Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/201

 During my stay at the house of the judge at Futtehpore, he allowed me to purchase some coins from the office, which are very curious. I took four of them; they are of fine silver, rather larger and heavier than the common rupee. About 125 of these coins were found by some children in a field five miles from Kurrah, in August, 1829, buried in an earthen pot. The letters are in the Arabic character, and the date corresponds with 1313, being 516 years ago. The greater part of the coins are perfectly bright, and look quite new; between the letters, the spaces are filled with the fine white sand in which they were buried.

On one side of the coin is written in Arabic,—fig 2,

"Sekunder al Sāni, illuminating the state, Commander of the Faithful."

On the other side,—fig. 1,

"The mighty Sultan, glory of the world and of religion, The victorious Mahmood Shāh, the Imperial."

Round the edge of the coin is written,—fig. 3,

"This silver deposited in a ditch in the year 3 and 10 and 100."

I brought the coins to England. The above translation of the Arabic is by the munshī of the office. At the bottom of the plate entitled "Hindostanī Song," is a copy of the Arabic inscription, written from the coins by the same munshī.

The Hindostanī song, written in the Persian character, may amuse the dear friends around the hearth of my childhood's home; and the translation into Hindostanī is annexed, lest errors may have occurred either in the written character or in putting it on stone: the oriental scholar is requested to draw the veil of kindness over any incorrectness in the Persian caligraphy of a poor hàjī in search of the picturesque.