Page:The Musnud of Murshidabad (1704 - 1904).djvu/280

[ 168 ] himself and, above all, a faithful servant and a loyal adherent of his master, the unparalledunparalled [sic] generosity of whose royal house has, in recognition of his services, continued to his family, after his death on his return from pilgrimage to Gya, its help for over half a century now.

There are two most interesting objects jealously preserved in the family, a mandate from the Temple of Baidyanath and a small plant possessing extra- ordinary medicinal properties. The latter is supposed to have grown in the quadrangle of the Temple of Cufa in Arabia and to have been brought by a faqir who gave it to Rai Saheb. It is a small, dried up, shrunken, soot colored thing, which when thrown into water, exhibits signs of vegetable life and developes into a plant with distinctly visible roots, stem, branches, leaves, blossoms, flowers, petals and fruits. The water, in which it has been dipped, is efficacious, when drunk, in expediting labour and easy delivery. When withdrawn from the water, the plant dries up, shrinks and assumes its usual size and dark and dead appearance.

The mandate from the Temple of Baidyanath ies written in the Nagri character upon Bhoojpatra, bearing the seal of the shrine, the signature of Isvariband Pujari and a representation of the Tem- ple of Baidyanath. The sandal colored bark, speckled with small white spots and small chocolate colored lines, has cracked in many places, but the writing