Tale I. The rise of Shīrū or Shīr Khān.
Before the birth of a child destined ultimately to rule Northern India, his mother dreamed that the moon had entered her womb. She got up and told the dream to her husband. To her surprise he gave her a sound beating. "I did this," he said, "to prevent you from going to sleep again to-night after such a good dream, lest a bad one may follow it and destroy its effect." One day the child cried to his father to give him a dirham (a coin worth about 5 pence). A darwesh who was passing by said: "What! the future king of India begging for a dirham!" When the boy grew up his mother sent him abroad to seek his fortune. He begged his way to Delhi, and lay down to sleep before the shop of a Hindu merchant. When the merchant came to open his shop in the morning he saw that a cobra was shading the face of the youth.[1] The Banya was impressed by the incident, and used his influence to obtain for the youth a commission in the army, where he rapidly gained distinction. One day in the madness of his pride, the Emperor Humāyūn cried out at a review: "With such an army I could fight God Almighty himself!" Shīr Khān and the other Muhammadans in resent at his impiety called out: "Let the infidels follow the infidel, and the faithful follow us." The army mutinied and elected Shīr Khān as their leader. He thus gained the throne, and in his prosperity he did not forget his benefactor, (who was the famous Hīmū Baqqāl), and allowed him to rule the kingdom for two days with full sovereign powers.[2]
II. The Wazīr of Shāh Jahān.
In the district of Jhang, in the Panjāb, there was once a peasant whose wife was about to give birth to a child. She longed for an apple, which her husband was unable to procure. Just then a
- ↑ This is a common incident in Indian folk-lore. See Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-lore of N. India, 2, ii. 142; Tennent, Ceylon, i. 389; Bombay Gazetteer, xv. Pt. ii. 331.
- ↑ The account of the mutiny is unhistorical. Shīr Shāh defeated Humāyūn in two battles, in 1539-1540 a.d. Hīmū is an historical personage. He rebelled against Akbar, was captured, and executed in 1556.
