countries and to hear about the armies and campaigns of Europe. His manners to strangers were particularly pleasing and courteous, and many accounts are extant by travellers, who visited Lahore during the latter years of his reign, which attest the fascination he exercised over those in immediate relation to him.
Like most men who have been distinguished in history for administrative vigour and military genius, Ranjít Singh was very susceptible to feminine influence. His experiences were not however such as to give a favourable impression of the manners and morals of the ladies of the Punjab. His grandmother, Mai Desan, was killed by his father for an intrigue with a Bráhman; and Ranjít Singh is said to have killed his own mother Ráni Ráj Kour, popularly known as Mai Malwai, for a similar offence. Of his own wives and mistresses, the chronicle is too scandalous for more than passing mention in this place. When he had secured the legitimate succession in the person of his son Kharak Singh, he cared little for the discreditable intrigues of his harem. Many children were fathered upon him by these ladies, either for political objects or in the hope of obtaining his special favour; and although the astute Mahárájá was never deceived, he generally accepted the children as his own, with a certain grim amusement, and would ask why fortune had favoured him in so extraordinary a manner. To his son, Kharak Singh, and to his grandson, Nao Nihál Singh, he sent several ladies of
