-looking tree, giving dense shade. It grows wild in masses too.

The (Beng.) mahuwā (Bassia latifolia) is another.1833 People call it also (P.) gul-chikān (or chigān, distilling-flower). This also is a very large tree. Most of the wood in the houses of Hindūstānīs is from it. Spirit (‘araq) is distilled from its flowers,1834 not only so, but they are dried and eaten like raisins, and from them thus dried, spirit is also extracted. The dried flowers taste just like kishmish;1835 they have an ill-flavour. The flowers are not bad in their natural state1836; they are eatable. The mahuwā grows wild also. Its fruit is tasteless, has rather a large seed with a thin husk, and from this seed, again,1837 oil is extracted.

The mimusops (Sans. khirnī, Mimusops kauki) is another. Its tree, though not very large, is not small. The fruit is yellow and thinner than the red jujube (T. chīkdā, Elæagnus angustifolia). It has just the grape’s flavour, but a rather bad after-taste; it is not bad, however, and is eatable. The husk of its stoneæ is thin.

The (Sans.) jāman (Eugenia jambolana)1838 is another. Its leaf, except for being thicker and greener, is quite like the willow’s (T. tāl). The tree does not want for beauty. Its fruit is like a black grape, is sourish, and not very good.

The (H.) kamrak (Beng. kamrunga, Averrhoa carambola) is another. Its fruit is five-sided, about as large as the ‘ain-ālū1839 and some 3 inches long. It ripens to yellow; gathered unripe, it is very bitter; gathered ripe, its bitterness has become sub-acid, not bad, not wanting in pleasantness.1840

The jack-fruit (H. kadhil, B. kanthal, Artocarpus integrifolia) is another.1841 This is a fruit of singular form and flavour; it looks like a sheep’s stomach stuffed and made into a haggis (gīpa);1842 and it is sickeningly-sweet. Inside it are filbert-like stones1843 which, on the whole, resemble dates, but are round, not long, and have softer substance; these are eaten. The jack-fruit is very adhesive; for this reason people are said to oil mouth and hands before eating of it. It is heard of also as growing, not only on the branches of its tree, but on trunk and root too.1844 One would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises.1845

The monkey-jack (H. badhal, B. burhul, Artocarpus lacoocha) is another. The fruit may be of the size of a quince (var. apple). Its smell is not bad.1846 Unripe it is a singularly tasteless and empty1847 thing; when ripe, it is not so bad. It ripens soft, can be pulled to pieces and eaten anywhere, tastes very much like a rotten quince, and has an excellent little austere flavour.

The lote-fruit (Sans. ber, Zizyphus jujuba) is another. Its Persian name is understood to be kanār.1848 It is of several kinds: of one the fruit is larger than the plum (ālūcha)1849; another is shaped like the Ḥusainī grape. Most of them are not very good; we saw one in Bāndīr (Gūālīār) that was really good. The lote-tree sheds its leaves under the Signs S̤aur and Jauzā (Bull and Twins), burgeons under Sarat̤ān and Asad (Crab and Lion) which are the true rainy-season, – then becoming fresh and green, and it ripens its fruit under Dalū and Ḥaut (Bucket i. e. Aquarius, and Fish).

The (Sans.) karaūndā (Carissa carandas, the corinda) is another. It grows in bushes after the fashion of the (T.) chīka of our country.1850 but the chīka grows on mountains, the karaūndā on the plains. In flavour it is like the rhubarb itself,1851 but is sweeter and less juicy.

The (Sans.) pānīyālā (Flacourtia cataphracta)1852 is another. It is larger than the plum (ālūcha) and like the red-apple unripe.1853 It is a little austere and is good. The tree is taller than the pomegranate’s; its leaf is like that of the almond-tree but smaller.

The (H.) gūlar (Ficus glomerata, the clustered fig)1854 is another. The fruit grows out of the tree-trunk, resembles the fig (P. anjīr), but is singularly tasteless.

The (Sans.) āmlā (Phyllanthus emblica, the myrobalan-tree) is another. This also is a five-sided fruit.1855 It looks like the unblown cotton-pod. It is an astringent and ill-flavoured thing, but confiture made of it is not bad. It is a wholesome fruit. Its tree is of excellent form and has very minute leaves.

The (H.) chirūnjī (Buchanania latifolia)1856 is another. This tree had been understood to grow in the hills, but I knew later about it, because there were three or four clumps of it in our gardens. It is much like the mahuwā. Its kernel is not bad, a thing between the walnut and the almond, not bad! rather smaller than the pistachio and round; people put it in custards (P. pālūda) and sweetmeats (Ar. ḥalwa).

The date-palm (P. khurmā, Phœnix dactylifera) is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān, but is here described because it is not in those countries (Tramontana). It grows in Lamghān also.1857 Its branches (i. e. leaves) grow from just one place at its top; its leaves (i. e. leaflets) grow on both sides of the branches (midribs) from neck (būīn) to tip; its trunk is rough and ill-coloured; its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger. People say that the date-palm amongst vegetables resembles an animal in two respects: one is that, as, if an animal’s head be cut off, its life is taken, so it is with the date-palm, if its head is cut off, it dries off; the other is that, as the offspring of animals is not produced without the male, so too with the date-palm, it gives no good fruit unless a branch of the male-tree be brought into touch with the female-tree. The truth of this last matter is not known (to me). The above-mentioned head of the date-palm is called its cheese. The tree so grows that where its leaves come out is cheese-white, the leaves becoming green as they lengthen. This white part, the so-called cheese, is tolerable eating, not bad, much like the walnut. People make a wound in the cheese, and into this wound insert a leaf(let), in such a way that all liquid flowing from the wound runs down it.1858 The tip of the leaflet is set over the mouth of a pot suspended to the tree in such a way that it collects whatever liquor is yielded by the wound. This liquor is rather pleasant if drunk at once; if drunk after two or three days, people say it is quite exhilarating (kaifīyat). Once when I had gone to visit Bārī,1859 and made an excursion to the villages on the bank of the Chaṃbal-river, we met in with people collecting this date-liquor in the valley-bottom. A good deal was drunk; no hilarity was felt; much must be drunk, seemingly, to produce a little cheer.

The coco-nut palm (P. nārgīl, Cocos nucifera) is another. An ‘Arab gives it Arabic form1860 and says nārjīl; Hindūstān people say nālīr, seemingly by popular error.1861 Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (qarā qāshūq) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (būsh), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.

The (Sans.) tāṛ (Borassus flabelliformis, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (i. e. leaves) also are quite at its top. Just as with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor tāṛī;1862 it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (i. e. leaf-stems)1863 there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (daftar yūsūnlūq).

The orange (Ar. nāranj, Citrus aurantium) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.1864 Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,1865 is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 yīghāch (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 yīghāch.1866 The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, “We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000.” It had been always in my mind that the word nāranj was an Arabic form;1867 it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) nārang.1868

The lime (B. līmū, C. acida) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen’s egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.1869

The citron (P. turunj,1870 C. medica) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it bālang and hence give the name bālang-marabbā to its marmalade (marabbā) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the turunj bajaurī.1871 There are two kinds of turunj: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt turunj; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (nāranj). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a larger leaf than the orange.