Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/236

 small window, from which was thrown the body of the late Emperor Allumgeer, who had been assassinated at the instigation of his Vizier, Gaziodeen Khan. The assassins were two Mahomedan devotees, whom he had invited under the pretence of their working miracles. The body of this unfortunate prince, unburied, for two days lay on the sands of the Jumna. At last it was taken up by the permission of Gaziodeen, and interred in the sepulchre of Humaioon. To me it appears that the style of building in this mosque refers to a period in the architecture of the Hindoos prior to the Mogul conquests. The mosque at Paniput, erected by the Emperor Baber, may be looked upon as the model of all the succeeding Mogul buildings."

The Akbārābādee Masjid, which we next visited, is a large mosque, not very remarkable; perhaps this is the Masjid of the Akbārābādee Begam, whose tomb is near the Tāj at Agra.

Thence we went to the Zeenut-al-Masjid, on the side of the Jumna, erected by a daughter of Aurangzeb, by name Zeenut-al-Nissa; it is a very beautiful mosque, the minarets remarkably elegant, and two of the pillars in front of the entrance, beautifully carved, are of elegant form. "It is of red stone, with inlayings of marble, and has a spacious terrace in front, with a capacious reservoir, faced with marble. The princess who built it, having declined entering into the married state, laid out a large sum of money in the above mosque; and on its completion, she built a sepulchre of white marble, surrounded by a wall of the same, in the west corner of the terrace. Here she was buried, in the year of the Hijerah 1122, corresponding to the year of Christ, 1710."

We called on Colonel Skinner, and saw his sister, an old lady very like her brother, with a dark complexion and white hair. The Chandnī Chauk is a fine street, and its bazār the best in the city; we rode through it about 4 ; it was filled with crowds of gaily-dressed natives.

MASJID OF ROSHAN-OOL-DOWLA.

We observed with great interest the gilded domes of the mosque of Roshan-ool-Dowla, at one end of the Chandnī