Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/99



[Nādir Shah invaded Northern India and overthrew the Emperor Muhammad Shah in 1739. On his return journey to his own country by way of the Bolán Pass he came in contact with the Sarai or Kalhora ruler of Sindh. Khudāyār Khan was at that time the Kalhora chief. His son Ghulám Shah was on a subsequent occasion attacked by Ahmad Shah Durrānī, who succeeded to Nādir Shah's power in Afghanistan and the Indus Valley. The two invasions are mixed up in this narrative.]

There was a King of Dehli named Muhammad Shah Chughatta, and in his father's time Sa’adullah had been Wazīr. He was also Wazīr at first under Muhammad Shah, but afterwards Muhammad Shah appointed a new Wazīr. One day Muhammad Shah was sitting on his throne and the new Wazir was sitting below him when Sa’adullah came in to pay his respects. The custom of the Wazīrs was to come in and join their hands and salaam, and then turn round and go and sit in their appointed places. Sa’adullah after making his salaam turned round and went to his place. The King and the new Wazīr laughed at him and said: "He turned round just like a monkey." Sa’adullah caught what they were saying, and he said: "I was Wazīr in your father's time, and now you say I am like a monkey. I swear to God I will make monkeys dance for you on the battlements of Dehli." He then wrote to Nādir Shah: "Dehli is deserted; come, strike, and take it. Only one man will resist you, Muhammad Shah's Wazīr, who will ride on an elephant's howdah, and draw his sword on you." Nādir Shah thereupon started, and came to Hindustan and attacked Dehli; and it was only then that Muhammad Shah heard that Nādir Shah had come to Dehli. A