8 AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA.
fidante of the youthful Emperor to be secretly the actual
ruler of India.
Mahum Anaga had a son, Adham Chan by name, to
whom at her suggestion Akbar assigned the task of re-
conquering and governing the province of Malwa. Adham
Chan was a passionate and violent man, as ambitious
and avaricious as his mother, and behaved himself in
Malwa as if he were an independent prince. As soon
as Akbar learned this he advanced by forced marches to
Malwa and surprised his disconcerted foster-brother be-
fore the latter could be warned by his mother. But Adham
Chan had no difficulty in obtaining Akbar's forgiveness
for his infringements.
On the way back to Agra, where the Emperor at that
time was holding court, a noteworthy incident happened.
Akbar had ridden alone in advance of his escort and sud-
denly found himself face to face with a powerful tigress
who with her five cubs came out from the shrubbery across
his path. His approaching attendants found the nineteen
year old Emperor standing quietly by the side of the
slaughtered beast which he had struck to the ground with
a single blow of his sword. To how much bodily strength,
intrepidity, cold-blooded courage and sure-sightedness this
blow of the sword testified which dared not come the frac-
tion of a second too late, may be judged by every one who
has any conception of the spring of a raging tigress an-
xious for the welfare of her young. And we may easily
surmise the thoughts which the sight aroused in the minds
of the Mohammedan nobles in Akbar's train. At that
moment many ambitious wishes and designs may have been
carried to their grave.6
The Emperor soon summoned his hot-headed foster-
brother Adham Chan to court in order to keep him well
in sight for he had counted often enough on Akbar's affec-
*Noer, I, 141.