Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/475

Rh caravan from Kābul passed by, and the peasant asked one of the merchants to give him one. The merchant answered: "Give us an agreement that your son, when he becomes Wazīr, will free us from transit dues." The man, wondering, agreed, and put his mark on the agreement. When the child was born he showed marvellous intelligence. One day he was sleeping near a well in his father's field, when a venerable old man, dressed in green, holding a sceptre in his hand, appeared to him in a vision, and ordered him to go to Delhi and attend a school there. The dream was repeated three times, and when the boy did not obey the order the old man threatened to break his bones with his sceptre. So the boy went to Delhi, where he soon became proficient in all the sciences. But he was obliged to earn his living as a day-labourer. One day he was working in the Emperor's palace, when Shāh Jahān received a letter from the King of Persia written in such a way that no one could read it. As the Emperor and his attendants passed by the youth saw that the letter could be read only by looking through the sheet from the back. At first he was afraid to interfere; but finally he ventured to address the Emperor. The Emperor at first was angry, but later on he sent for the youth, and ordered that he should be bathed and supplied with a court dress. He advanced in favour, and finally became Wazīr. Then he fulfilled his father's promise, and remitted the transit dues on the Kabul caravans.

When Shāh Jahān grew old he decided to select a successor from among his sons. So he ordered his Wazīr, Asadulla Khān Asafud-daula, to enquire and report. When the minister visited Dāra, the eldest of the princes, he was treated hospitably, and Dāra expressed the greatest devotion to him. Next he went to visit the second prince, Aurangzīb, who ordered him to wait at his gate until he had finished his prayers. When he was finally ushered in the prince treated him in an off-hand way and dis-