Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/246

 204 TIMUK'S ACCOUNT OF HIS INVASION are each ordained by Him, so that I gave no credence to the words of the astrologers and star-gazers, but besought the Giver of victory to favour my arms. I did not wish the war to be of long continuance; so as soon as night was over and morning came, I arose to my devotions. I said the morning prayers in the congregation, and repeated my private prayers, after which I took the Koran, opened it at random, and placed my finger at a venture on a verse in the chapter of the Bee, which I received as a propitious indication, and acted in full reliance on its command and on the favour of God. On the fifth of Rabi'-al-akhir (Dec. 15) I passed the Jumna by a ford, and pitched my tents on the other side of the river; after which I gave orders to the amirs and other officers to station their men as near my tent as possible; and also directed that the ground around the camp should be parcelled out among them, and that each one should have a deep ditch dug in front of his allotment. All the soldiers, great and small, assembled to dig the ditch, which was constructed around the entire camp in two watches of the day. I then rode out to inspect it, and ordered that the trees in the vicinity should be cut down, and brought within the ditch; that their branches should be formed into a strong abattis, and that in some places planks should be set up. It had been constantly dinned into the ears of my soldiers that the chief reliance of the armies of Hin- dustan was on their mighty elephants, which, com-