Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/130

Rh common origin with the stones fallen on the earth. This he obtained from Colonel Kirkpatrick, and it consists of a translation from the Persian, made by the Colonel, of a passage in the Memoirs of the Emperor Jehangire, written by himself. The substance of this ex- tract is as follows: In the ﬁrst year of this Emperor’s reign (A. 1030 of the Hegira) there arose one morning in a village, about 100 miles East of Lahore, such a tremendous noise as had near deprived the in- habitants of their sense of hearing. During this noise, a luminous body was observed to fall from above on the earth, suggesting to the beholders the idea that the ﬁrmament was pouring ﬁre. In a short time the noise having subsided, and the inhabitants having reoovered from their alarm, a messenger was dispatched by them to the Aumil, or ﬁscal superintendant of the district, to apprise him of the event. This magistrate immediately repaired to the spot, and there perceived that the earth, to an extent of about ten or twelve yards in diameter, was burnt to such a degree that not a blade of grass nor the least trace of verdure remained ; nor had the heat, which had been communicated to it, as yet subsided.

The Aumil hereupon caused the aforesaid space of ground to be dug up. The deeper they went the greater was the heat found to be. At length a lump of iron made its appearance, the heat of which was so great that one might have supposed it to have been taken from a furnace. After some time it became cold, when the Aumil conveyed it to his own habitation, from whence be dispatched it to court.

Here (the Emperor says) I had it weighed in my presence, and found its weight to fall little short of 80 ounces. I committed it to a skilful artist, with orders to make it into a sabre, a knife, and a dagger; but the workman soon reported to me that the substance would not bear the hammer, but shivered into pieces when struck. Upon this I ordered it to be mixed with other iron. Accordingly three parts of this iron of lightning, as we called it, were mixed with one part of common iron; and from this mixture were made two sabres, one knife, and one dagger. By the addition of the common iron, the new substance acquired a ﬁne temper, the blades fabricated from it proving as elastic as the most perfect that can be made in our country. I had them tried in my presence, and found that they cut admirably. One of the sabres I called Katai, or the Gutter, and the other Bush-smisht, or the Lightning-natured.

In a tetrastich presented to the Emperor on this occasion, it is asserted that in his time fell raw iron from lightning. Colonel Kirkpatrick certiﬁes the genuineness of the manuscript, and the ﬁdelity of the translation; and Mr. Greville adds, that he considers this as an authentic fact, the Emperor J ehangire not being a prince on whom his courtiers would idly venture to impose, or to whom an Aumil of a district would have dared to produce a substance pretending it to be iron, which on trial should be found to differ from manufactured iron.