Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/89

Rh within a red rail placed three steps above the level of the ordinary assemblage. In the midst of the audience chamber, immediately in front of the Emperor, was "one of his sheriffs, together with his Master Hangman, who is accompanied with forty hangmen, wearing on their heads a certain quilted cap, with an hatchet on their shoulders, and others with all sorts of whips, being there ready to do what the King commandeth." At this assemblage the Emperor was accustomed to administer justice after the manner of his father, but without the great Akbar's acumen or his magnanimity and tolerance. When the official work was done he retired to his "private place of prayer." His devotions ended, he had his principal meal, which consisted of four or five sorts of roasted meat washed down with a draught of "strong drink." Thereafter he repaired to his private room, "where none can come but such as himself nominateth." Hawkins, however, was regularly commanded to the imperial drinking den, and he gives a singular account of the routine observed at the nightly function.

The quantity of the Emperor's drink was regulated by his physicians, but the allowance was always ample, and to add to its effect Jehangir was accustomed to follow up the drinking of the last cup by consuming a quantity of opium. After this, "being in the height of his drink, he layeth him down to sleep, every man departing to his own home." Later in the evening when the Emperor had slept off the first effects of the alcohol and the drug his supper was brought in, and the final picture we have of the mighty monarch is of his being fed like a child prior to retiring for what remained of the night.

A singular idiosyncrasy which distinguished Jehangir