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 ROE'S ACCOUNT OF JAHANGIB, 75 flagons. So drinking, and commanding others, his Maj- estie and all his Lords became the finest men I ever saw, of a thousand humours/' At other times Jahan- gir waxed solemn and sentimental: " The good King fell to dispute of the Lawes of Moses, Jesus, and Ma- homet, and in drinke was so kinde, that he turned to me and said: I am a king, you shall be welcome: Chris- tians, Moores, Jewes, he medled not with their faith; they came all in love, and he would protect them from wrong, they lived under his safety, and none should oppresse them; and this often repeated, but in extreame drunkenesse, he fell to weeping and to divers passions, and so kept us till midnight." On another occasion the ambassador found him sharing the coarse meal of " a filthy beggar " a holy fakir, no doubt " taking him up in his armes, which no cleanly body durst, unbracing him, and three times laying his hand on his heart, call- ing him father ": for superstition was a potent factor in this singular specimen of royalty. Among the court festivals which Sir Thomas Roe witnessed, none was more curious than the process of weighing the Great Moghul. " The first of September was the King's Birth-day, and the solemnitie of his weighing, to which I went, and was carryed into a very large and beautiful Garden, the square within all water, on the sides flowres and trees, in the midst a Pinacle, where was prepared the scales, being hung in large tressels, and a crosse beame plated on with Gold thinne: the scales of massie Gold, the borders set with small stones, Rubies and Turkeys, the Chaines of Gold large