Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/300

 252 THE MEMOIES OF THE EMPEROR BABAR Marching thence, I arranged the whole army in order of battle, with right and left wing and centre, and after reviewing it, performed the vim. The custom of the vim is that after the whole army is mounted, the commander takes a bow or whip in his hand and guesses at the number of the army, declaring that the troops may be so many. The number that I guessed was greater than the army turned out to be. At this station I directed that, according to the Ottoman custom, the gun-carriages should be joined together with twisted bull-hides, as with chains. Be- tween every two gun-carriages were six or seven breast- works, behind which the matchlockmen stood and dis- charged their pieces. I halted five or six days in this camp for the purpose of getting this apparatus ar- ranged. After every part of it was in order and ready, I convened all the amirs and men of any experience and knowledge, and held a general council. It was settled that as Panipat was a considerable city, it would cover one of our flanks by its buildings and houses, while we might fortify our front by covered defences and cannon, behind which the matchlockmen and in- fantry should be placed. With this resolution we broke up camp, and we reached Panipat in two marches on Thursday, the thirtieth of Jumada-1-akhir. On our right were the town and suburbs, and in front I placed the guns and covered defences which I had prepared. On the left, and at various other points, we drew ditches and made ramparts of the boughs of trees, but at the dis- tance of every bow-shot, space was left for a hundred