Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/50

 at Papamhow. To this place we had sent the pinnace, the Seagull; and on the 10th of the month my husband accompanied me two days' sail on my voyage, to revisit my relations at Fathīghar, after which, he returned to Allahabad, leaving me and the great spaniel Nero to proceed together. The daily occurrences of this voyage may be omitted, only recording any adventure that occurred during the course of it. The stream is so excessively powerful, that at times, even with a fine strong breeze and thirteen men on the towing-line, we are forced to quit the main stream, and proceed up some smaller branch, which occasions delay.

Aug. 14th.—Arrived at Kurrah, a celebrated place in former days, I wished to go on shore to see the tomb of Shaikh Karrick, and to have a canter on the black pony, who was to meet me there; but was obliged to give up the idea, because we were compelled to go up the other side of the river in consequence of the violence and rapidity of the stream.

In 1295, Alla, the son of Feroze, the second King of Delhi, was Governor of Kurrah and Subadar of Oude. Alla made an expedition into the Deccan, and returned laden with spoil. Six hundred m[)u]n of pure gold; seven m[)u]n of pearls; two m[)u]n of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires; one thousand m[)u]n of silver, and four thousand pieces of silk, &c.

The King of Delhi, wishing to share in his nephew's plunder, came down to Kurrah. Alla met him when his boat touched the bank of the river; and, after the fondest greetings, made a sign to two men, who came forward and murdered the king on the spot.

They relate, that when Alla visited a celebrated sage, Shaikh Karrick, who is buried at Kurrah, and whose tomb is held sacred to this day, he rose from his pillow, and repeated an extempore verse to the following purport:—"He cometh, but his head shall fall in the boat, and his body in the Ganges," which, they say, was explained an hour afterwards by the death of the King Feroze, whose head was thrown into the boat on that occasion. One of the assassins died of a horrible leprosy, which dissolved the flesh piecemeal from his bones; the other